GIVEAWAY--Day #6

Here we are on the penultimate* day of my Seven Days of Giveaways--Day Six!  Congratulations to yesterday's winners, kathy k and kay, both of whom have been trying all week to win something!  I'm so glad you both met with success yesterday!!

Today, the first person to post a comment (and email me your mailing address) will win this cute little handmade  fabric basket (based on a tutorial by Ayumi Mills).  You will also receive one of my watermelon-heart pins, and a very nice embroidery kit by Dimensions.

The second person to post a comment (and email me your mailing address) will win this pretty handmade zippered clutch with removeable strap, and three fat quarters of Michael Miller fabric (thanks, Susan!!)

Good luck to you all, and come back tomorrow for the final giveaway!



*Isn't this a good vocabulary word?  "Penultimate" means "next-to-last".

Valentine's Day

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!

Yesterday I whipped up the "love" hearts in this picture so I would have something appropriate to post today, and to add a few more hearts to my 365 sewn hearts total.  As I was making them, I realized I had a sewing tip I would like to share with you.

I used red thread to sew the felt letters onto the fabric hearts on the sewing machine (I wanted to hand-embroider around the edges but I ran out of time).  Normally when you sew on the machine, you backstitch at the beginning and end of your line of stitching to secure the thread.  I didn't want backstitches to detract from my red outline, so here's what I did:

I stitched all around the letter without backstitching, and I left a long tail of thread at both the beginning and the end.

Flipping the heart over, I pulled the loose threads from the front through to the back (with the help of a pin).

Then I just tied them in a knot to secure the threads.

There--a nice neat outline!

I happened to have some  red polymer clay beads that I made a while ago and never used--they were perfect to put between my hearts!  Then I used a long doll-making needle to string everything onto a length of embroidery floss.  This is the hutch in my dining room; I think the little "love" garland fits in very well.  (The strange glow in the lower right is the reflection of my computer screen from the other side of the room!)

Have a happy Valentine's Day, everyone!

Happy Heart Card Tutorial

If you want to see what other people are doing for Valentine's Day, check out the Linky Party/Blog Hop at Itsy Bitsy Paper.


A couple of days ago I came across a post on Lime Riot's blog that got me really excited!  She showed the CUTEST Valentine's Day cards that she made for the other moderaters at Craftster--you can go directly to that post HERE.  The cards feature a hand-sewn felt heart tied to the front, so it can be removed and tied elsewhere--it's a card and a gift in one!  Lime Riot, you are brilliant!!

I could hardly wait to make my own, and I posted the first card I made on my other blog, 365 Sewn Hearts.  Of course, I had to make more than one, and I want to show you the steps so you can make your own. 

Here's the card I will show you how to make:

1.  Gather your supplies.  You will need two different fabrics, heart templates in two sizes (just fold paper in half and cut a heart, like you did in grade school!), kitchen twine (or string, or ribbon), and iron-in interfacing.  Don't be afraid of interfacing!  Just get a package of light-weight iron-in Pellon, and follow the directions on the package.  It makes ALL the difference between something that looks homemade and something that looks professional.

2.  Cut your fabrics into a workable size, depending on how many hearts you want to make.  Cut interfacing slightly smaller than your fabrics, and iron it onto the backs of both fabrics.  Trace the heart shapes onto your fabrics.  I traced mine onto the back so the pencil line won't show.  My traced line will be my sewing line, so I cut out my hearts about 1/4" beyond the line.

Center the small heart on the front of the large heart, and sew it in place on the sewing machine.  The edges will be left raw.  (In the first heart card I made, I used Heat n Bond to "glue" the small heart in place--that works great, but I noticed that the white parts of the fabric looked dingy afterwards, so I didn't use it this time since my small heart has a lot of white.)

Cut the kitchen twine about 14" long.  Fold in half and tie a knot at the folded end.  This end will be sewn inside your heart, and the knot will ensure that the twine doesn't get pulled out.  Place the twine as shown in the picture, and use a small piece of tape to hold it in place.  You will remove the tape after sewing.

3.  Sew all around the edge of the heart on your pencil line, leaving an opening on one side for turning.  Be sure to let the ends of the twine extend through the opening--don't let them get sewn into the seam! Use a short stitch length so the curves of the heart will be smooth.

4.  Trim the excess fabric to about 1/8".  Be careful not to cut the twine.  Trim as close to the bottom point as you dare; if there is too much excess fabric there, you won't get a good point on your finished heart.  At the top of the heart, make a cut close to the sewing line where the two curves meet.

5.  Turn the heart right-side out.  Do yourself a favor and get some hemostats, like the ones in this picture!  They make turning SO easy!  Then, run the end of a chopstick or knitting needle around the inside of the heart to smooth out the curves, and iron it flat.  Be sure to turn under the unsewn edges of the opening and iron that nice and smooth.

