Shirley Anne’s Heart

There is one thing on my LIST OF FAVORITE THINGS that I’ll bet that I share with most, if not all, other quilters.

I love finishing a quilt and crossing it off my to do list.  How many of us LOVE to CROSS THINGS OFF OUR TO DO LISTS!

To be perfectly honest, I sometimes even put things on my list that I have already done - just so that I can cross it off.  Sigh, I have too much fun!!!!

Crossing things off my list is definitely one of MY FAVORITE THINGS!

And I am having fun right now - because I finished the KING SIZED “Virginia Snowball Quilt” that I made for my grown-up kids’ (Christi and Greg) bed.

Here they are with their new quilt.  Smiling GROWN UP KIDS are on my LIST OF FAVORITE THINGS too!

And…..to celebrate being finished, I played by making some paper pieced heart string blocks.  Kermit the Frog is remembered for singing “IT’S NOT EASY BEING GREEN” and now here we all are trying to BE GREEN by saving and  recycling. It really is EASY and it is so satisfying to QUILT GREEN by using up small strips of material and piecing them on recycled YELLOW PAGES paper!

So, here is what I did for my Friday night fun.  I think I am going to have to add HEART STRING BLOCKS

to my LIST OF FAVORITE THINGS.

Tags: Heart string quilts in progress, My Favorite Things, Quilts Completed in 2008, SAO's Family, Virginia Snowball Quilt by drsao
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There are many things that one can do with strings of material.

Thanks to my friend’s, (Sheddy) recommendation, I was inspired by the many creative scrappy quilts designed by Bonnie Hunter (shown on her QUILTVILLE.COM site) so I decided that I would just have to make a few heart string blocks with some of my left over scraps of material - and true to the Bonnie Hunter STYLE, I foundation pieced these strips onto newsprint.

Some of my heart string blocks have a teal 2″ strip down the diagonal……and I have made quite a few of these blocks 9 1/2 inch blocks so far.

This was so much fun to do - and it was MINDLESS and creative.  I have discovered that I love foundation piecing!

I am not sure how difficult this will be to REMOVE the paper later - this is my FIRST TIME to paper piece.

I had so much fun making these blocks that I decided to try to make some more heart string blocks with leftover scraps of red, white and black material - and this time I foundation pieced onto used computer paper - again taking the example of Bonnie Hunter!  I used the whole sheet of used computer paper  - making 8 1/2 inch blocks and then 3 1/2 inch border strips.

And THEN - I just had to make a few pastel heart string blocks with 2″ yellow diagonal centers … 

 I had TOO MUCH FUN and now I can TRULY say that I am contributing to a GREEN AMERICA….using up scrap material and scrap computer paper…….

But wait - there is ONE MORE THING that one can do with strings of material. 

I don’t imagine that many of you have done this!

My grandangel, Nanna, tied very long strings of fabric to the five blades of my ceiling fan - and VOILA - she produced a spinning cat toy. 

Our cats, Oreo CHIPPIE Cookie, Midnight Junior, and Cuddles TinkerBELLE had SO MUCH FUN with their own version of SPINNING HEART STRINGS!

Leanna and I both had the flu this past week - and this is how we kept ourselves from being bored and from feeling sorry for ourselves!

And my room is now in PARTY MODE! 

Tags: CAT TOYS, Heart string quilts in progress, Quilts in Progress by drsao
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