It was a small heart, made of felt I think, only lightly stuffed, decorated with tiny buttons, beads and some embroidery. It was lovely.
The idea was that you made it with someone special in mind and upon receipt, that person would keep it in their pocket. Every time he/she put their hand in their pocket, they could give it a little squeeze, think of you and know that they are loved. Such a sweet idea.
I decided to make a whole handful for my friend to take out to the Philippines. One for Mara, the little girl he sponsors, and the rest for her to give to her family and friends.
I sorted through one of my boxes of fabric left over from my quilting days, thinking I might make them from an assortment of bright colours. But then I came across a little packet of dyed silk that I had quite forgotten about. I bought it at a quilt show in Romsey, Hampshire, 2 or 3 years ago. It had its own story.
It was originally a beautiful white silk wedding dress which was dyed in a whole rainbow of colours, then cut roughly into pieces and put into sets, which were then sold to raise funds for charity. But I can't remember if the lady who had owned the dress had divorced so no longer wanted the dress, or if she just decided she didn't want to keep it anymore so found a new use for it. Either way, she had dyed it in a fabulous range of colours. I chose golden yellow through to sunset red.I made a couple of needle cases with narrow bands of colour arranged sunset style. Do you think I can find a photo?? No. Never mind. I did find some chickens though - aren't they fun?!
Anyway, my little hearts. I started by drawing a heart and getting it to the shape I wanted, then using it to make a little cardboard template to draw round. I lay the silk pieces onto a small sheet of fine sand-paper to hold it in place while I drew round the template. A brilliant idea that I used to use for marking the stitching line when I made half square patchwork pieces.
I cut a short piece of lace to lay across each heart before joining the 2 sides - sorry, forgot to take a photo. I snipped the curved seam around the top before turning through, then stuffed lightly and slip stitched the opening closed.
Then add a bit of extra decoration if you so choose. So far, I've only put on a tiny button but I might work a few embroidery stitches later.
I didn't have time to complete all the hearts today, with lots of photos along the way, so there's likely to be an update later.
To finish today, here's another photo of the book cover I made for Mara last week. I decided I needed a better photo of the front cover! I lay it on the hexagon blanket I finished just over a year ago. But that's another story...
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