St. Valentine's Day

 I picked up this little shelf unit while browsing at Eclectic Collection, a two-story co-op shop with antique and vintage items in West Bridgewater. It takes a while to check out all the nooks and crannies of this rambling building. I wasn't quite sure how I would use this piece when I purchased it a few months ago. I thought I might hang a small woolen applique piece from the pegs, but in the meantime here it is decked out for Valentine's Day.

Julie Cefalu of The Crafty Quilter blog recently offered a round up of some Valentine related tutorials, including a tutorial for these little hearts.

You could make these hearts in different sizes, and I had planned to do just that, but somehow time got away from me. In fact,  I just finished making these three tonight. The tutorial shows various ways to embellish the hearts. Can't you see a group of these in a bowl or basket? I may have to work on a few more of these before putting my red fabrics back in my stash. :-0

We had a fun meeting at the Crosstown Quilters Guild yesterday. Last year we had a Valentine's Day swap which was such a big hit that Laurie G., our BOM coordinator, arranged it again. At a previous meeting, she had passed out a list of items to be placed in a small, brown paper bag. The items included were: a Valentine's Day card (homemade or bought), a fat quarter with hearts, another pink or red fat quarter,  an embellishment, a notion, and of course, some candy. This shows the contents of the bag I received. The embellishment in the top right corner will be absolutely perfect for a crazy quilt piece that I am going to start working on.

To show you how popular this activity was . . . there were sixty-three members present at yesterday's meeting and fifty ladies had brought bags to swap!!! What fun it was!!!

The member who received my bag appeared a bit puzzled with good reason when she opened the card that I had made. I had used a blank card with a square cut out in the front. I had glued in a square of red fabric and attached a heart shaped button. Next, I stamped a heart border above and below the insert. Sound lovely, right? Well, the front did look lovely, but then I unfortunately somehow wrote the message inside upside down!!!! Don't ask how it happened because I can't exactly explain it though in fairness it was a three-part card that I accidentally folded the wrong way. Oops! So what was I to do after all that work? I decided to write the same message right side up  below the other one upside down!!!  I did the same thing with the "Happy Valentine's Day" message. I'm happy to say that she enjoyed my efforts. :-0

I forgot to mention that after the Valentine swap and some refreshments, one of our new members  gave a very interesting presentation on color theory. She teaches classes on interior design and incorporated some of that background into her talk. The principles of the color wheel apply to both interior design and quilting! It's wonderful to see new members getting involved in the guild.