Quick Treat

I would like to say that I'm a from scratch kind of gal. Occasionally it's fun to make homemade rolls and bread, but really, who's got that kind of time all the time? 

But we still love a quick, fun treat right? Well sometimes it's got to be right out of the box.

All it takes is this:

 

+ this:

( a mini cupcake baker that bakes in 7 min. from my MIL, how cute is that?) 

+ these:

+ this:

= the cutest little holiday yummies in no time flat and who can beat that?

Valentine's Day Wrap Up

 I have to say we had a fun Valentine's Day! The best part was that my wonderful husband got home earlier than he thought he would and he was able to join us for dinner-yay! See Sophie's smiling face? That says it all.

 

Here's what our Valentine's table looked like. Nothing fancy, just fun. Chocolate hearts for confetti and everyone got a book this year thanks to an awesome B&N Groupon I got. We had pink heart-shaped waffles, hash browns, bacon, eggs and sausage, whooo eeee! Which way to the gym? The best part was doing the Valentine Mad Libs.

 

This was Maggie's valentine. She loves the cherry jelly hearts. We put them in a cute polka-dot bag and then I made a printable with her picture on it. (Maggie likes to be in the spotlight:)

Here's my little rascal with her valentine before she left for school. Some of the bags had valentine candy corn, yum.

Though the Silly Banz craze has died down (thankfully) Sophie still loves them and wanted to give those out this year. I wanted to put them in boxes or bags and cute them up with a tag like Maggie's, but Sophie just wanted it really simple and no way did she want her picture on it. So I made a little tag and we tied it together with some baker's twine. Simple enough.

 

Here's my Soph with her valentine right before school. The shirt I made at approximately midnight the night before along with this one for my littlest squirt, Charlotte. I did not include her face because it was covered with the chocolates that she kept swiping from the table decorations that would eventually get all over the shirt too :). Little goober.

 Whew! One more holiday down, what's next, St. Patty's? Time to think green...

 

Happy Valentine's Day!

Just wanted to wish everyone a fun day full of love! The hubby has to work late, but we're going to have a Valentine's lunch. The kids and I will have our annual Valentine's Day breakfast for dinner. Heart shaped waffles and the works! Post picts later, what are your plans for the day?

Hearts!

I have been up to my ears in hearts! This holiday is in full swing at my house.

Been working on valentine cards for my girls, my Heart Garden quilt, and these little beauties.

These are my Lavender Sachet Hearts that I give out every year.

We give them to the girls teachers, women I serve at church with, and friends. It's been a fun little tradition for me and I love experimenting with different fabrics.

 I working on one made with all felt too. Next up - finishing my Heart Garden quilt. This quilt has evolved from a fun quilt to one with a lot of meaning. I will share the story and the quilt soon. Here is a little preview:

Quilted Valentine Hearts Pillow Tutorial

Welcome to my Quilted Valentine Hearts Pillow Tutorial! This is a great scrap buster project, a fabulous way to try out some new skills and a just a fun, bright pillow for the holiday!

Here's what you are going to need:

Scraps! I used red, pink and one aqua for a color pop.

1 1/4 yards white fabric

3/8 yard of coordinating fabric for ruffle

19" square piece of batting

3, 7/8" covered button kit or 3 regular buttons

Lite Steam-a-Seam 2 (or other fusible web)

Step One: Download the heart pattern HERE.

Cut out 17 hearts from different scraps. Cut 17 hearts from Steam-a-Seam (or follow the directions for your fusible web). Peal off the backing and stick one Steam-a-Seam to each heart.

Cut the white fabric into the following pieces:

2- 19" square pieces

1- 18" x 12" piece

1- 18" x 15" piece

 

Take the ruffle fabric and cut 4, 3" strips by the width of fabric.

 

Set the strips aside, we'll get to those later. :)

Take one 19" piece of white fabric and arrange the hearts evenly as shown in the picture. The pink and red hearts should be 1/2" apart horizontally from the widest parts of the hearts and 1" apart vertically from the bottom tip to the dip in the top. The aqua heart is 1" apart horizontally from the widest part of the hearts and 1" apart vertically from the bottom tip to the top of the aqua heart.

After the hearts are placed where you want them, iron them onto the fabric following manufacturers directions.

Next step: Make a quilt sandwich! Lay the other piece of 19" square fabric down (you can tape down the sides), place the batting on top and then your finished heart top on top of the batting. Baste with basting pins.

The next thing I did was use a disappearing purple ink pen and draw a 1/8" line around each heart and on the inside of each heart. Then with free motion quilting, I followed the lines and stitched around each heart with white thread. Then I used a hot pink thread and stitched around the inside of each heart. You don't have to do this step if you don't want to, but it gives the hearts a nice finished and puffy look.  

 Next is the fun part! I have learned to love free motion quilting. It's really soothing and therapeutic for me. If you have not tried it, this is a great small project to try it on. Try practicing on another quilt sandwich first if you are not comfortable. Remember to use your darning foot and lower you feed dogs!

When you are done quilting, cut down the sides so that your pillow top is 18" square.

Great work so far, isn't it cute!? It actually took a few days for those purple lines to go away, but they did go away.

The next thing I did was was a simple straight embroidery stitch around the aqua heart with 4 strands of bright pink embroidery thread.

  Wha-la! Gives it a little more pop!

Okay, it's time to grab those ruffle strips. Cut the selvages off of each strip. Next we need to sew them together to make one long strip. Use the same method as you would for binding strips. Place the two strips at right angles. Using a ruler, draw a diagonal line from corner to corner just off center so the line is centered. 

 Pin the strips together and sew along the line. Repeat until all strips are together.

Fold the new strip in half and press.

Set your machine length to between 4 and 5, a basting stitch.

Stitch your ruffle strip 1/8" from the edge and then again 1/4" from the edge. Pull the threads and gather the strip evenly.

 Pin the ruffle onto your pillow top.

Still using a basting stitch, baste the ruffle onto the pillow top.

Final stretch baby! We are going to work on the back of the pillow. *Note: if you don't have a button hole stitch (or don't want to deal with it:), you can just sew an 18" square piece of fabric to the back.* Take both back pieces and press up 1/4" along the 18" side.

 

Then fold over 3" and press again.

Stitch the flap closed using the 1/4" pressed seam as your guide. Do this for both sides.

Place the longer side flap over the shorter flap so it covers it. Stitch a basting stitch along the top and the bottom to keep those intact.

Pin the back pieces onto the pillow top with the ruffle inside.

Stitch a 1/2" seam. If you have a serger, serge the edges to get rid of fraying and bulk. You can also use a zig zag stitch on a regular machine. Yahoo! You are almost done!

The last step is add your button holes and buttons. Use this picture as a guide for button hole placement. The middle button is centered at 9". The side buttons should come in centered at 4" from each side. Make your button holes according to the size of your buttons.

I used 7/8" covered buttons and used more scraps to make matching buttons. 

 I also decided at the last minute to add another heart to the back of my pillow. I used the embroidery stitch around it as well.

Congratulations! You did it! If you make this pillow, I would love to see it! Please add it to the Craft Sew Create Flickr group and I might just put it on my blog!

Happy Creating!
This post is part of a linky party at Today's Creative Blog!