Heart Mini Quilt


heartquilt

What a fun project this little quilt was!  When I realized I’d gone a little crazy cutting pink squares for my Scrappy Swoon Quilt, I decided to use them right away instead of tossing them in the scrap bin.  With Valentine’s Day approaching, a heart came to mind and I had just enough squares to put it together.  I decided to use grays for the background squares.

crosshatchquilting

Once it was pieced and basted, I quilted it in straight lines on both diagonals.   Simple and cheery, it’s adding a bit of festivity to our wall.

heartquiltback

I backed the quilt in an old Anna Griffin ticking stripe print I had on hand, and the binding is a Flower Sugar print from Lecien.

A few quick stats on making one if you’re interested:

fabric needed:  48 – 3.5 inch squares various pink or red fabrics for the heart, 9 – 3 7/8 inch squares of both pink AND gray fabrics, and 34 – 3.5 inch squares of various gray prints for the background.

Pair each 3 7/8 inch pink square with a 3 7/8 inch gray square and make 18 half square triangles using a scant 1/4 inch seam allowance.

Lay your squares out as follows, from left to right :

Top row:  10 gray squares 2nd row: 1 gray, 1 half square triangle block, 1 pink, 1 HST block, 2 gray squares, 1 HST square, 1 pink, 1 HST, 1 gray 3rd row:  1 HST, 3 pink, 2 HST sqaures, 3 pink, 1 HST 4th row:  10 pink squares 5th row:  10 pink squares 6th row:  1 HST, 8 pink squares, 1 HST 7th row:  1 gray, 1 HST, 6 pink, 1 HST, 1 gray 8th row:  2 gray, 1 HST, 4 pink, 1 HST, 2 gray 9th row:  3 gray, 1 HST, 2 pink, 1 HST, 3 gray 10th row:  4 gray, 2 HST, 4 gray Sew each row together (1/4 inch seam allowance, of course).

heartquiltstrips

Sew strips together to complete quilt top:

heartquilttop

The quilt top should measure 30 inches square.  Choose a backing, then quilt and bind according to your taste.  Done!

heartquilt2

With all the projects I’m in the middle of right now, it was a pleasure to put together a quick little project just for fun.  It’s also my first finished quilt of 2013.  It will keep a smile on my face this month when I walk past it, and that’s no small thing on gloomy February days!

Thanks for visiting, Jennifer

Cupid’s Arrow Game – Valentines Day Party Game

Looking for ideas for your Valentines Day class party games?  We played the BEST game at my daughter’s 2nd grade Valentines Day Party, and I just have to share it.  It’s simple, easy to prep, inexpensive, easy to clean up and lots of fun for both girls and boys.

It’s called Cupid’s Arrow and here’s what you need:

q-tips and straws for cupid's arrow valentines day party game

Q-tips and straws.  I went to my local dollar store and found q-tips in different colors.  Score!  We used two boxes, or 800 q-tips for our class (I took twice that many with me, you never know how fast they will shoot their q-tips!).  You also need straws, but I found that all the straws for sale at local stores, including the adorable paper straws we all love, were too narrow to fit q-tips inside them.  I ended up going to a local fast food chain and buying some milkshake straws for a quarter.

You also need a large bowl and a large blanket or tablecloth that you don’t mind having kids walk on,  because they will.  Oh, and I recommend a trash bag as well.  I’ve learned that taking an extra trash bag to any class party is always helpful, just like bringing your own dish towels to any church kitchen.

bowl and blanket for cupids arrow valentines day party game

To play the game, simply lay the blanket out on the floor and place the bowl on one end.  You may need to move desks to make room, or even use the hallway if needed.  Line the children up on the other end and give them all a straw and a fistful of q-tips.

kids playing cupid's arrow game

When you say “go” they start putting q-tips into one end of the straw and blowing through the straw to “shoot” their arrow.  The goal is to get q-tips into the bowl.  We had two teams, represented by the two q-tip colors.  Stand back and let them shoot.  Seriously, you will end up with q-tips all over the place but they will have fun learning how to aim and get them in.  I found that the girls enjoyed this activity as much as the boys did.




The blanket on the floor is intended to help the kids stay back an equal distance from the bowl.  I found that their excitement caused them to get closer and closer.  I let them.  The point is to have fun, after all.  We didn’t end up counting which team won at the end anyway, because they just wanted to shoot the whole time.  At the end of each rotation we collected the q-tips from around the floor and dumped them in the bowl, which I dumped in the trash.


Sometimes planning activities for classroom parties feels intimidating or overwhelming.  Playing Cupid’s Arrow reminded me that Valentines Day party games can a lot of fun without being expensive or over-planned.

Before they went to the next station, we also did a quick Jello Slurping contest.  They kept their straws, sat on my blanket (to protect the classroom carpet), got a cup of jello and waited for “go”.  It was fun to watch them.


My daughter and her cute friend…they make me smile.


Cupid’s Arrow was a really fun Valentines Day party game!  I wanted to play it later as a family but the night was just too crazy.  Instead, we’re going to have a q-tip war sometime soon.  I can just picture it:  ten people blowing hundreds of q-tips around my family room.  It’s going to be great!

Hopeful Homemaker

The day of hearts…

Forgive me for borrowing a line from the very first OLD Star Wars movie, but it’s what comes to mind as I prepare this post.  Do you remember when Luke was trying to convince Han Solo that they needed to rescue princess Leia?  He promises Solo that if they rescue her, there will be a reward.  This gets Han’s attention and he asks about the reward, to which Luke (who is not nearly as world-wise as Solo is) says, “More than you can imagine.”  And here’s the line that runs through my head.  Solo says, “I can imagine a LOT.”

When it comes to planning many things, I have Han Solo’s problem.  I can imagine a lot.

What actually happens NEVER COMES CLOSE to what I can imagine.  This has always been frustrating to me, but I’ve learned over the years to handle it better, reminding myself that I’m usually the only one who is disappointed.  After all, no one else lives inside my head and sees the things I can dream up.  I remind myself that whatever actually gets done is usually just fine.  And then I move on and start imagining something else.

With that thought in mind, here’s what I managed to pull off on Valentine’s Day.   It was a crazy day, with a few hours spent at the school and a few hours of after school driving to do, but it worked.  It turned out to be a fun day, and my family seemed happy, which is really all I wanted.


cookie dough…


valentines for the kids…


Valentine dinner table complete with Pop Shoppe bottles and red striped straws…


vintage trophy shaped sugar bowls with little candy…


huge heart-shaped English toffee with pistachios for my husband…


Valentine table with balloons…


these sugar bowls make my heart happy…


experimenting with ombre in arranging balloons…


My favorite Marghab pattern, the Jacaranda tree, in pink on a napkin from Vera Marghab’s collection…


I always love the Valentine’s day m&m’s colors…


vintage pink basket with large glitter hearts…


And then the day was over.  I cooked ribs for dinner, one of our favorites.  It was a wonderful, busy, messy, sugar-filled day.  My list is tucked away for next year so I can review my ideas and go from there.  In all, it turned out great.  What I did was far enough out of our daily routine that my children felt like it was a special night.

Life is good, isn’t it?

HH

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