Skip to main content

Heart for Betty

Betty Pillsbury is a renowned crazy quilter whose business,  Green Spiral Herbs, was hit hard in recent flooding.  One of the members at Crazy Quilting International suggested we shower her with crazy quilted heart ornaments as a show of support.  This is my contribution.  I had wanted to get it done and sent off before I headed out to Colorado and I just made it!  The last stitches went on last night and I got it assembled.  So, one more blog post before I go! 

The guidelines were simply to use the template of your choice to make a 5 or 6 inch stuffed heart ornament featuring flowers and/or herbs.  We are trying to create a little garden for Betty to replace any plants she has lost in the flooding. 

This heart was pieced from a variety of fabrics - silks, satin, moire, brocade, etc.  If you follow my blog, you will recognize the lavender motif I wrote about a few days ago.  I also added "Lavender" in script at the top of the heart. 


I added this little scissor charm as a tribute to Betty's stitching.  After all, she does a lot more than work with herbs.  I added the fob by using a tiny chain stitch for the string and stitching the tassel.  For anything really small like this I go back to cotton floss - I just can't make silk buttonhole thread bend to my will the same way.  The tassel is a group of straight stitches.  Then I brought my needle up in the center underneath the straight stitches about a quarter of the way down and then wrapped it around them all a couple times before taking it back down to the back to create the tassel effect. 


The second floral motif I created by using a little crochet basket.   I tucked a couple good sized oyas into the basket and tacked them in place. I used three little dyed lace leaf groupings for the greenery.  This was from lace yardage that I cut up to use the individual sections of.  I overlapped them and when I stitched them in place I made sure to tack some of the individual leaves in such a way that they were forced to "bump up".  I think it adds some nice dimension, especially along with the oyas. Also, by changing the way the leaves lie, it takes away some of the repetitiveness of using three identical leaf bits.

So, this will be heading off in the mail now before I start my road trip.  Back to packing!

Comments

Anonymous said…
I love making hearts too.this one is lovely- very soft and pretty.
September 11, 2011 at 3:23 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Giveaway Day! (CLOSED)

I am very happy to be joining in the Giveaway Day through Sew, Momma, Sew .  I have chosen to share one of my finds from a shopping trip, or treasure hunts as I think of them.  This is an antique sewing box -  I could not resist it when I saw it for sale!  Were you able to guess the item from the sneak peek earlier in the week? The box itself is fairly small, 8 inchs X 6 inchs and 4 inches high (20 cm X 15 cm and 10 cm high).  From my research it is of Asian origin. Inside the sewing box is lined with hand-painted silk.  The inside of the lid features a neat little needlebook. In the bottom of the sewing box there are more beautiful hand-painted blossoms and an attached pincushion.  I hope you are as charmed by this little box as I was when I found it and that you will enter my giveaway.  I will be pleased to mail internationally so everyone is invited to enter. To enter, visit my Etsy shop and then come back and leave me a...
119 comments
Read more

BAS - Week 79 - Feather Stitch Variations

I have about the next twenty BAS stitches scheduled and by happy coincidence this week's BAS is a series of Feather Stitch variations which coincide with this week's TAST stitch if you are following.  So, we can hit two birds with one stone!  These hardly look like feather stitch but they are.  They are created by making the "v"'s of the feather stitch vertical on the inside.  Very simple to do but a different look to an old stitch.  The second variation is created by doing two feather stitches at a time on each side, again making sure the inside of your "v"s are vertical and line up as much as possible. Same thing again in this one except they are in series of three.  To me these have the look of stitching on old crazy quilts so they are nice to add to your stable of stitch variations.  Hope you  enjoy them and have fun!
3 comments
Read more

Friday Giveaway - Last Week's Winner & a New Giveaway!

The winner of last week's Friday Giveaway of the current issue of Spin Off magazine is Marilyn!  lol - an easy win for Marilyn since she was the only one who left a comment.  Marilyn didn't leave an email so I would ask her please to contact me - just leave a comment with your email and I will email you right back to get your mailing information. (I will not publish the comment with your email)  If I don't hear back from you by next Friday I will include the magazine in with the prize for next week.  Last week I asked for comments suggesting what would make a good giveaway item in the future.  Since Marilyn's suggestion was the only one, I will take it!  So, this week I will be giving away some specialty threads as Marilyn suggested, along with a package of these great clock charms I just received in the mail. Aren't these great charms?  When I found them I bought all that there were in stock, five packages, so I have enough to shar...
42 comments
Read more