my aching back!

For this week's Project Quilting challenge, I decided to make myself a quilted heating pad. My hips and back are starting to hurt due to being pregnant, so when I found this tutorial from Bee In My Bonnet, I knew what needed to be done :)

The only challenge requirement this week was to use your favorite fabric. This was honestly the hardest and most time-consuming part for me. I ended up settling on this animal print:

 

 



There is something about the bright colors that I really love!

Instead of just using a plain piece of fabric like it says in the tutorial, I decided to do flying geese. I coupled my favorite fabric with a dark grey/mushroom solid I had left over from my American Brand Solids challenge. I really like the combo. Then I just followed the tutorial to create my own flannel-lined, rice-filled heating pad. It works like a charm! Me and my heating pad have been pretty much inseparable ever since :)

 

 

The heating pad's original dimensions (prior to being stuffed with rice) were 6"X20". I made it here in Central Pennsylvania, and I am calling it "my aching back!" Thanks for reading :)

my heart is in your hands

first of all, let me explain why my blog is at a different site than it has been. about a week and a half ago, I got notification that my old website has been hacked. it has been closed down for security purposes, and I need to do some work to get it re-opened. I am not sure yet if I will do all the work of recreating the website (and probably also pay some money for better security), or just start using this blogger page. but for this week's Project Quilting challenge, I am happy to have this back-up to use in order to post my project.

I am calling it My Heart is in Your Hands. It is inspired not only by the Project Quilting challenge requirements (to make a quilt with twelve hearts in it), but also by the Valentine that my son made for me at pre-school, which was his handprints in the shape of a heart with the caption "my heart is in your hands." Here it is:

"my heart is in your hands"

Of course, my heart melted when I got this extra special Valentine's Day present from him!

So, for the quilt, I decided to recreate the card with both his and my handprints. I pieced a simple background, and then both he and I dipped our hands in black acrylic paint, and printed the fabric. After I let them dry and heat set the acrylic, I sandwiched the quilt and free-motioned the snot out of it! Each handprint got an inner and an outer heart, and then I paisleyed the background. Even after going around each heart about FIFTEEN times with the black thread, I still didn't think the popped out enough. So I found some black yarn and couched it around the heart outlines. That did the trick! Once I was done doing that, I couched the same black thread around the border of the piece and then cut around the edges to finish. This is one of my favorite ways to finish a smaller quilt, as opposed to a binding.

Here are some pictures:

 

 

 

And unfortunately I CANNOT figure out how to rotate these photos on this blogger format. Maybe somebody out there can help? Anyway, for now here they are.

 

And here are some pictures of the back, which I actually like almost as much as the front:

 

 

 

And there you have it! This quilt was made in Central PA and measures about 18"X22". Thanks for reading!