Valentine’s Hearts, Project 70273 and the Monthly Colour Challenge! January has been inspiring!

January is drawing to a close and it’s time to link up!

Did you make something in red for January? If you did, don’t forget to link it up at Patterns by Jen for your chance at this month’s Color Challenge prize and an entry into the grand prize draw. You do not need a blog, you can just upload a picture of your project directly from your computer. The only thing you must have is a valid email address. Jen has also added instructions for linking via Instagram if this is your sharing platform of choice. And she has offered to help with any other linking issues you might have, so don’t leave it until the last minute…… we want to see your work!

Remember, this is what you are playing for this month….. A pack of 2.5″ strips from January’s sponsor, Northcott. You have until January 31 to enter.

In Other News: Valentine’s Heart Blocks

Hopefully you might remember – all the talk about red this month gave me an idea for my first Craft Room De-Stash Challenge project. I decided to use up my red scraps by making a scrappy appliqué heart quilt. This week I have been fortunate enough to have had enough sewing time to finish my 12 heart blocks for this quilt. If you are after a scrappy project for Valentine’s Day, you can find my tutorial for this block here.

In the spirit of continuing to destash, I also used up a pile of small scraps of fusible adhesive to make these blocks. Did you know that large appliqué shapes that don’t need adhesive in the centre are great for using awkward bits of fusible adhesive? 

Using up those annoying bits of fusible adhesive – a quick How To:

Firstly, trace your appliqué shape onto baking paper (parchment paper). Lay your appliqué fabric flat, with the reverse side up, and cover with your baking paper template.

Slip pieces of fusible adhesive between the fabric and the baking paper so that they align with the edge of the tracing on the baking paper. I cut my weirdly shaped fusible adhesive offcuts into approximately 1″ strips to make this process as efficient as possible.

Continue adding pieces of fusible adhesive around the edge of your shape until you have the appliqué edge completely covered. Fuse it all down.

Remove the backing from all the fusible adhesive pieces and realign the baking paper tracing over the appliqué fabric. Fuse the baking paper tracing to your appliqué fabric. 

Cut around the tracing and peel the baking paper off. You now have a shape ready to fuse onto your quilt block.

Once I’d made 11 of these to go with the one I made earlier in the month I just had to photograph them en masse. Sometimes quantity does have a quality all of its own. Aren’t they pretty?!

Then I carefully fused the hearts to my 11′ butterfly fabric blocks. I say carefully, because I have no butterfly fabric to spare, and I’m not sure I have enough interesting red scraps left to make another heart either. No errors welcome here! That is the one downside of working from stash.

And now I have these scraps…..

By rights, I should just throw them in the bin. I was actually comfortable with that idea, but then…..

I noticed project 70273

Thanks to Sandy of Sew This is My Blog, my attention has been drawn to Project 70273. Project 70273 is the brain-child of Jeanne Hewell-Chambers. She is aiming to commemorate every one of the 70,273 disabled people who were murdered by Nazis in 1940 and 1941. You can read all about it on Jeanne’s Project 70273 site here.

In summary, Jeanne’s project is to create a collection of quilts that will collectively display 70,273 pairs of red crosses. You can read about the appalling significance of the pairs of crosses on her site. The quilts she is collating vary in size from postcard to huge. Anyone can participate by making single blocks, participating in the construction of quilts from blocks or by making whole quilts. 

I am not sure yet whether I will make a few blocks or a “Middling” (a fat-quarter sized quilt). But I have red scraps from my heart blocks and I have white scraps from my Regatta quilt, So, I am going to do something.

So, that’s it for Red! February is just around the corner and my Colour Challenge thoughts are turning to blue. And it is also time to tackle my first Island Batik Ambassador challenges. There are two Island Batik challenges in February. How exciting! But in the meantime, I hope you have something to share on the Colour Challenge link up. 

P.S. If you like the idea of a scrappy heart quilt – for Valentine’s Day or just because – you might also like Alycia’s project. She has, just this week, put up a tutorial for a really lovely scrappy pieced heart quilt. I really like how she has scattered her hearts asymmetrically over her design. Go take a look!

And if you are still looking for more ideas to play with this week, my latest find that I really want to try is Beth’s Floppy Feathers FMQ motif from Cooking Up Quilts. I think I have just found my next charity quilting motif. I hope I get allocated a quilt that will be suitable to use it on! 

P.P.S. Sharing at Freemotion by the River, The Inquiring Quilter, Sew Fresh Quilts, Quilt Fabrication, My Quilt Infatuation, Crazy Mom Quilts, Cooking Up Quilts

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