Happy Valentine's Day and the Show Some Love Blog Hop

Today is my day of the Show Some Love Blog Hop. I have been working on several things and have been enjoying myself alot with the red and white.  I  haven't made a tutorial for you as these are not my ideas. These are all things I've run across over the internet the last few months that I like and wanted to share. 

I thought long and hard about what I wanted to do. I knew I wanted to do hearts for Valentine's Day. This first thing I'm going to show you can be customized for any season or holiday.  If you have a special fabric you don't want to cut into or you need a quick and easy gift,  this is perfect for it. I saw this pattern first on Youtube. It was before Christmas, but I had so many other things going at the time that I didn't do anything with it. Like all of you,  I browse blogs, Youtube, websites, Pinterest and Facebook for all things quilting.  I saw this one again on a blog I follow and decided it was perfect for my Valentine project.  Like I said, it can be used for any holiday and any fabric.  I found some cute Valentine fabric and my Go Heart Die and made this cute tablerunner. 

Here's two links that show a tutorial for the little table runner.  Both are easy to follow, one might be better for you than the other but they are both good.  Sew We Quilt website has a step by step tutorial that was really good but  Utah State has this one and it is good too. Youtube also has some tutorials on it but I can't find the link right now.  I made the tabletunner using the basic directions but I added the Die cut Hearts  to it and sewed around them using various stitches on my machine.   Just add some flowers and candy and your table will be ready for your sweethearts to admire!  If you  leave me a comment below, you will be entered into a drawing for a kit to make one like this.  Just sew up, iron on the hearts, stitch around them and add the buttons.  Next year, you will be ready for Valentine's Day too. The drawing will close on Friday, Feb 17th and I will let you know the winner on Saturday morning.

I made two other things for Valentine's Day too. I love Valentine's Day because I like hearts, red fabric, chocolate and  I especially like those little heart candies with sayings on them....Be Mine, I Love You, Sunshine, True Love, Let's Kiss, etc....you remember those, right?    Valentine's Day is a special loving day and I always look forward to it.  Now I have some wallhangings to put up and decorate my house with for this special day.

I went on the Accuquilt website and downloaded this free pattern and made this sweet wallhanging.  You don't have to have an Accuquilt Go Cutter to get their patterns.  You just have to join the website,  but that's free too.  They have so many cute patterns and such great ideas.  Click here and it will take you to the Accuquilt website where you can get the pattern below...This pattern is called Heart of my Heart and I think it is so cute.

This last little wallhanging was inspired from another blog that I follow, A Sentimental Quilter.  I like Civil War fabric and history and I was reading her blog and thinking when can I get to this little quilt?  She has a monthly small quilt challenge and this month was a broken dishes quilt.  I wanted to make it but I was so involved with the red and white, I just didn't see how I could work it in. Then, she showed it in red and white!!!Woo hoo, that was all I needed. I'll make this one again in Civil War fabric but for now, here's my red and white Valentine quilt. 

 I used some of my left over red and white fabrics and one of my left over heart cut-outs to make this little jewel.  Here's a link to Kathleen Tracy's blog.  She is an author,quilt pattern designer and blogger and she has a Yahoo group that follows her too.  I love it when a plan comes together.  I still have some red and white fabric and I still want to make some more little projects and a red and white bag or two but this is all I could manage by my February 14th deadline.  I hope you have gotten a few ideas or at least enjoyed seeing what I have done for this special day.  Please remember to comment so you will be entered for the tablerunner and go over and see what Connie is doing today too.  She was the other person on the blog hop for today.  Here's a link to her blog so you can hop over there easier...have fun and happy hopping and I hope you have a special Valentine's  Day with your sweethearts. til next time....Linda

Some red and white quickie projects

Here's the red things I did today.  I cut out these big hearts and made hot pads out of them.  I still have to bind them but I'm going to use bias binding (the kind you buy in packages) on these instead of making bias binding.
I finished the placemat I made last week. I have decided to make a placemat in all the colors we work on this year for the rainbow challenge so I can have some rainbow placements. I think the grandkids will like these. 
I made a little snippets bag, a big zipper bag to hold some of my tatting shuttles and thread, a coaster and 5 heart hotpads. I'm showing the backside of one of these to show you the silver stuff (I don't know what it's called, but it's ironing board fabric.) All of these are finished except for 4 of the hotpads.

 I was going to make this  bigger snippets bag out of red but I didn't have big enough scraps of red.  So, instead of red, I used white fabric that wasn't good enough for a quilting project to make the bag.  I don't know where I even got this fabric but it's too heavy for quilting so I decided it would do for this little bag or whatever you call it.  This is one of the things I was going to show you this week. I saw one of these at my sewing group last week and decided to see if I could make it.  This turned out ok.  I used a big equilateral triangle to cut the triangles. I cut 8 triangles out.  Put two triangles together and sew them right sides together, repeat for a total of 4 sets.  I sewed three of these from the bottom up 5 inches.  I then sewed the final triangle on the bottom. Fold down the tops and put a button on each corner to hold them down....In the picture you can see the triangle ruler I used. It is an 8"-60 degree ruler. I still need to sew the buttons on and it will be finished.  This one looks pretty plain and will look better with buttons but it will do what I want it to anyway.... The one I saw was cuter with prettier fabric.

I also cut the corner triangles and setting triangles out for my heart quilt but I didn't sew them yet.  I'll try to sew those tomorrow afternoon after church.  Until next time, happy quilting!

Red Weekend

I worked on red scraps all weekend.  I just couldn't get them off my mind. I made 5 string blocks and a string placemat and more little hearts, but  it just seemed like my red scraps just kept growing!  Oh my, I decided I would seperate them to keep them from multiplying and that seemed to do the trick.  The pile isn't a big pile anymore, it's a medium size one now!  I didn't take pictures of the placemat yet because I didn't bind it yet.  I did start putting my hearts together. I think I'll make a few little quilts out of the hearts instead of a big quilt.  Some little girls might like these little heart quilts and I'll be working on these this week.  I have trouble with diagonal quilts.  I'm directionally challenged or something.  I have to lay them out and look at them to make sure they are right.  I'm putting white and off-white alternating blocks in with the little hearts and I'm liking the red and white.  I've had a good time sewing red this weekend and this whole month.

 I'm even getting a surprise together for next month.  I will be participating in a Blog Hop next month and you can come over and visit me along with a few others for this special Red and White Hop.  I'll post more about it later tonight.  I'm out of time right now and gotta get busy. Go sew and come back later tonight for the info, please.

Whoop- Whoop! I finished my Red, White and Blue Flimsy

Ok, here's the red, white and blue quilt top I showed earlier this week.  I had enough blue/white star sashing fabric to go around the outside of the blocks.  I then went into my stash to look for border fabric.  I pulled out several reds and blues but came across this fabric. I have used this blue star fabric in a few of my quilts and I love this fabric. I have enough left of this to bind this quilt with and maybe make some pillowcases.  I have another red/white/blue quilt to make so I will wait and see how much fabric I need for it before I use this up...Here's the quilt top all together ready for quilting.  I already know how it's going to be quilted. I want stars all over it, I just have to find the right pantograph and then it'll be finished completely.  I am very happy with this quilt.  I'll have to decide on a name for it too.  Any suggestions?

Here's a closeup of the blue star fabric I used on the border... I love this fabric.  I bought almost a whole bolt of this a few years ago and I have a little bit left over.  I'll  decide what I'm going to do with this later  as I have another RWB quilt to put together.