6.  On the sewing machine, sew all around the heart, about 1/8" from the edge.

7.  Tie the twine in a bow, and you are done!  I decided to add a coil-less safety pin to these hearts (it just slides on without sewing), but you could sew a safety pin to the back, or use a jewelry pin.

8.  Make a card.  I used white card stock, cut in half to 8 1/2" x 5 1/2" and then folded in half to 4 1/4" x 5 1/2".  On top of that I glued a piece of colored typing paper, cut to 3 1/4" x 4 1/4".  Use rubber stamps to stamp any message you want.

Since this heart has a pin on the back, I just taped the pin to the card.  It's simple to do, and easy for the recipient to remove the heart.  The heart can be worn as a pin, or tied onto a purse or anything, really!

I love these cards so much!!

Thank you Lime Riot for being my inspiration!

Make Your Own Cutter Quilt Fabric

Back in November I talked about cutter quilts--old quilts that are too damaged to be useful as a quilt any longer, so they are  upcycled into other things, like pillows or stuffed toys.  If you don't happen to have old beat-up quilts lying around, but you want to make something with a vintage look, why not make your own cutter quilt fabric? 

I like to make stuffed heart ornaments with the pieces of  old quilts that my friends have given me, like these:

Look at the picture again, and see if you can tell which three hearts I made from old quilt pieces, and which one I made from a new piece of "cutter quilt" fabric?

(If you happened to read the post on  my other blog yesterday, you already know the answer!)

I hope you think they all look old.  The new one is on the far left, with the darker button.

I had a spare block from a quilt I made years ago, that I used to make my cutter fabric.  It was perfect because the reproduction prints had a lot of beige in them, so the fabrics looked old to start with!  I simply layered the block with batting (I used "Warm and Natural", which is a cotton batting similar to what you will find in old quilts.  Don't use polyester batting for this, because it won't shrink much when you wash it...and you WILL be washing it...that's how you give it an "aged" look) and backing fabric.  Then I hand-quilted it.  Since it was only 10" square, the quilting didn't take very long.

Here is the block right after I hand-quilted it:

Here it is after about a dozen washings.  It looks really old now, doesn't it!  I just threw it in the washer every time I ran a load of clothes, and then into the dryer.  It shrank a lot, but none of the fabrics showed any "wear and tear", so if you wanted it to look very worn, you might have to run it with your laundry for a couple of months!

I decided to use my cutter fabric for both the front and back of this heart, so it looks nice--and different--on each side.  I hand-sewed it with the raw edges exposed and the batting showing.  Here's one side:

Here's the other side:

These ornaments can be used in a lot of different ways--tied on gifts, strung onto a garland, hung on a Christmas tree, fastened onto a wreath...if you want to see what I do with them, check out my other blog, 365 Sewn Hearts.  I've started my one-year challenge over there, and this heart will be #8!



And the Winners Are...

(UPDATED Dec. 13, 2011)
It's time to announce the three winners of a pair of my Christmas ornament hearts!

Using a True Random Number Generator that I found online, I chose the three winners (the number corresponds to the order in which the comments were posted).  There were 51 comments; here are the three numbers that were chosen:

Winner Number One:
True Random Number Generator Min: Max:   Result: 8

Winner Number Two:
True Random Number Generator Min: Max:   Result: 18

Winner Number Three:
True Random Number Generator Min: Max:   Result: 44


#8 is Margaret (macky5331)

#18 is Gatearte in Barcelona--please contact me with your mailing address (leslieandersen4@gmail.com)
#44 is Elaine Akers

A great big THANK YOU to everyone who left a comment; I enjoyed reading them all, and I am always happy to be able to share what I make with readers!  I will have more giveaways in the future, and in the meantime, I will continue to share crafty ideas and tutorials with you (there's a super-cute scrappy braided bracelet tutorial coming up next week--don't miss it!)

Mailing the "Hope" Hearts--UPDATED

UPDATE:  Amanda has received the hearts and she was very deeply touched by our gesture of support.  Read her post on Craftster to get her reaction and to read the many comments from other readers who have been moved by her story.

I am happy to give you another update on my project to send "hope" hearts to Amanda, who could use some support as she supports her husband through his cancer treatments (you can read more about this in my other posts HERE and HERE and HERE).

I have received hearts from two more lovely crafters.  First, from Diane, these two beautiful hearts made from a damaged antique quilt.  I love the worn look of the old quilt, and the modern letters stamping out the word "hope" is just great!  Thank you, Diane!

