Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Heart-sy Fartsy

Taking down the Christmas decorations (what few there were this year), I realized I had no Valentine's Day stuff to hang up.  Better get on that, I thought.  A wall hanging would be nice.

Enter the scrap bag.  That magical mess of snarled strips and bobbed bits (alliteration anyone?).  

I pulled out all the red/pink and aqua blue/turquoise scraps I could find and started to "make" fabric, a la 15 Minutes of Play.  Didn't really have an idea yet where it would go, but I was having fun anyway.  In a little while, I had a few swatches of made fabric, and I went "Hmm...," scratched my head, turned off the lights in the sewing room, and went on about the rest of the day.


This morning, still not sure where it would lead, I cut out a paper heart.  Now there's a skill you learn in grade school that serves you well the rest of your life.  You never know when you're going to need to cut out a paper heart, but when you do, the knowledge is right there, unlike the square root of pi.

Then I traced said paper heart randomly onto the made fabric and cut out as many as I could from what I had.  

Now what?

Go to the cutting table, grab something from the unfolded pile left from the other day's puttering.  It's convenient to be a mess-a-holic sometimes.  Arrange the hearts on the background fabric.  First I had them chasing each other in a circle, and I was just about set to go with that, but it felt like it needed something in the center.  Go have lunch and don't think about it for a while.


Come back after lunch.  Take the two darkest hearts and overlap them in the center.  Rearrange the hearts that are left.  Conveniently, there are three red/pink and three turquoise.  Fish a trimmed bit of Alexander Henry Heath in black from the garbage bin by the cutting table.  Yep, that will do for the binding fabric.

Step back.  Like what you see.  Do a little happy dance!

Now I just have to get some fusible web so I can applique them down and then edge stitch around them.

Linking to WiP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced today!

9 comments:

Amy said...

Love these, looks like you had fun playing!

Vicki @ DottyJane said...

You're on a roll!

BendingPins.com said...

Awesome, I love it!!! It takes me much longer than 15 minutes to choose and rearrange fabrics, up to a friggin HOUR!!!

Elizabeth said...

So cute! I love your "made" fabric! That is a fun Valentine quilt!

xo -E

Sarah Craig said...

That is just wonderful, P.! You are so creative....

Diane said...

Super fun! Now you are making me think I need a VD table runner or something... I am so easily infulenced :)

Carli The Quilter said...

Very inventive idea! Don't you just love 15 minutes of play?
Carli

Shay said...

I LOVE it...

For me those random things that I make up as I go along are usually my favourites...

Those hearts look utterly sweet. Great job!

MomWaldsPlace said...

Saw the bordered photo of this too. It is fabulous! You are inspiring me to whip some hearts up for our new apartment, with color!