Completed Mission

      Since I came back from teaching the watercolor workshop, I went full tilt making the Valentine cards that I make every year. I make about 75 and I try to have each one a litttle different because I am not a factory and every recipient is a different individual. As of this morning, all are in the mail. I consider this a win as my Valentine bouquet is still holding up so I am not too late.

     The cards started with widths of heavy weight interfacting cut a 3 1//2" and soaked in the sink.

     Then I drew a bizzillion hearts with soft pastels which melt into the interfacing and kind of fix themselves in the interfacing. All those strips had to dry, so I put them near the gas fireplace but even so, they took longer to dry than I thought.

      When dry, I cut them about 4" long and added felt and foil hearts that I found at the Dollar Store with some sale trim from Joann's. I used quick dry tacky glue. I had a little angelina fluff I was able to tuck into some hearts.

     When I completed all that, I sewed the trims on in parallel lines with Superior gold Metallic thread on my beloved Singer 301. Lots of dust I still have to clean up from that but the sewing was easy and flawless.

     I was able to find some red and pink cardstock, but not enough, so most cards just had the decorated interfacing glued right to the cardstock. I buy the prefolded cards with envelopes when they are on sale at Joann's or Michaels, the 50 packs. All the fronts were glued on the cards. Then the insides were stamped with Happy Valetines, handwritten greeting, put in envelopes with address stickers and then postage stamps. One had to get a New Zealand stamp from the post office (Maureen). Finally, all were mailed out this morning and it is up to the USPS now! Valentine Day 2024 is a wrap!!

Valentine crazies

      I have missed posting because of overload in my mind and studio. I have more ideas and plans than cranial space and 24 hour space. If only I did not have to sleep. Actually, I need more sleep as I have been waking up after 4 hours and unable to meaning I am a zombie by 3 pm.
     Tomorrow is Valentines Day and I am relieved I could get all the cards made and sent out. There is always a point I don't think I will make it. What seems like a good idea to make ends up being more work than I figured when you multiply it by 70. I am glad I had lots of small red and pink scraps and scrap batting.

Untrimmed, unironed blocks waiting for backing and batting

At this point, the blocks are sewn with batting and backing, turned inside out, either big stitch hand sewing or machine decorative stitich sewn

     After sewing the blocks and trimming them, they have to get a batting, backing, turned right side out, stitched around the heart, glued to a color paper and then card (Aleene's Fast Grab Tacky Glue), the inside stamped and written, the address labels printed out (forgot what program and had to relearn it), adhered, stamps and return address labels on, and taken to the Post Office. Piece of cake. Right.

     A good friend gave me a Pfaff Passport 2.0 with all these decorative stitches on it. I only have vintage machines, mostly straight stitchers, a couple of zigzaggers. She was looking to downsize and I enabled her. I started with big stitch hand quilting, but quickly changed over to the machine. My hand sewing is pathetic. Some of you may have received a hand sewn one. Try to think of it as rustic flavor.

Signed, sealed and delivered

      I can only hope everyone I mailed a Valentine card to, received it. I know Maureen would not yet as New Zealand is far from Buffalo, NY.

      Every year I fear I won't come up with an idea that I can make multiples of without repeating each card exactly. This year I found some Valentine fabric at Joanns that simplified things. I was able to fussy cut foil stamped hearts, attach them to purple batik with Superior Twist thread (sews like a dream) using felt as backing and glue to pre-scored cardstock. It took awhile and I sewed most of them during a Treadle On Zoom meeting a few weeks ago. I used one of my trusty, beloved Singer 301s to free motion the hearts. 

    I have this quirk (some say flaw) that I cannot make the same thing over and over again, so I have to vary each design a bit.

    Here are the cards in process:

Valentines times 54 plus one heart

     Every year I make Valentines cards. I try to increase the recipients, but it gets harder every year. It is my gift to the people I know and love.  I love to make them, but hard to produce so many. Maybe because I feel each one has to be unique and stitched with a lot of variety. I used to silk screen them, but gave up silk screening to focus on quilting.
    I had an idea in my head, so I started sewing about 18 x 21 pieces of made fabric. I used white felt as the base and did the stitch and flip method of sewing strips on (raw edges set my teeth on edge). Then I used ribbons and stitched them over the fabric. 

