New Project: Carole's Heart

One of the highlights of my time at the Victorian Stitchery Retreat in Wichita last fall was spending time with Carole Samples.  Most crazy quilters are familiar with her book, Treasury of Crazy Quilt Stitches, one of the "bibles" of our craft. Far fewer of us have had the privilege of hearing her lecture, taking a class from her, or just hanging out enjoying her delightful conversation.  I felt so lucky!

My friend Val Bothell, organizer of the retreat, and I were inspired by her block designs in a challenge we issued to each other: let's see how original our individual "takes" on working up the same block can be!  Crazy quilting obviously has room for many, many interpretations....You can fview Val's take on Carole's heart on her blog here.

As always, I LOVE pulling fabrics at the beginning of a new piecing project.

I decided I couldn't do just one heart, you see, so have had a blast over the last week making several of them:

They all will finish out at about 14" X 14 1/2".
I still very much have plaid on the brain. There are the blue ones...

....and the green ones....

...and the brown ones...

...and one white one.

Altogether up on the design wall they look like this:

I definitely scratched my piecing itch this week...now for the fun of embellishment!