Amanda's Crazy Quilt Heart

 Amanda wanted to make something special for a gift and wanted to make something Crazy Quilted and loved the idea of a heart.  It was also near Valentine's Day so it was perfect.  The giftee loves purple so she chose all purple fabrics!

 Next came embellishments she sewed all the things that could be by machine first like the lace, fabric flower, bow, crochet heart, etc.  Then we put it in a hoop and she hand sewed on the little bits that couldn't be done by machine like the buttons and sequins.

 After the embellishments were done we cut out the heart and then took bits of lace to sew by machine around the edges to make it a nice finished heart!

 This is the heart finished after sewing the lace around the outer edge!

After that I gave her the suggestion of maybe adding feathers and she LOVED that idea so here is the final result with a bit of feathers peeking out from behind one corner!

And it just goes to show how you can create a wonderful crazy quilt project without using ANY embroidery!  Yup it's all embellishments of lace, buttons, sequins, feathers, eyelash yarn, and some fabric bits to create the flower in the upper right!

A Sweet Ballerina CQ Heart: Framed

With Rebekah's birthday coming up I framed the Sweet Ballerina CQ Heart! I also ordered a light blue Tutu to go with it!
On the back I put a pretty wrapping paper and then printed a label that reads "To Rebekah, A sweet ballerina who will always be my friend! Love, Melissa"

A Sweet Ballerina CQ Heart: Finish

I've finished my work on the Sweet Ballerina Heart! Now all that is left is to frame it!
I added light blue bugle beads to the seam treatment on the left, and I added a Silk Ribbon Embroidery Motif that I created using sweetheart roses, french knot loop flowers, ribbon stitch leaves, and pink Swarovski crystals.
Then I made the heart into an applique (here is a link to how I did that) and I added a couple of bits of lace on opposite edges!

A Sweet Ballerina CQ Heart for a Sweet Ballerina!

The other day Rebekah was visiting and saw hanging on my wall a CQ heart and she exclaimed that she loved it and asked if I would make her one! LOL Granted she is 5 years old (about to be 6 soon) but she is also my friend! ;) Another amazing thing about Rebekah is even though she is still a little girl she already appreciates embroidery and crazy quilting! I have a video of her when she was 3 years old enjoying a block and she still enjoys seeing what I'm working on and what her Mom is working on too!

Rebekah by the way is a ballerina and I've even gotten to take her to dance class before and she always loves the ballerina figurines they have in a case there. She also loves blue! So I searched through my image collections and found this pretty blue ballerina and printed her onto fabric and pieced up this heart. The fabrics are really difficult to capture the true colors, I feel that the print and the rose print fabric are accurate, but the green print is a bit too bright in this photo and the blue Dupioni silk looks a bit darker then in person as well in the top photo. In the photo below I feel shows more of the softness of the colors better and the blue Dupioni silk. It's a very soft sweet block and I hope I can eventually capture an accurate photo.

A Few More Hearts

I finished up a few more hearts (Peacock Heart by Birgit Phelps) in size 80 thread for two of my small group birthday girls Kaity (purple) and Elizabeth (rainbow)! I also tatted a third in pink for another girl, Robyn! I stiffen them with white glue then attach a bail and put them on a chain!
I just love this heart pattern it's so cute!

A Couple More Tatted Hearts

I tatted up a couple more hearts (Peacock Heart by Birgit Phelps) in size 80 thread for two of my small group birthday girls Kaity (purple) and Elizabeth (rainbow)!
Elizabeth loves every color and when I had asked her what color heart she wanted she said Rainbow!!! At that time the HDT rainbow thread was not made so I had no idea what I was going to do...then I saw Tatskool's Rainbow Bright HDT thread!!! And as soon as I saw it I wanted some I knew it was IT! When she sent me a link to her site to buy some I got some in size 80. It's great I love it and I know Elizabeth will love her rainbow heart necklace too! I was worried that such a small motif might not get all the colors but sure enough it was perfect and I even got some repeat!
P.S. Don't ask why one is bigger...they are both the same pattern with size 80 thread either the size 80's differ a bit or my tension was different with the two not quite sure.

Love Out Loud CQ Heart: Framed

Here is a nice photo of the heart mounted. You can see the sparkle better! I put cording around it because I felt it finished it off better.

And here it is framed! I'm having everyone in our small group write a little something on it in purple and I'm the first to contribute!

Love Out Loud CQ Heart: Embellished

Well, you know how it is when you get in a groove you just have to keep going till you finish and so after hours of nonstop work the embellishment is finished!
I was going for a more glam look, I wish that everything would look as good in photos as it does in person. This heart really sparkles!

In this corner is a glass vintage button with dangle earrings that have been re-purposed with a few other buttons pearls and beads. I loved the bird there too.

This motif I created starting off with the three 7mm sweetheart roses and then added ribbon stitch buds and added the fly stitch stems and some bullion tipped lazy daisy leaves. Then I added 4mm sweetheart roses as filler flowers. Then some clear Swarovski crystal beads and a couple of silver toned honey bees to finish it off!

This seam was my starting point, I zig-zagged vintage rhinestones and small bugle beads. They look really special on the dark purple velvet.

This upper corner I stared by adding the glass vintage flower button with clear leaf beads. Then I added sweetheart roses to the seam and clear bugle beads with purple single strand floss straight stitches on either side of the bead. Then I added a butterfly that is a re-purposed earring.

Love Out Loud CQ Heart

This is one of those times where the fabrics just won't photo right so I'm putting a photo with and without a flash. The dark piece in the upper left is navy blue velveteen and the dark piece in the lower right is dark purple velvet.
I'm creating this heart as a graduation gift for our Small Group Student Leader her favorite color is purple so I put as much purple as possible! It will go into a shadow box frame when finished and the paper surrounding will be sentiments written by the other girls in the small group!