These two pretty hearts are from Shari.  The blue heart is made from several different fabrics; the leopard heart is hand-stitched around the edges.  Both feature hand-embroidery of the word "hope".  They are wonderful, thank you Shari!

Here are all the hearts together.  They look awesome!  I am going to pack them up tonight and mail them in the morning. They will be a great addition to the hearts she received in the Jar of Hearts swap on Craftster.  I know Amanda will be smiling from ear to ear when she opens the package, and it is my hope that this unexpected show of support will be something  she looks back on as a bright spot in the midst of a very dark time in her life.

A great big THANK YOU to everyone who sent hearts for Amanda--Susan, Kim, Diane and Shari.  You ladies ROCK!

The Making of a "Hope" Heart

After last week's post, "Hearts and Hope for Amanda", several of you have let me know that you are busy making small hearts with the word "hope" on them to send to this fellow-crafter who's husband has been diagnosed with advanced cancer.  Since I asked you to have them in the mail by November 15th, I thought I should get going and make mine!  I made these two for Amanda:

Since I'm big on tutorials, this is a good chance to demonstrate a couple of things I've been asked about.  I'll walk you through how I made the blue heart (it's a really basic step-by-step tutorial for beginner sewists, so you advanced people, just skim right through it!)

Make a heart-shaped template any size you want.  Mine is 3 3/4" wide.  (You can find the gridded template plastic at most fabric stores; or just use cardboard.).  I cut two blue fabric strips 3" wide and about 10" long (that's for two hearts--I'm making one for my own jar of hearts!), and one strip of  plain muslin 1" wide and 10" long.  I sewed them together as you see in the picture, using a 1/4" seam.  Cut out one heart from the pieced fabric for the front of the "hope" heart.

Here's my light box.  To transfer the word "hope" to the front of the heart, I printed out the word on my computer; I made a lot of different sizes so I could choose the one that fit best when I was at the light box. These are the marking pens I use:  micron, and Staedtler.  I prefer the Staedtler because on some fabrics the micron pens will bleed and ruin the word.  I have assorted sizes, and I used the largest size (0.7) to trace "hope" onto the heart.

I cut a heart-shaped piece of iron-on interfacing and ironed it to the back of the heart, so the finished product with be smooth and firm--not lumpy and bumpy.  (Stay tuned, anyone with questions about interfacing, I will do a separate post about it soon!)  Here's my heart front all done:

I used a different, coordinating fabric for the back of the heart.  I ironed interfacing onto it, and cut it larger than the front, so I don't have to worry about the two sides shifting when I sew them together.

 Sew all around the perimeter, using a 1/4" seam.  Trim the excess fabric, and BE SURE to make a cut at the top of the heart, right to the stitching line, or it will pucker terribly when you turn it right-side-out.  (Yes, I've forgotten to do it before!)

This picture shows a pair of hemostats, like doctors use in surgery!  They are the best thing EVER for turning things right-side-out.  Do yourself a favor and get a pair (or 6, like I have!)--and then go ahead and turn your heart right-side-out. (Or use a chop stick or knitting needle.)  Press it flat.

Stuff the heart with fiberfill, sew the opening closed by hand, and you are done!  This would be a great Christmas tree ornament, using holiday colors and a Christmas message.  You would want to sew a loop of ribbon into the seam right at the top of the heart when you sew the two sides together.

For the pink and green heart, I wrote "hope" on a separate piece of fabric and machine-sewed it to the front of a pieced heart.  I left the edges raw and exposed, and pulled out some threads to make a fringe around the sides of the word. 

I'll give another update next week--hopefully I will have some of YOUR hearts to show off!

Hearts, and Hope for Amanda

I love hearts!  I love making hearts! Even my Craftster username is Leslieshappyheart!

Last month I showed you the hearts I made for a personal swap on Craftster (Box of Hearts), and I am currently in the Jar of Hearts swap.  I sent out my hearts on Friday, and they are all going to be delivered today, so I don't think I will spoil any surprizes by posting pictures here!  They will all show up in the gallery this week, so you, my readers, will get this sneak preview!

The pink-and-white heart on the upper right was made from a piece of an old cut-up quilt that my friend Susan gave me.  The red button-y heart on the bottom right is my favorite!

I have 5 official partners, and one unofficial (she only asked for one partner, but then wished for more, so I am doing a personal swap with her).  Each partner gets 5 hearts.

Some of the hearts are the same, and some are unique to the recipient.  This partner requested some black hearts, and I love how they came out!

One of the heart swappers, Amanda, is also in the Journal Cover Swap  that I organized; that's how I came to find out that her husband has just been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer.  Amanda commented on one of the hearts in the gallery:  "I like the hope one because that word has recent significance for me..."

