Hugs and Kisses

Welcome to my stop on the Hugs and Kisses Blog Hop. Thanks go to M.Samm for her unusually creative mind and Jane of Jane's Fabrics and Quilts http://janesfabrics.blogspot.ca/ for taking on Cheerleader duties.

          

For me this hop turned into a 3 for the cost of admittance.  1^st I got to participate in this Valentine related hop, then I got to do the hot block this month in the blog world, the scrappy trip around the world and last but not least I forced myself to work on my machine quilting skills.

Let me begin with the fact that I love how my quilt turned out warts and all.  I had never done this block before.  I understood the need for the contrast on the diagonal but never read far enough into any of the various instructions to see how that was done. Some trial and error and ripping and I was able to figure it out.  My biggest problem was the contrast.  I wanted a valentine look and not all of my lights had enough contrast for the quilt.  I could see it in the block but lost it in  the quilt. I put those blocks in the middle cause I was done ripping.

Last fall I followed a month of postings at http://blog.petitdesignco.com/  called 31 days of walking foot quilting    it  really gave me some great things to think about.  This was the first thing I made since then that I thought would work for me as a trial.  After all this was for me.  I didn’t care if it wasn't a work of art. OK I’ll admit it, I hate to practice.  

The few problems I had with this quilts quilting were of my own making.  The biggest issue was that this quilt was too big for a starter/learning project. It measures in at about 52 inches square. 

 I chose to do a 4 inch heart in the center of the quilt and then to do 2 inch echoes.  Not a problem with the bottom half of the piece which is pretty much straight lines but I did have some issues at the top.  Swinging all of that bulk around and around I somehow lost the heart shape in places and got several good size wrinkles.  Apparently what I thought was lots of pinning wasn’t enough.   This was THE practice piece and I learned lots from it and I love it.

       

                              

                                        Love the back too.

So I live in NJ which was in the bottom of the northeast blizzard area.  The company let those of us who were driving into the snow leave early on Friday.  By the time I got home things were just starting to heat up.  Spent a lovely evening working of these projects.  I was in a fortunate part of the state we had somewhere in the range of 6 – 10 inches of the stuff and no power issues.  Things were back to normal by noon on Saturday.   The very best part of the snow was that I had a red quilt to take pictures of on it. What a terrific backdrop for this quilt.

      

Next up, I saw this great tutorial  http://www.sewhappy.me/quilt-blogs/bunny-bags-idea/  and I had to make it for my favorite 3 year old for Valentine’s day.  I know it was posted as an Easter Bag but to me it was a Valentines bag with a bunny on it.  To my very  logical mind, If it were an Easter bag there would have been Eggs not Hearts.  

  

On this piece I actually tried FMQ successfully, this is something else I won’t put the time into practicing.  The parts I quilted on this piece were only about 7 inches square.  I always loved these hearts in a quilt pattern and what better place to try them out.  Success.

Last but not least are a couple of shots of my first heart quilt.  It was from a beginners applique class for beginner quilters I took  at least 20 years ago.

Didn't understand the whole squaring up concept at the time.

Still  love it and hang it every year.

Now please go and visit any of today's hoppers that you may not have gotten to yet. Actually go and visit any of the hoppers you may have missed on Monday or Tuesday too.  Lots of great Hugs and Kisses to drool over.

Wednesday February 13th

The 4 R's

Em's Scrapbag

Kris Loves Fabric

Kathy Quilts

Cherry Blossoms Quilting Studio

The Distracted Domestic 

Selina Quilts (me)

Terry's Quilting Time

Rosemary B @ that other blog

as sweet as peaches

 Karma Willow Designs

Thanks for stopping by and sharing in the fun.