Happy Valentine's Day!

I hope you're all having a lovely V-Day. The BF and I are hanging at home, trying to shake these colds. I have to be healthy before Quiltcon this week!

I finished up a swap last week to celebrate Love Day and it was so much fun! It was a pretty small group where we were assigned partners and worked out all the details ourselves. Sandi at Crafty Planner and I had each other. I had to be a little more careful than usual to keep some details hidden since she knew what I was making would be coming to her.

I had been really inspired by Jenn Rossotti's Ephemera Quilt and wanted to try my hand at something similar. There was no way I was sewing all those curves though so bias tape it was. Krista Fleck's January challenge for the Mighty Lucky Quilting Club definitely came in handy.

Sandi had said that Valentine's was her favorite holiday so I wanted to make something super valentiney for her. Pink and purple all the way - mostly purple since that's her favorite color. I had fun picking out fabrics from my stash to use for this.

Once the tape was all glued in place, I was ready to quilt. I considered straight lines but my friends talked me out of it. Who am I kidding, I much prefer FMQ. I had to sew down the bias as I went and used the clamshell shapes to make some fun designs. I think the back looks pretty cool too.

I made this into a pillow so she will be able to choose if she wants a mini or a pillow. I used a metal zip and included a flap to cover it. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I added some fun extras - purple clips, a purple garbage can thread catcher, candy (of course), some zippers she wanted with cute pulls that I made, and a cute little decoration for her sewing area.

I did learn a few things along the way that I will use for next time - I'm planning on making something similar for the Rainbow Mini quilt swap coming up in the next few weeks. First, it worked much better for me to stick wonder tape to the background and then bend my bias tape the way I wanted it, rather than the other way around. Heat setting it helped as well. Second, my aim at FMQ is not so amazing. I'll be sewing each strip down with a regular foot next time to give a nice, even line. I also got a great tip from my friend Rachel at 2nd Ave Studio to color some of the thread with a sharpie so wobbly lines didn't stick out so much. Worked like a charm!