I  made three of these slabs

    Evaluating the pieces, I made heart templates (2 shapes out of template plastic and traced the hearts on the made fabric with a think black sharpie. I cut them out carefully with my excellent Karen Kay Buckley scissors as I packed them together so I would have little waste. I had some plain home dec canvas type fabric that I cut into rectangles, sewed a thin metallic gold thread line around, and then frayed the edges to the thread. 
     I pinned the hearts in place and sewed the hearts to the canvas with a black thread and zig zag stitch. I experimented with other stitches and different sewing machines. I did try my Kenmore 1040 (the Ketherweight), my Bernina 830, and the 401. The 401 did the best job with these, so all the rest of them were zigzagged on it.  To make the cards, I used the Ketherweight, a 301, a 401- love giving those gals a workout.

     The rectangles with hearts were glued on blank cards bought in packs of 50 at Joann's (coupon of course) with Quick Grab Tacky glue applied in 9 dots. The insides were stamped with a Valentine greeting, signed, and into envelopes, stamped and in the mail. The intown cards mailed Monday, the out of town ones last Thursday.

     It was 2 years ago- Feb. 7, 2018, I had a heart attack shortly after dropping the out of town cards at the post office. The other ones got mailed when I was in the ICU. Luckily, they were all ready.
      So, you can see why I approach that day apprehensively. This Feb. 7th, while in cardiac rehab (3 X a week), there was a problem when they read my blood pressure as is the custom before and after exercise. They said my heart was skipping around. I called the cardiologist and they set an appointment later this week for a Holter monitor. I called my primary and she got me in for an EKG immediately which showed a whole slew of PVCs. I never had them before. Accordingly I am a bit freaked out but the cardiologist did not seem concerned. I don't know how you can go from normal one day to bunches of PVCs the next, but I did. I sort of feel like a ticking time bomb at the moment. But the cards are out.

Making Valentine Crumb cards

  Every year, I make Valentine cards. Usually, I silk screen them. However, I am immersed in quilting lately and in love with crumbs. So, here is how I made a bunch. The insides need to be stamped yet. The stamps are from my former life as an art teacher. Every year, I taught the kids to make valentine cards. We made cards for the local VA hospital using collage and stamps. That was a great thing for the kids to do.
  I started with red and white and pink scraps sewing crumbs together. I love to do this.

I like to throw smidges of other colors in

     I keep building the crumbs until I get a large hunk. I ironed Heat and Bond on the back. I don't like it for quilting, so this was good to use for this.

     Then, I cut some heavy interfacing and fused the crumb piece to it. I traced a heart shape on in pencil, as close to each other as possible. I even made some small hearts out of the leftovers.  I made my heart template making sure the heart was not equally symmetrical (boring). I cut out the hearts. I like the heft of the hearts cut out.

    I buy the cards already cut and scored with the envelopes, using a coupon at Joanns, AC Moore, or Michaels. I put Crafter's Pick, The Ultimate Glue on the back and glued them to the cards. I have this quirk I can't make two things the same. So, I tried some pastels and crayons behind the hearts for a few.

     I wan't really crazy about that. I glued some buttons on some of them as an accent.

     Then, I sewed some fancy yarn around the edges using the Singer 401 zig zag and invisible YLI thread. It was a lot of work. I don't know how much it added.

      The rest, I just glued them on as I thought they had a lot of design going on. It is hard for you to see that they have dimension to them.

     Bottom line is, I just think they need to be on a quilt. I am not making 20+ mini quilts. I did not want to make postcards because I wanted the hearts 3D. I thought the hearts might look good on mini painted canvas but who besides me would hang them up? I am thinking maybe I should make some mini quilts in these fabrics and have them next year for a few people. I just should be happy that I made plenty of cards with crumbs to give away. The line between card and quilt is hard to break.

Just had a brain flash! I could have bought valentine scrapbook paper, like red lines or simple small shapes and glued it on the card first, then the heart. Sigh....