I've talked with her a bit about the diagnosis through private message on Craftster, because I know exactly what she's going through--two years ago, my husband was also diagnosed with stage 4 cancer.  The treatment was long and difficult, and it was a very bad time in the life of our family, but he is now healthy again!  Thank God!

 So, my crafty readers, I have an idea:  I want to send Amanda a package of hearts for her jar of hearts. Would you be able to help me?  My thought is that everyone who wants to contribute would make one or two hearts, out of anything you want (fabric, felt, clay, paper, yarn, wood...whatever), and incorporate the word "hope" on one (or both) of them.  You could write it, stamp it, attach it as a label, embroider it...I know you will think of a way to do it.

Then send the hearts to me, and I will package them and send them to Amanda. Before I send them, I will take pictures and post them here.  Here's a summary:

1.  Make one or two hearts, one or both of which have the word "hope" on it. (I don't know her religious beliefs, so let's avoid any mention of anything religious).  The heart can be any size, up to 4" in diameter.
2.  E-mail me (click my name at the right, you will see the link to my email on the next page) to tell me you have hearts for Amanda, and I will e-mail you my mailing address.  You can do that before you make the hearts if you wish.
3.  Please send your hearts no later than November 15th.  That's two weeks from today.  If you would like to add a little note for Amanda, please do.  I will package the hearts so the maker will be identified by your first name and state (or country), and/or Craftster username.
4.  If some hearts are slow to arrive, I will send a second package to Amanda, so don't worry if you live in Outer Mongolia!  Cancer treatment takes quite a while, so she will be needing regular reminders that people are supporting her.
5.  I plan to send the first package right after Thanksgiving, so check back here for an update!  And thank you in advance for your help.  I'm really looking forward to seeing what you create!

Box of Hearts

Here are the hearts I promised to show you, from my personal swap with Jo S. on Craftster.  If you haven't checked out Craftster yet, please do!  If you create a Craftster account, come back here and leave a comment including your Craftster user name, and I will send you a handmade gift!  No strings attached--no kidding!! (I will send you a private message on Craftster to get your mailing address; so when you see a message from Leslieshappyheart, you will know it's me!)

Our swap was to fill a small flat rate box with hearts.  This is how the box looked before I closed it up.  Jo's favorite colors are turquoisy-blue, limey-green, and red, so I made a lot of the hearts in those colors.

This is the one that was in-progress in the previous post.  I love how crazy-cute it is!

These two embroidered hearts are based on items Jo has in her Pinterest.  (If you don't have a Pinterest account, you really should give it a try--it is a great place to pull together pictures of everything you like in the world.  Wouldn't your husband--boyfriend--mother--sister--want to see pictures of what you are wishing for when gift-giving occasions roll around?)  Both hearts are cotton embroidery thread on linen.  The bird heart has a green silk back, and the flower heart has a red silk back.  The filling is polyester fiberfil.

These three hearts are all made of wool felt.  The green one is beaded the same on the front and the back; the back of the blue one has small blue beads; and the red one has a combination of embroidered stars and sewn beads on both front and back.  I love all of these, but the flower is my favorite!

The two larger hearts in this picture are obviously made of the same fabric.  The colors are so perfect for Jo that I had to use it twice!  The smaller heart is wool felt with sewn beads and a button on the front only.

These three are the "weird" ones in the bunch!  I talked about the perler bead hearts in a previous post.  The blue heart didn't come out as great as I had hoped; Jo has several Virgin Mary related things in her Pinterest, so I sewed a Miraculous Medal onto the blue heart and covered it with white netting, hoping for an etherial feeling...hmmm, it isn't quite there somehow...

These three are more my colors and style--I like these bright colors, the pink especially!



I believe I just mentioned that I like pink...need I say more?

These are my favorite three. (The button heart gets another picture!)  The big "S" heart was inspired by several things on Jo's Pinterest that had her initial on them.  The S is made of wool felt, machine sewn onto the fabric.  The small heart with the BIG flower is perhaps my favorite of all of them.  It is all wool felt, and it is small enought that it could be worn as a brooch.  (Good idea, I may have to make some more...)

That's the end of my show-and-tell about the box of hearts.  I made twenty hearts.  When I proposed the swap to Jo, I couldn't think of more that a few right off the top of my head, but as I continued to think about it and work on the hearts, more ideas occured to me, until I filled the whole box.  I have found that this is how it usually is with swaps:  I start with a small idea that grows and develops as I spend time and effort working on it, and the end result is almost always bigger and better than I could have imagined at the beginning.  That's why swapping is such a great activity--it makes you grow as a crafter.

Next week I will prove this to you by showing you the "Mystery Critter" I just mailed to another swapper today.  I never thought I would make what I made!!