Happy Valentine's Day

I'm typically not someone who decorates for Valentine's Day.  But the last of the Christmas decorations came down the other day; and well, frankly, the house seems a little naked....It didn't seem naked before the Christmas decorations went up, but now it does. 

To remedy this situation, I created a simple little wall hanging to brighten the walls in honor of Saint Valentine.  It is very scrap friendly with few rules. 

First, I went through my stash and started pulling out fabrics.  I went with a chocolate and pink color combination but it can be done in reds and whites or any combination that you like.

Next, I pieced the background with a center pink panel, a chocolate brown inner border and pink outer border in fabric that matched the center panel.  I made the background about two inches larger than I wanted my finished wall hanging to measure to account for shrinkage during quilting and to allow me to square it after quilting.

Next the heart cutouts were fused in place. It was a trip back memory lane to grade school when I made the heart templates - folding the paper in half and drawing all sorts of fun and funky heart shapes. I cut them out of scrap fabrics and fused them in place with a double sided fusible web.

After the hearts were in place, I quilted a dense edge to edge pattern across the entire wall hanging.  This will hold the hearts in place and provide stability to help it hang straight.  After quilting, the binding and hanging sleeve were attached.  

And finally, my favorite part - embellishments !!

I hand sewed buttons in place to give some pizzazz but it still needed more - so out came the "blinger" and the hot fix crystals were added for the final look.

Happy Valentine's Day !!