Valentine's Day Strippy Improv Heart Pillows

Happy Valentine's Day! 

I used my most recent fabric from the Benartex Brand Ambassador program and my Strippy Improv Hearts pattern to create these throw pillows. 

 First, let's admire the fabrics. These prints are from Benartex's Watercolor Geometry collection. I love the palette, the shading, the shapes. These were so much fun to play with!

I picked out the red, pink and purple prints, and added in a few tonals from the New Hue basics collection to round things out. That heart just yells "valentine," doesn't it?!

And this version has a little more purple in it. Still valentine-y, but less traditional.

I chose dark backgrounds for both pillows so that the jewel-toned hearts would pop. 

You can make these heart pillows - or a heart baby quilt or lap quilt - using my Strippy Improv Hearts pattern, available here.

Hope your Valentine's Day is filled with delicious chocolate and beautiful fabric! 

Looking for more Valentine inspiration? Check out my Heart Projects Round-Up here.

Heart Projects Round-Up

It's hearts and chocolate season! Valentine's Day is coming and you still have time to sew a heart-themed project! I've collected my favorites to share with you - most are tutorials available on my blog; a couple are patterns to purchase. Enjoy and Happy Valentine's Day!

Puzzle Heart Mini Quilt
This no-sew heart is made using HeatnBond fusible applique and random rotary cuts. 

XOXO Quilt Tutorial

Two each blocks for a fabric version of the classic XOXO make up a fun wall hanging. I used Christa Watson's Gridwork collection.

Hearts Aplenty Mini Quilt

I used an existing heart block pattern and a variety of Valentine colored solids to make this modern mini quilt. 

Confetti Hearts

These mini quilts bring the idea of tiny fabric scraps to a whole new level! I originally created this tutorial for PBS Fabrics.

Flip Flop Heart Mini Quilt

Pick your favorite prints plus a contrasting solid to make these easy applique quilt. I originally designed this tutorial for PBS Fabrics. 

Valentine Tic Tac Toe Board

This is still a favorite of mine--a fabric tic tac toe board with Xs, Os and hearts.

Plus two quilt patterns:

Strippy Improv Hearts

This quilt pattern includes the lap-size quilt you see here, plus instructions to make a baby quilt and a throw pillow.

It's a Swirl - Chocolate Version

After I designed my It's a Swirl quilt, I saw some chocolate fabrics and realized how much these swirls looked like a box of fancy chocolates! These instructions are included in the pattern. The version shown below uses Benartex's Chocolicious collection.

If you're new here, welcome! I hope you'll stay and look around a bit. 

If you like what you've seen here, you can also find me:

To find all of my quilt patterns, visit my Etsy shop. 

Find me on IG here.

Sign up for my newsletter in the right-hand sidebar or here. 

(You'll receive a free pattern for my Diamond Drama quilt (below) as a thank you!)

Benartex Ambassador Tote Challenge

How is it almost February? We moved at the end of December into early January, and the month pretty much disappeared! With all the packing and unpacking, I have done very little sewing lately, but our first Benartex Brand Ambassador challenge came up, and I needed to dig out my machine. 

We were each asked to make a tote bag inspired by/with a nod to the Benartex logo. I opted to create X blocks - not quite as fancy as the X in the logo, but graphic and fun. 

For fabric, I received this fun box of Marbleized prints -an entire rainbow's worth - to play with. 

I knew I wanted black for the background so the Xs would pop. 

I decided to use two shades of a color for each X to add a little interest. I started pairing colors up and couldn't narrow it down, so I ended up making eight X blocks - four for each side! Here are some of my blocks in progress:

And here's the finished tote bag.

 Special thanks to Mom, who was here and pressed and trimmed units as I stitched them! 

Side 1:

Side 2:

Which side do you prefer? I started with the purple, orange, blue and lime on side 1, and I think that's my favorite. 

I have created another quilt with Marbleized fabrics - this Follow the Rainbow BOM. It looks pretty nice next to the tote bag, doesn't it?! (The rack they're both hanging on was a recent purchase for our new house - there's not a coat closet at the back door, and with 3 boys and Michigan winters, we needed someplace to hang everything.)