Crazy Quilt Throw: Blocks #30 Heart Applique

I got the heart applique finished! It's hard to read in the photo and it is faint looking even in person but in the middle is "Love never faileth" so I'm not sure if I'm going to enhance it somehow or just leave it as is. I would like to put sweetheart roses around the edge maybe cream roses or a hint of gold roses would bring out the lettering better.

Blue Tatted Heart

Peacock Heart by Birgit Phelps
Here is another heart tatted in Helm's Deep HDT size 80 thread as another Birthday gift for one of my small group girls!

Purple Tatted Heart Necklace

Here is yet another Tatted Heart Necklace for a birthday girl in my small group! Done in size 80 variegated purple DMC thread.

Purple Heart Necklace

Here is another Peacock Heart by Birgit Phelps for another birthday girl in our small group! I used a variegated purple DMC tatting thread, stiffened with white glue and a bail and chain attached!

Green Heart Necklace

All the girls at Uturn (youth group) just ooo and ahh over the heart necklaces, and since we started small groups me and the other leader for our small group decided to use them for birthday gifts for our girls along with a journal. This one is for a young lady who loves green! Our small group name is Love Out Loud with the verse 1Cor. 16:14 "Do everything in love." So the hearts are fitting gifts.
I used Yarnplayer's size 30 "Forest" thread! I loved how the veriagation was shorter distances than other kinds and I like how it turned out. Although I think I like the pendants in size 80 thread better but I didn't have any in dark green at the time but...heehee any excuse to buy more thread right? LOL So I ordered me up some more colors of size 80! So it seems I'll be making these regularly! Unless I find another small heart pattern I love just as much, this one seems faster to do than most. I enjoy how I can tat it up in a day and stiffen it the same day.
I also used a normal 18 inch chain this time, I want those friendship necklaces I made before to keep their specialness. (By the way both girls wear them everyday!!!)
Pattern is Peacock Heart by Birgit Phelps

Little Pink Tatted Heart Necklaces

Here are the finished necklaces!!! They are SO SO SO CUTE! I stiffened the hearts and attached a bail and then put them on the 16inch sterling silver heart chains! I put them in little white organza drawstring bags and gave them to the girls last night at youth group! They LOVED them! I was so thrilled at their reaction, I'm telling you it was what you hope for when you make something like this as a gift! They adored the hearts and the chain too and put them on immediately and showed everyone all night! They told me that they were looking for "best friends" necklaces but hadn't found anything yet and that these were perfect!

Heart for Elizabeth: Applique Complete

Well here is the Heart all finished into an applique! If you want to see more info on my progress creating it Click Here. Also info on how I turned it into an applique is Here.

Happy Birthday Elizabeth!
Ephesians 3:14-19
"For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge–that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God."

Heart for Elizabeth: Embellishment Finished

Here is the Heart with the embellishment all finished! Here is the before embellishment post.

This little Tatted Cross that I tatted in a variegated size 80 DMC tatting thread is a pattern that Elizabeth Zipay created and shared on her blog. The pattern is intended for a larger thread size so it was a little difficult to do in size 80 but I did it AND doing it in "front-side/back side" tatting! The tiny little cross is only 1 inch from top to bottom!
I also did two seams with feather stitch in green floss and size 15 seed beads in gold.

In this area I added some lace to a seam with some flower sequins with gold seed beads and also stem stitched the world "Loved" in variegated rayon thread (which was a pain to do it in!!!) and added a little gold dragonfly bead.

Here I took green bugle beads and sewed them on in the shape of an "E" and added a tatted doodle flower that I just made up with the left over thread on the shuttle from tatting the cross and I sewed a gold bead to the center. A basic rings only starting with 10-5 then onto 5+5-5 and ending 5+10 to total 5 rings leaving no space between rings. Simple but cute.

Here I cut out a rose shape from some pale green vintage lace and added heart sequins with milky seed beads.
Click Here to see the finished Heart Applique

Heart for Elizabeth

Today I pieced a small heart that I'm going to embellish and turn into an applique! This heart is being made for a special girl named Elizabeth who just came up to Jr. High and into our Youth Group. Well Saturday is her 12th birthday and I wanted to make something special for her. She loves crafts, and I was SO impressed when I found out that she made on her own with no help or pattern a cool purse/bag and a wallet and even embroidered on it!!! So I thought about what to make her and came up with the applique heart so that she can attach it to whatever she'd like!
Gerard has dubbed her "Abe" because in her name is ElizABEth and it just kinda stuck! LOL
Click Here to see the whole progress of the Heart

Mail Call!!!

I received this beautiful heart in the mail from Jill!!! Isn't it sweet!!! She remembered that I love red roses and so made a little climbing rose landscape with some pretty little flowers at the base! I don't have a project in mind yet but I do have an idea for how to applique it when I do find the right project. I'm going to put roses and vining leaves all around it to frame the lovely landscape Jill made! Thank you Jill!!!

This is the last block in the Dreams of Spring RR that I'm in, it is Cobi's block. It was hard to photograph because of the large size of the block, also Cobi mentioned that because of the size she doesn't expect it to come home finished. I'm going to have to stare at it a few days and maybe look through a few landscape embroidery books because I have absolutely NO ideas so far! LOL Good thing I have a month to work on it!

Finished Cream and White and Pink and White Hearts

Here is the finished Cream and White Heart applique!

Also here is the finished Pink and White Heart applique for Jill!