Hello all, Mary Ellen here.

In my quest to get rid of/use up/throw away some of the mountains of scrappy things I have in my quilt room, I’ve started making some quilted hearts to sow around town. (See explanation in previous post.) I found in my pile of scraps some quilted fabrics that were trimmed from parts of organizational  containers that I made for a series of demos. What I mean are two pieces of quilters’ cotton with a layer of batting between that have already been quilted into a sandwich. Some are fairly odd shapes, but that will not be an issue. I then dug around in my trimmings drawers to find some short lengths of pompoms, rick rack, lace, piping, seam binding, etc. Next I went to the HUGE stash of buttons to choose some cutesy buttons that cannot go in the washer and/or dryer. I started by making a paper pattern of a heart and have traced it several times onto the quilted scraps. I stitched on the drawn line and then cut the hearts out with pinking scissors. I’m trying to attach most of the trims and buttons by machine, both due to laziness and to the fact that glue may not hold well if the hearts aren’t found quickly. I’m not sure how I will attach the label–I printed them out on the computer and the ink is not waterproof. I must have a stray sheet of laminating plastic somewhere that I could protect the labels with. Hmm…

My plan is to put a few in my purse for hiding by me, and to have a few extras to take along for the grandkids to hide when we go on adventures this summer. I should have a few of these hearts out in the world before the holiday weekend is over–keep your eyes pealed!