Patchwork Rustic Valentine Love Heart Collection For The 100th Handmade Monday!

Wow, i can't believe there have been 100 Handmade Mondays!! I joined in at 62 and have done every week since. It is the most fantastic linky party, a real little community of friendly crafters who offer me invaluable support and advice with my work, and never cease to amaze and inspire me with their own!

Thank you, thank you, thank you to each and every person who has popped by my weekly Sunday night crafty update and an enormous thank you to the wonderful Wendy of Handmade Harbour (and of course 1st Unique Gifts) for finding the time in your busy life to organise Handmade Monday each week and visit all the participating blogs - i for one am hugely grateful for your encouragement and support :) xxx

Patchwork Valentine Collection

Today i have some more love inspired creations to share with you, this time with a rustic, 'cottage chic' style, which i think is super romantic :)

I started out by making a large-ish piece of patchwork using a wide variety of natural fabrics, mainly linens but also some cottons and also some scraps of lace. The colour pallet moves from ivory white, through antiquey creams, rustic 'tea stain' and bark tones, to splashes of deep red for contrast (and a touch of romantic passion!).

I didn't take any photographs of of my patchwork... but i can show you what i made from it!

Linen LOVE Banner

Each of the flags is backed with cream linen and the little red hearts hanging alongside them on the natural pure wool string are linen too. The applique lettering has a frayed outline to compliment the rustic style.

I have to say i'm completely in love with it and am very tempted to make something similar for myself :) I would have it up all year round though, not just for Valentine's Day!

It is priced £18 and available from all my online outlets - here's an Etsy link: Love Banner

Personalised Patchwork Lavender Hearts

These hearts are quite large (13x15.5cms) and filled with a mixture of pure wool and deliciously aromatic dried lavender. Each design has its own special embellishments and is completely unique. This one has a handmade red linen rose...

...and this one includes a patch of linen which i have decorated by hand with a repeat pattern of the word love, in white fabric paint.

Each of the hearts has a red linen back, with a heart shaped panel in cream linen which can be personalised with names, dates or a short message.

I'm thinking these would work well as gifts on other romantic occasions too, such as weddings and anniversaries, or even Mother's Day for a Mum who likes pretty romantic things :)

These are also available in my usual online outlets priced £12.50. Here are the Etsy links: Rose Lavender Heart, Love Lavender Heart.

Little Lavender Hearts

These little hearts would be lovely gifts for any occasion i think, even as a pressie to yourself for no occasion at all!

This one is £7.00, available here: Linen Lavender Heart

This one is £6.50, available here: Linen Lavender Heart

More To Come...

There are a couple more pieces in this collection but i'm not going to show you them quite yet as they are being photographed by someone a lot more gifted at camera wielding than me! I can't wait to see her pictures and share them with you too :)

In Other News... Snow

Hands up who else has had some of this stuff?!!

Isn't it funny how sheep turn from white to a dirty brown against its icy brilliance...

Our dogs think that their garden has been swapped for some other strange place... :)

See you next time! (and don't forget to drop by Handmade Harbour for lots of other super crafting :))

Stay warm... xxx

Christmas Hanging Hearts For Handmade Monday

A HEARTy hello handmade Mondayers! (Did you see what i did there :)) Yes, my most favourite symbol/theme has taken over this week and love has been pouring forth in Christmas decoration form (or potentially veeeeeeeeeery early valentine's!)

Set Of Five Rustic Christmas Hearts

These cute little hearts come as a set of five (priced £12.50) although as you can see from the picture at the top of this post i've been busy making a whole crowd of them!

I've used a variety of fabrics in a red and beige earthy tones including linen, velvet and thick cotton upholstery fabric. I love the contrasting textures and think it adds 'rustic charm' :)

Peace, Love, Joy Hanging Hearts

Next is this set of three love, peace, joy hanging hearts (priced £15). They are made from gorgeous thick linen and the colour palette is deep red and plum/aubergine with beige/cream highlights - nice and rich and warming like Christmas pudding with cream on top! (only without the calories :)).

I've gone for a rustic 'cottage charm' look with these too - lots of frayed edges and wavy stitching. I think there is something very cosy about a frayed edge! The writing is fabric paint (heat applied). I could have embroidered it but i do like to get my paintbrush out :) I'm itching to do some more ambitious projects with fabric paint when time will allow.

Personalised Christmas Keepsake Heart

I've gone for pretty pastels for my final (for this week!) heart decoration. I'm completely in love with the flannel fabric i've used which is unbelievably soft to touch. The colours are so pretty too and i just had to add the super girlie pink gingham ribbon as the hanging loop along with the felt heart and pink bow detailing.

This personalised heart decoration (priced £7.50) can be customised with any name or short message. As the colours aren't obviously Christmassy i think it would make a lovely keepsake to hang up all year round - a great stocking filler too!

In Other News

Free Moo Business Cards

If you're a regular visitor to my handmade monday posts you may remember me showing you the moo mini cards i recently got for free (except for p&p). I promised to try and hunt out the link i'd followed to get the free cards but i never could track it down! However, this week i came across another link to get some free cards from moo (the regular sized ones this time). It is only for Etsy sellers (and will have an Etsy logo added) but still a fab offer - i've had moo cards like this before via Etsy and they are fantastic! So, here is the link x

Handmade Monday

Hands up who is in the mood to read about some super inspiring crafting? (my hand is up btw :)) why not join me in popping over to Handmade Harbour for Wendy's Handmade Monday linky party, its always lots of fun!

p.s Thank you very much to all the Handmade Monday readers who took the time to leave lovely comments on my last HM post, they are very much appreciated :) x

Hanging Hearts For Handmade Monday

Strawberry Jam

Happy Handmade Monday everyone! I got some lovely comments on my last HM post regarding my 'about me' picture and some useful ideas on what makes a good one (thank you all who took the time to share your thoughts!) I haven't quite finished working on my new website design yet, but i will let you know when its live so you can pop over and see how things turned out!


You may remember, that i also reported the discovery of a gorgeous stamp set last week... want to know what i've been doing with it?

Fist stop, labels for yummy home made strawberry jam. I used acrylic paint instead of a proper ink pad (because the ink pad was blue, and i wanted red) so things got a bit smudgy, but i think that just contributes the the 'home made' look!

Using Stamps With Fabric Paint

Using the acrylic paint for the jam labels gave me the idea of experimenting with fabric paint. I've had a pot lying around for a while (pink of course!) so i had a go with using it to stamp letters on some scraps of white cotton (it is organic, and quite thick, almost canvasy - i love working with it). Anyway, i liked the results, so sealed it with an iron, and made this little angel for my Mum's birthday (she liked it :))

Hanging Hearts With Key/Ring Pocket

I quite like the smudginess, i think it adds character and a rustic appeal! I felt it would go well with denim, so my next make was this little hanging heart.

It is stuffed with wool, so has a nice tactile 'squeezablity' :)  I thought that the pocket would make a good place to keep a ring or a little key for a diary or suitcase.

Here's one just using the white cotton with the stamped fabric.

Home Love Hanging Heart Decorations

I got on a bit of a roll these cute little hearts and started making some with some samples of gorgeous country style fabric i had (and yearn for more of!) and applique words that i hand painted with the fabric paint.

"Love Makes A Home"

These ones don't have their stuffing yet, but they should do by the end of today!

Hopefully i'll find the time to get them listed for sale this week (they will be £6). It's been great to get back to some crafting after last week's stint of laborious re-organisation :)

Off to Handmade Harbour now to find out what everyone else has been up too!