I wrote this post during the last week of my Florida vacation. Rather than re-write it, here it is, three weeks later.
Have you all seen the I Found a Quilted Heart page yet? I’ve seen quilted hearts pop up in social media a few times, and they are cute, but never called to me. This week they have been pulling at my attention. This morning I realized that I needed a little creative detour – a little side trip to relax and reset my creativity.
Yesterday I was plodding along on my Portals III project, but not loving it. I’m almost out of the original fabrics for this top, and it is stressing me out. I need more, and I can pull from my batik stash, but that is 1400 miles away right now. Also, I’m at the point where I need a larger cutting surface to work comfortably. So, after Oscar messed it up twice, then threw up his dinner next to it, I listened to the universe and packed the blocks away.
That left this pile of scraps staring at me. This is a lot of scrap to waste when the original fabric was a pricey set of pre-cut batik strips. I’ve been thinking about doing a Sally Manke inspired collage piece with it, although nothing as structured as what Sally makes.
I pulled out some fusible fleece I had Mom tote down with her (Thanks, Mom!) and started playing. I began with a 5″ x 6″ rectangle, covered the top with a pleasing scrap composition and fused them in place. Then I added a loose grid of quilting to contain the raw edges.
I don’t have ribbon with me, so I just braided some of my embroidery floss together to make a cord, and stitched it into the seam.
I cut out two hearts, backed them with some flamingo scraps from my project for Henry Glass Fabrics, and stitched around the edges.
The printer also stayed home, so I hand wrote a tag, then stitched it on. Now I’m ready to spread some quilted hearts along the way home. It’s amazing how soothing it can feel to make something so relatively insignificant. I hope the finders enjoy them.
Most of the quilted hearts I’ve seen online have raw edges, and that is fine with me. These are meant as ornaments, so they can break some rules.
When I get home, I’m definitely going to prep a little kit to keep with my sewing supplies. Some ribbon, labels, and some safety pins would make the process a little easier.
*Three hearts were left at various points along our route home from Florida to New Jersey. No one has reported them found yet, and I’m okay with that. I do love the idea of just leaving a little bit of kindness out in the world.
Do you enjoy taking creative detour and just seeing what happens?
That looks like a great way to use up small scraps, have some fun, and spread a bit of joy!
Hi Jen! Fun and cute use of the scraps. I am 100% certain that they have improved the life and mood of three different people, not including your own. And in Oscar’s defense, you did invade his domain by laying them on the floor. Just sayin’ – it’s only natural that he thinks what ends up on the floor MAY be eatable, thus he would need to check it out. Big Oscar fan! {{Hugs}} ~smile~ Roseanne
So clever to use the scraps for something that pulls at your heart. 🙂
I haven’t seen quilted hearts, so I loved reading about your act of kindness. Nicely done!
Love these Jen! I made a few a while back and while I never heard if they were found, I got great satisfaction out of leaving them for others. It is such a nice, simple idea!
Just getting back to making some quilted hearts and your site popped up. I made these awhile ago, not popular where I live, but the ones I left were found but never reported. Hope they made someone happy. It is such a great way to use up scraps of material.
I need to make some more of these – they were fun. I don’t know that mine were ever reported – I forgot about them after a bit.