Freda's Hive: Fun Little Valentine Project

I must admit I get my best ideas from other people's blogs. Maybe you do, too. So many great ideas are out there that I would make my own but I have a job and a family and unfortunately I have to sleep as well. Once in a while I come across ideas that I simply must incorporate into my sewing life.

I saw this darling and fabulous little heart placemat on Jen's blog. Jen graciously said I could post her photo. I haven't really sewn a small fun project for a while now. And I've been really wanting to make something for Valentine's Day. Jen bought this place mat for a song but I want to make one like it but a bit bigger, sort of mini table top size.
So I drew up my heart outline and cut 2 1/2" squares and 2 7/8" squares. I cut the 2 7/8" squares cross wise to make the half square triangles and moved forward from there.
Of course I love red, I love scraps and mixes of patterns. This heart is a bit like my Valentine's Day flag from years ago. Look at the blend of print and dot together. Super cute I think.
I got this far with it. I'm supposed to be working on my Row by Row quilt pattern. And I am making progress with my pattern. But this heart project is kind of like playing hooky. So as a reward for working on my pattern for several hours last Saturday, I whipped up this heart Sat. evening. Now I need to quilt it and bind it.
Des from Quilt Taffy had this super fantastic post about using perle cotton to machine quilt. Read about it here. I thought this would be a good time to try out Des' technique. I know the spool above probably isn't the right gauge but I don't have anything else right now to show. If you look closely at the price tag you can see "Fillmore's 5 and 10 cent". It is old stock and might be too thick but I might still try it.

Thanks Des and Jen. Blog ideas are just wonderful

-nanette