Today is the last day of February, time to report on my heart project.
I did not stitch just one heart per day….nearly fifty are on this piece now. One stage of the process is complete now…the appliqué. Well, it’s complete until I decide to add something.
I do plan to add some buttons and to quilt it at some point. But for now, it’s a linen tablecloth with some hearts appliquéd on it.
I did stitch a heart on the backside of the ragged spot and stitched around it on the front. It may be left this way. Or not.
I’ve been asked about the size of the piece. It is now……33″ x 47”. The original tablecloth measured 33” x 84”, a runner for a French farmhouse. I removed one end and reattached it to make it a size that works for me.
I will let this project incubate for a while as I work on other projects. At some point, it will be quilted. I enjoyed the stitching on linen so much that I may decide to hand quilt this one. Time will tell.
On our country rideabouts I like to discover old houses. Those that have been kept in good repair or remodeled are appealing and happy, but I also love those that have seemingly been abandoned. I can imagine stories and people that once inhabited those now bare walls.
I occasionally snap photos of these houses for future reference for stitching or sketching.
This is actually not abandoned…an old church now used as a community center of sorts…but we’ve visited it with cameras more than once. It’s so serene.
I’m not alone in loving these houses. On some social media sites, these have recently been called “lonely houses”. An enchanting phrase that describes the essence of these places.
But there’s one house en route to one of our antiquing hot spots that’s only lonely sometimes. If we pass by at just the right time of day, this house has visitors. The four-legged kind. How fun is it to see these horses eating on the porch.
The horses don’t like to pose in perfect lighting conditions for a photo shoot, but on this day we happened by at feeding time and I got a couple of shots.
An update on the red hearts on linen…
Since my last post, I’ve abandoned the ‘one-heart-a-day’ plan and have been stitching several down during tv time each night. Almost all the ones I had pinned in the last photo you saw are now stitched in place. I’ll probably add more small ones…but it’s nearing completion of the appliqué stage.
You know when we head out the door with a picnic lunch and cameras I grab some quilts, just in case a photo op appears.
Recently, we had several of those days – bright sunshine, moderate temperatures, no other obligations. Since it’s February, I brought quilts with hearts on them…and then I thought, I could bring some of my stuffed hearts, too.
Here are some images for your Valentine’s Day.
Hearts rested on the stacked stones at the base of a building.
This fountain at Tatnall Square Park in Macon has quotes at its base.
So these three hearts found a place to rest near love.
Sometimes displays in stores go along with my theme…an antique store in Woodbury, Ga.
I’ve embedded some links to details of quilts in the photo captions above, but if you want more, you can type “hearts” in the search box, or click on the “hearts” category in the sidebar.
I’m on schedule with the hearts on linen..Feb 13 had 13 hearts stitched in place.
I thought it was time to plan the rest of the layout…so here are more pinned in place for stitching.
This linen tablecloth has a story. I could cover it with a heart, but I love seeing the history in fabric. I’m thinking of featuring this inside a heart somehow.
I’m still in a red mode with Valentine’s Day on the horizon.
Lately I’ve been finishing some projects that have been in progress for a while…I miss playing with art quilts and story quilts, but finishing some of these has been satisfying.
The one that I finished yesterday is Yoko’s Garden. Several years ago I was inspired by some deliberately irregular polygons that Yoko Saito had appliquéd in one of her quilt books.
I cut some freehand hexagons from a collection of Japanese woven fabrics I had in shades of taupe and appliquéd them to a remnant of an old linen sheet. I love the soft neutral palette, but felt it needed a zinger, so I added a flower using a bit of a red cashmere coat I had felted. For several years, this piece has been spilling out of baskets here and there when I needed a touch of red.
This year in December I needed something to stitch with red in it. I picked up this piece, layered it on a bit of wool (not wool batting, but a piece of felted wool) and began hand quilting. I enjoyed that process through lots of tv time in December and January, added a binding and label, and I have a finished piece. The final piece measures 15” x 20”.
Hearts were cut freeform and positioned randomly.
Progress on red hearts is going well. Here, on the 8th day of February, you see the first 8 hearts. These are scattered over the linen tablecloth. I’ll fill in with more small hearts and add some embellishments, too.
I’m enjoying planning embellishments keeping in this beige/brown/red color scheme.
And let me just say, stitching on linen is so delicious!
Somehow, every year, the second page of the calendar sends me to needles and thread with hearts in mind.
This is not the time of year for me to be taking great nature photos to use in my Good Morning Girls text messages. Yes, I’m still doing that…today is day 665, by my count. During December, I sent photos of Christmas ornaments, our Santa collection, and amaryllis blooms. This January had warm days with some still blooming plants in our yard, but things are a bit bleak outdoors now. A few daffodils are up, but I needed a photo scheme for February.
I’ve wanted to learn more about photographing indoor vignettes…some “sewing still lifes”, I guess you could call them. So yesterday, I pulled some hearts out to shoot. I found some jewelry, some buttons, and some fabric hearts I had made.
As I played with the red hearts and the companion fabrics I pulled to use as background, I began a plan for a heart quilt.
I made a blue one a few years ago, Loving Blues , by stitching hearts on blocks, then assembling them.
This toile heart is posing on the linen tablecloth I plan to use as my background fabric. See the red border already in place?
This time, my plan is to start with a linen tablecloth from Europe. It has a red border woven in, so that’s convenient…and I won’t have to assemble blocks when I’m done with the hearts.
I’m planning some appliqué, some embroidery, and some who-knows-what for the hearts. I’ll use many of my vintage fabrics, but I have some nice commercial prints that I’ll likely include. I’m thinking one heart per day in February…but these plans may change. They often do. I won’t bore you every day, but I will keep you posted.
And I’ve begun with a heart made from my sister’s red and pink toile drapes that she moved with her from house to house over some 40 years.
I suspended this favorite February pendant of mine over the back of a quilt with red in it. I’m liking this kind of play with the camera.
