heart wall hanging | Tu-Na Quilts, Travels, and Eats

I finished the Valentine’s Day wall-hanging I made for the Put a Little Love in Your Quilt Blog Hop last week. You can read more about it here. This wall-hanging was one of my goals for the 2018 Finish-A-Long and was posted here.

I hung it outside and it’s been greeting our guests ever since.

I wanted something that says “A Quilter Lives Here.”

I used a darker scrappy pink binding to frame out the hanging. It’s under a nice covered patio and is out of the sun. Hopefully, it’ll be protected enough to last a few seasons. Now, I will have to think of the next holiday and get something made to replace it, maybe something for St. Patrick’s Day or Easter or spring.

Last week I also baked a batch of cookies—heart shaped ones.

And decorated them all fancy. It was a large batch so we took them to a couple of community dinners to share. They were a hit and I should have made more.

I used my favorite sugar cookie recipe found here and decorator frosting to pipe the borders and some sayings from conversation heart candies. I only have 5 decorating tips and should look for more or bring my extras down with me next year.

This week, I finished Tu-Na Helper’s Mug Rug. You can read more about his mug rug and find the link to the free pattern here.

I chose some Chocolate Love by Audrey Jeanne Roberts for Studio e fabrics.

I also made a mug rug for me using the free paper pieced rose pattern found here. I reduced the size and then trimmed it to 5.5″ so it would be the same size as the cup one. The rose sewed up easily.

I quilted a diagonal crosshatch about 1/4″ apart. I used painter’s tape to mark my first diagonal lines in each direction and then my seam guide for the rest of the lines.

I made the center of the rose darker. The next couple of rows of petals were a bit lighter, and the last couple or rows of petals were the lightest.

I used three different fabrics for the rose but could have used more as the petals are lost by all the quilting.

I used a 1 1/8″ strip to bind them. It didn’t need a bulky double binding. Each mug rug finishes at 5.5 inches.

I gave Tu-Na Helper his Mug Rug this morning for Valentine’s Day

and he gave me…

a dozen long-stemmed roses!

* Update: That’s not all he gave me! I posted Tu-Na Quilts: The Rest of the Story here.*

What I Learned Today:

I sew slowly. I was at a class this afternoon and am the furthest behind with that project.
Being slow isn’t all bad. I didn’t have to rip out as much as some of the others.
My seam ripper is rather dull. It’s time to get a new one.
Completing the Valentine Wall Hanging was Goal #10 on my post Tu-Na Quilts: My Three Month Plan for the 2018 Finish-A-Long.
I’ve still got 9 other goals to complete.
I might have to speed up the sewing to get more of my goals completed.

Question: What do you do special for Valentine’s Day? When the kids were little, I would make and decorate each of them a giant heart-shape cookie.

Thanks for stopping by and do come again.

Karen, Tu-Na Quilts

Linking to:

Wednesday Wait Loss at The Inquiring Quilter

Let’s Bee Social at Sew Fresh Quilts

Midweek Makers at Quilt Fabrication

Finished or Not Friday at Busy Hands Quilts

Can I Get a Whoop Whoop? at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Show Off Saturday at Sew Can She

As quilters, we put a lot of love in our quilts we make. When Carol from Just Let Me Quilt offered this blog hop, I jumped at the chance. The only requirement was to put a heart somewhere in the quilt.

I’ve been wanting to make a wall hanging for the front door area of our house for awhile.

This quilt will finish at 21.5″ x 33.5.” Read on to find out why it’s missing it’s binding.

Something that says a quilter lives here. Something that says welcome. Something that I could leave up for awhile and replace with something else as the season calls. I found a free heart pattern here and began to cut some scraps. I wasn’t going to go scrappy but once I started cutting, I dug deeper into the scrap bin.

I put a binding clip in the end of each row to show which direction I should press the seams toward. This keeps me from running back and forth from the ironing board. Although, I could use the exercise.

I changed the pattern by cutting the blocks 3.5″ so that my finished block would be larger than what the pattern called thus making my wall hanging larger.

I used this recent purchase of #love designed by Sandy Gervais for Moda that I found in the clearance bin at a local quilt shop for some of the background pieces.

This fabric has hearts too as well as the words live laugh love.

At this point I realized it needed something more and so I searched for a pattern of a bouquet of flowers. I settled on these paper pieced rose buds that I found in the May/June 2015 issue of Quiltmaker magazine.

I remove the inner papers leaving the outer ones intact until the seams are sewn together.

They sewed up quickly or maybe I’m just getting better at paper piecing.

And Then Some Distracted Sewing Happened

I started searching the internet for some free patterns for roses, just in case you wanted to make one of these wall hangings for yourself and didn’t have access to that particular magazine. You probably won’t believe me when I say that a funny thing happened on my way to find that free pattern. I found a “squirrel” project. So I dropped everything and made this cute little mug.

You can find the free paper-pieced pattern here.

I’m planning on quilting this mug rug and giving it to my husband for Valentine’s Day. He likes his morning coffee all day long. Now he’ll have a fun mug rug to set his cup on.

If you want to sew up some roses. You’ll find a free paper pieced pattern of a rose here. I downloaded it and will make it as soon as I am finished writing this.

Back on Track Again

I quilted the heart with straight lines

My husband bought these gloves at Menards, a department-type hardware store in the Midwest. We were sad to find there isn’t a Menards in AZ. The gloves have silicone on the underside of the fingers (you can see some of the dots) which really helps grip the fabric and makes quilting so much easier on the hands, arms, shoulders, and back.

and did some free motion loopy hearts all over everything else.

I couldn’t resist adding some ric rac stems. After all, I am the Queen of Ric Rac (self-proclaimed).

So that’s why this outdoor wall hanging still needs the binding. (Update: This wall hanging is now finished and hanging outside my front door. You can read all about it and Tu-Na Helper’s finished mug rug and other 2018 Valentine projects I made out of fabric and flour here.)

I chose these fabrics for a scrappy binding.

More Fun and Love Found Here

To help you spread the love or at least get you in the mood to sew up something fun for Valentine’s Day, hop on over to these blogs.

February 5

Life in the Scrapatch

Freemotion by the River

Marjorie’s Busy Corner

Cynthia’s Creating Ark

February 6

Creatin’ in the Sticks

Tu-Na Quilts, Travels, and Eats You are here. Thanks for stopping by.

February 7

Vicki’s Crafts and Quilting

February 8

Just Let Me Quilt Thanks, Carol, for hosting another wonderful blog hop.

What I Learned Today:

I get easily distracted and want to try new patterns. Maybe that’s why I like making sampler quilts where every block is different.
That lemon pie isn’t making itself. I’ll have to make it tomorrow. Lemon Meringue is Tu-Na Helpers favorite pie. I’ll make him another one next week.
Paper piecing is getting easier. The easier it’s getting the more I like it.

Question: How will you celebrate Valentine’s Day? Will you sew something special?

Thanks for stopping by and do come again.

Karen, Tu-Na Quilts

Linking to:

Linky Tuesday at Freemotion by the River

Let’s Bee Social at Sew Fresh Quilts

Wednesday Wait Loss at The Inquiring Quilter on Feb 14th

Midweek Makers at QuiltFabrication

Finished or Not Friday at Busy Hands Quilt

Can I Get a Whop Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Show Off Saturday at Sew Can She

DREAMi at Musings of a Menopausal Melon on the last Saturday in Feb. (Hopefully, I won’t forget)