Wednesday, January 20, 2021

Hearts on Fire--My Turn

 Today is my turn for the Hearts on Fire blog hop, hosted by Carol over at Just Let Me Quilt.

It's not too hard to put hearts on projects, and some just happen to be there!

Christine, a teacher friend of mine (1st grade, taught 1 year right next door to my 3rd grade classroom before I retired), asked for help with seat sacks. You know, one pocket fits over the chair back and another pocket holds books, etc. She had had some that didn't hold up, and good ones were rather expensive.

A cousin (who is BFF with Christine) sent me an email: Chris needs help. No one else had offered to help her, so I was in full gear pretty quickly. Found a simple pattern on line, adjusted it for 1st grade chairs, ordered the duck canvas (via JoAnn's curbside service) so they would be sturdy, and was making my prototype the next day. Chris wanted them to be black, but I didn't like the idea of plain black so I decided to applique a heart on each. I had some leftover cut-outs from my Cricut Maker for a different project and soon cut out more from a variety of colors (to make 26 seat sacks). The prototype fit the chair, thankfully, so I was stitching away on these lovelies. After the first several, I got smart and used my serger to finish the sides whenever I wasn't using selvage for an edge. That helped speed the process. These should be sturdy, washable, and usable for a long time.



It didn't take me long to realize I could use these for this blog hop! Hee, hee, and yay!
Ok, there is red on that heart below, but the background is white...


Sew, the 26 are delivered and will be used whenever school can start in person again--the goal was for January 19, and I haven't heard if that has changed.

My next project is Love Notes by Kimberbell. I participated in the mystery quilt, sewing version, which started at the end of July, I think, and continued through August. I had it all together early in the fall but couldn't decide how to quilt it. Finally got myself in gear earlier this month and quilted it. Then I had to sew on the embellishments. The pictures at the top right are 3 of my granddaughters.

I know there are some red hearts on this project, but there are also white ones spilling out of this jar,


and on this typewriter keyboard (3 keyboards in all).


There are pink ones on the cameras (3 in all).


Lastly, I put a heart label on the back, using some leftover light gray from the project.


I enjoyed doing this, having never done a Kimberbell project before, but I'm not sure if I will do another. I have too many other ideas rolling around in my brain.

One last heart to share... I recently put together a Lori Holt 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle, and I think I counted 4 hearts on it, 2 of which are not even red. 😄


Thanks for visiting! I hope you enjoy the rest of the bloggers too. 
Here's the entire list:

January 18















29 comments:

  1. What a wonderful idea of seat sacks! I totally agree with you that hearts brighten them up. A very nice charity project. Your other heart projects are also good looking.

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  2. Just the thing to brighten up the classroom. Well done.

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  3. You've made a wonderful group of heart-felt projects!

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  4. A wonderful project and one that will be well used. I like the addition of the hearts, they soften the dark colour.

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  5. I had no idea there was a Lori Holt jigsaw puzzle - cute. What will they think of next?
    Love your seat sacks and the idea of putting a heart on each one is so sweet. A gift from your heart for sure.
    Your quilt is super sweet and looks like a lot of love went into it. Beautiful projects, each one.

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  6. Those seat sacks are awesome!!!! I think I need to make one for my first grader for the chair at his desk while he's learning at home. What a great project! You totally inspired me.

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  7. Another new thing I learned about today. Great great idea especially with little oned.

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  8. I love those chair covers and I bet the kids are going to love the little hearts you added to them as well. What a fun Kimberbell project.
    Bring on those jigsaw puzzles. I love working on them.

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  9. Lots of wonderful heart projects! And how awesome of you to help make those seat sacks! Thank you for sharing!

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  10. My goodness, Carol, you totally fulfilled this challenge of no-red hearts...wow! Those chair covers are so cute and you deserve a big high five for helping out a teacher. The love note piece is really sweet as is the Lori Holt quilt. Lots of pieces, but so pretty! Thanks for hopping with us! xo

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  11. Wonderful hearts on fire, but I'm really drawn to the seat pockets, because I was a teacher, too. =) My children fortunately always had desks, but I think this would make a classroom so cute.

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  12. Great projects! Thank you for sharing with us.

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  13. How wonderful of you to step in and make all those fun seat sacks. I'm sure the kids will enjoy looking at all the different heart colours. Definitely a project from the heart.

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  14. Great projects with hearts, and how nice of you to make the seat sacks!

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  15. Wow, those chair covers are wonderful, so good of you to do that for those kids. Your Kimberbell project is also wonderful. VEry impressed with that puzzle. I don't have the patience to put together a kids 100 piece let alone something with this much detail. Great job.

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  16. These are great heart projects! Thanks for sharing!

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  17. Great ideas. I won't look at the red hearts (or at least I won't tell you so). Really cute ideas and I love that you helped out a teacher.

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  18. Those chair covers look great and I'll be the kids will love the colourful hearts.

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  19. Seat sacks, what a great idea. And so many other beautiful thing you make.

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  20. Way to make those seat sacks fit the theme of the Blog Hop!!

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  21. Great projects and nice on the eye too. Love how generous you are with your creations, time and kind-ful heart. (pun intended!)

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  22. Those seat covers are so practical and lovely. I love the other projects with hearts. Where do you find the time?

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  23. Two gorgeous projects. You have really been busy. Both projects are really pretty.

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  24. The chair pockets are a great idea and so easy to personalize - especially with in-home schooling right now; kids would love this.

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  25. Love the chair pockets idea. They are so cute. Also you have some awesome heart projects there. The Love notes is very cute.

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