HUGS AND KISSES BLOG HOP

Hello SWEETHEARTS!  HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!

Are you ready to be smothered in sugar HUGS AND KISSES?  I hope so.  I've got a couple of things to show you.  This blog hop is all about paper piecing hearts and x's and o's!  I really enjoy paper piecing.  I LOVE the perfection it brings to a block or project.  It' really is very easy.  I hope you FALL IN LOVE with it and give it a try.

Madamme Samm, our fearless leader at Sew We Quilt, who is also our SWEETHEART of a cheerleader for this hop, has teamed up with Soma, at Whims and Fancies a SWEETHEART of a creative paper piecing lady to bring us the pattern we were to use.  You're going to want the pattern for yourself.  You can get it here at Etsy  or here at Craftsy. ( all proceeds will be going to 2 charities they are pretty passionate about). 

I designed this quilt pattern myself.  I'm calling it "FLIRT".  I thought the paper piecing took on a modern feel so I wanted the blocks to go with it to be larger, more chunky.  It was a little out of my box HEART.  The long rectangular blocks are 12" x 24" finished.  My original design was to be a twin sized quilt.  You know how I am about bed size quilts.  But when I laid it out on my design wall floor, I didn't like it.  So then I took away a few blocks and it was lap size.  I still didn't like it so now it's wall hanging size 48" x 60".  And now I LOVE it!

I played with my embroidery machine and finally figured out how to turn a design in the hoop to make it stitch out larger.  The embroidery made a LOVELY addition to the blocks.

And the paper pieced blocks.  I made 2 of each, swapping the focus fabric for the background in each of the 3 block patterns.

 KISSES......

HUGS.....

HEARTS.....

I quilted it with a whimsical heart pattern in a Glide thread called Magic Mint to soften it up a bit.

But since I had all those extra blocks, 3 went into the backing.

I quilted my label in the back with my longarm and this time I got it right.  The first time I stitched the label in the back of my son's quilt, I forgot to flip the design and you had to read it with a mirror.  My son thought it was neat.  It was a label in code!

And the other 2 went into a pillow case.

Now that LOVE was in the air, I made this little wall hanging/table topper.  I was scheduled to teach an applique class to my quilt group, Texas Star Quilters and this was the perfect project.  Didn't it turn out SWEET?  I also used the pattern to teach the applique class I did at Nine Patch Quilts in Nevada, Missouri.  Can you tell I LOVE that whimsical heart quilting pattern and the magic mint thread? I used it on this CUTIE PIE too.  

I hope you have fell in LOVE with all these projects and want to create something for yourself.  Be sure to hop on over and give the other ladies a HUG and a KISS!  Here are the other SWEETHEARTS for today.

Lady Soma

Whims and Fancies

Lady Laura Ann

fuzzyhatquilter

Lady Doris (you're in the Queen's Palace now)

Quilting Queen Online

Lady Rexie

Crow Calling Woman

Lady Shari

refreshedintent

Lady Cherry

cherry blossoms quilting studio

And many thanks to our sponsors

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Now that you've made it all the way to the end of this post, YOU deserve a reward.  I'm giving away a charm pack and a candy pack in the Moda Valentine fabric line.  Just leave me a comment and tell me if you LOVE chocolate or could really live without it.  I personally can live without it.  It's really kinda funny.  I LOVE chocolate cake and some chocolate brownies but hate chocolate candy bars, hot cocoa, chocolate ice cream, chocolate pudding.... you get the idea.  I really just don't care for chocolate too much.  As usual, you get additional chances if you follow my blog, like my FaceBook page, or share.  I'll ship anywhere and make sure you're not a "no reply" blogger.  I can't contact you if I don't know who you are.  I'll announce the winner after the hop is over.

And remember....