Valentine's Day

Once again, I'm making Valentines and here are some of them.
When I was ten, I had chicken pox which at that time was considered merely a childhood disease that everyone got sooner or later. It was two weeks home from school is what it was. And it was close to Valentine's Day so my mother brought in paper doilies and red construction paper. That is all I remember. I must have made some Valentines because I don't think I could have resisted. It would be fun to have one or two of those 10 year-old made Valentines. Here are some grown-up ones.

The lace on this heart was given to me by a friend. Actually, she gave me her vintage wedding dress to cut up. It was a gorgeous dress with a long train with pleating around the edge. It had about 100 tiny satin buttons and it was a job to cut up. At the same time very interesting to see the construction of such a lovely dress. Some of the lace pieces were glued to other lace pieces. It was not all taking out stitching but pulling and tugging to get the lace apart.

These are kind of simple ones, short and sweet as they say.

The next one is a print on silk of an old Valentine. The reds are kind of muted but it was fun to embellish.

Pink Card Case

A Funny Shaped Card Case

As usual things don't always turn out the way we think they are going to and instead we have something a little more whimsical and sometimes nicer. At some point in the past I was making a clutch handbag. Then, it got stalled, probably because is wasn't a very good one and I cut parts off the main piece of crazyquilting that I had done for the clutch. It became this strange shaped little card case.

The front of the card case is in the photo above.

The back of the card case is in the photo above. Admittedly it is kind of a "goofie" shape.
Below is a detail from the front.

Here is the card case open waiting to receive your credit cards, money and for me my Burt's and Bees lip gloss. I guess a short comb would fit in there.

The Hankie Pillow, of course it's white.

This pillow began with a button that I had decorated with silk ribbon ruffles and some white glass pearls. I had no particular use for it, I just wanted to see what could be done with a button form and some silk ribbon. The button was just lying on my work table and then I started this "hankie pillow" that a very nice lady had asked me to make for her.

So, I began to cut up hankies feeling quilty the whole time for cutting up those beautiful old things. Not that all of each hankie is beautiful, sometimes they are stained and we can use that part and cover the stain.

With the piecing done, I started the fun job of stitching, beading and sewing on buttons. This was an order for all white. So, I tea dyed some silk ribbon and began to see how many shades of white there are, knowing of course that there really is only one shade of white.

As I added roses and ruffles, buttons and beads, things did take shape, but the main focus bouquet lacked a little something. AHA, there was the button I had made. That pretty button now had a use and it knew its purpose in life. And at last the pillow was finished.

Here is the button,

Here is a little color, color is a good thing.