Sunday, February 14, 2016

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day!    I hope you are all enjoying the day.  We're waiting for snow today.  The weather forecasters have promised us 2-4 inches by tomorrow morning.  We haven't had much snow this winter, so I'm kind of looking forward to this one.

I love this photo.   It was taken at my husband's family farm.  I've had the top made for a couple of years.  This year I bought the backing fabric.  I just bought batting the other day, so maybe by next Valentine's Day I can show you a photo of the finished and bound quilt.



The quilt is made from string blocks.  You can see my string block tutorial here.  


Here is the pattern drawn up in Electric Quilt.  If you don't care to make string blocks, you could just as easily use squares and half square triangles.  In that case you would need:
6 red squares
2 white squares
40 half square triangles (half red-half white)

My blocks measure 8 inches, but you could make it any size.  



Here is a smaller version using 3 inch (finished) blocks.  This is a table topper size and finishes at about 18 inches.  You can find my tutorial on how I made this table topper in my blog post here.  




Here is a close up of one of the string blocks.  I quilted this after watching Leah Day's Heart Paisley video.


Here is the same table mat using 3 1/2" unfinished squares and half square triangles.
For this you will need:
6 red squares
2 neutral squares
28 half square triangles

You can find more detail about this version of my table topper in my blog post here.



Here is the pattern for the table mat drawn in Electric Quilt.



I haven't posted here for awhile.  Whenever I land on a blog that goes into too much medical detail, I usually click and am gone pretty quickly.  So I'll make it quick.  I've had a flare up of Bruxism.  That is just a fancy word saying that I grind my teeth in my sleep.  I'm not sure what causes it, but the dentist says it's due to tension.  This isn't life threatening, but it's kind of painful.  For the past 2 weeks or so my head has ached like it has been squeezed in a vice, my jaws ache and feel like they're on fire, and my ears ache.  I've cracked a couple of teeth, but nothing that needs to be repaired just yet.   So.......I have a splint (it's kind of a mouth guard) that I wear at night, and it's helping.    I had the same problems years ago and thought that was the end of it.  But, I guess once you are a grinder, you're always a grinder.  As he put it, you are going to have to wear that every night as long as you're here.   I'm going to have a new mouth guard made so I've got a few more dentist visits ahead of me.  So what have I been doing for stress relief?  Sewing, what else?  I  am working my way through some of my UFOs and have several things to show you in my next few posts.

Another reason I haven't posted is that I have a new laptop.  I love it, and it's great.  But, it's taken me awhile to get used to where everything is.   With the help of my engineer husband, I think I have finally figured out where my photos go when I put the SD card into the slot on the side of the computer so I can hopefully post more often.

Thanks for stopping by for a visit.

I hope you are finding some time to stitch today.

Happy Valentine's Day!

16 comments:

  1. I am glad you are feeling slightly better, and honestly , I appreciate when someone just says what is going on, we should all support each other as much as we can in this world so I hope you will feel much better soon. I love your work, it is just lovely and thank you for providing the diagram for the heart quilt from a larger size down to a small size. God bless and Happy Sewing. Iowa, my favorite cousin is in Indiana so I have been there numerous times and have great memories from there.

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  2. What a great collection of heart quilts. The largest one looks like it was shaded with colored pencils, or something. Really like the effect of the strings.
    From one grinder to another, I feel your pain. Have been doing physical therapy for my jaw for several months now, trying to alleviate some of the pain and problems. I hope you have success!

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  3. Oh, yeah, I can sympathize with you. I don't grind my teeth (my father's teeth grinding was awful!!), but I do grit my teeth at night. I also have to wear a night guard because I'm wearing down the front of the bottom teeth and the back of my top teeth. I too sometimes have headaches/jaw aches after a very "strenuous" sleep.

    Hope you're better soon!!

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  4. Welcome back LuAnn. So happy to hear from you again. I've missed you. Even if I don't comment every time, I do read your blog at every posting. Beautiful heart quilts collection. It is sometime I do NOT have in my 30-something quilts made, a red and white quilt. Seriously. I'll have to remedy to that soon. And I too suffer of Bruxism, since my teenage! It comes and goes over the years, months, whatever. I hope that whatever is causing the tension, leaves you alone real soon. Enjoy the new laptop! ;^)

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  5. Just live the heart quilts. I am wondering how I can accumulate enough red strips to be able to make a big one. Thank you for sharing all the photos and ideas. I appreciate your blog.

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  6. 2 beautiful heart quilts.
    The larger one is amazing with those countless strips of red fabrics!
    I hope you are able to figure out that laptop quickly and will also be able to get over that Bruxism.
    Looking forward to seeing what other UFO treasures you reveal.

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  7. Such cute heart quilts especially the one from strings.
    I am a grinder and have had TMJ for years. Can’t do without my night guard.

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  8. Happy Valentines Day. Your lively quilt is going to so warm and cheery once complete. Thanks for posting.

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  9. As one who LOVES making string blocks, what a great way to release stress! I am putting making one of those heart quilts at the top of my to do list. Thank you SO MUCH for posting it.
    Sorry to hear about the jaw problem!!

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  10. LuAnn I love your picture of your heart quilt on the silo:) I have thought about taking a picture with a quilt and using our silo as a backdrop, but never have, now I know it will look great! Your such a giving person, so sweet to share with others so often, bless you for that. Sorry to hear about your teeth grinding, but also glad to hear you know what's going on and sounds like a relatively easy fix for your symptoms. Best of luck to you and hopeful for much relief for you too.

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  11. Your heart quilts are so nice!! Sorry to hear you've been 'under the weather' but hopefully this night guard will take care of your problem! This seems to be a year of finishing UFOs for several of us - me included. Sewing always helps with stress so keep stitching when you feel like it! your blog is always inspiring to me!

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  12. Inspired use of the strings in the hearts, delightful!
    So there's an ism for the teeth grinding! Who knew! Sorry it's been painful - I have found I do it occasionally too,
    tho through the day at odd times. Hmm tension eh? Clearly I need more gin intake and more stitching for therapy!
    Fingers crossed it eases off for you

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  13. I love all your hearts and suggestions for different ways to make them. My red scrap pile is enormous, so I may have to try one of these..

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  14. I have been missing your Blog and was thinking I needed to email you and make sure you were OK. Not a fun thing to have to wear at night.
    I love all of your string projects and think you have a new header - love the read. I am getting tired of my "green" maybe I will take a break and change it later on.

    Stress - it is amazing what it will do to a body and mind. Heck, I figured in retirement there would be no stress - but.....

    Hang in there and look forward to your next posting. Thank you for all the informative links and tutorials!

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  15. Well, talk about technology and fingers! I meant RED not read! Time to go in the house and do more applique in the recliner! Happy Tuesday!

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  16. great header and heart quilt - Happy Valentines Day - belated.

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