How To Soothe An Aching Heart?

     Have you ever needed to send a home made gift to someone quickly? My sister's dog of 17 years died yesterday and the whole family is hurting. Her kids, my two nieces and my nephew, are grown now. They are in their twenties, but they are very upset at losing their longtime friend. I wanted to send them something more than just a card and I wanted to send it quick while they need it.
     So I went through my stash of fabric and pulled out a multi-colored purple/pink cotton and cut out a heart shape for each of them. Then I chose a purple fabric for a background selecting a checkered one for my nephew thinking that was a little more masculine.  Here are the steps:

1.) Iron on fusible to the heart fabric.
2.) Cut out the heart.
3.) Iron on fusible to the background fabric. Cut out two of them for each heart.
4.) Cut out a piece of interfacing the same size as the background piece. I used one that has fusible on one side.
5.) Iron on one of the background pieces to the interfacing.
6.) Iron on the heart to the piece above.
7.) Embroider a narrow zig zag around the heart.
8.) Iron on the other background piece to the back of the piece with the heart. That way the back shows no stitching and is nice and neat.
9.) Embroider an edge stitch around the edge. I used a buttonhole stitch.

3 hearts with ruler

close up of heart for my nephew

     These were quick to sew up and I put them in separate cards and wrote "Keep this heart for whenever you feel the need for a hug."  And then I sent them off in the mail.
Afterwards, I thought I should have printed that message on the back of the heart squares.  Next time.  So I know I can't heal their aching hearts, but I can show I care and that holding a heart may help a little. I'm linking this to Off The Wall Friday  where you can find other art quilt blogs and Sew and Sow Farm. Please make comments on their posts to let the artists know you stopped by. Thanks for visiting.

Uploading Photos

Since I still can't sew, I've been working on cleaning out files on my hard drive and getting rid of not so great photos of my quilts and uploading better photos of them. I've finally mastered getting good photos of them (I hope). My next blog post will detail some things I've learned and have some links on how to photograph quilts. For me, it was a long learning curve.With the old method of photography I used, I had a terrible time getting clear enough detail on the shots of the whole quilts and the camera just couldn't get a good read on the true colors. Now, I think I have enough detail on the whole quilt shots and the colors are just right without much effort.
     In the meantime, here is a photo of a quilt I made this past Spring and some detail shots of it. This quilt is not at all in my usual style. I made it for a special call for entry. It didn't get accepted to that show, but I'm glad I made it. The idea just popped into my head and I had to keep on working on it madly until it was finished. Usually, I work on pieces very slowly.
      I've named and renamed this quilt. Presently, it is called "Circle of Emotions". It used to be called "Spirit of Emotions".  I thought of "Of Two Minds" and "The Prescience of Mind".  All of them fit, but none speak to me. What about you? Here is the artist statement that goes along with it:

It is amazing how complicating emotions are and that colors can help us identify with those feelings. In this piece I tried to show two opposing sides; the fiery, passionate side with loving feelings and stormy outbursts and the colder, more calculating side where the all-knowing eye sets the gears in motion to analyze with detachment of emotion. I chose to use deeply saturated colors and many silks because of their shimmer, adding to the feelings of passion. I selected a pattern for quilting the background to represent both icicles and teardrops. And in the midst of all this complexity of feeling, the Spirit of Emotions keeps it all in balance.

Circle of Emotions

Detail 1 Female figure and gears

Detail 2 The Eye

I'm linking this to Off The Wall Friday where you can see other art quilt blogs. Please make comments to let them know you visited.