WELCOME!

Welcome to my big quilting adventure! I'm SOOOOOOO glad you could be a part of it! It's finally MY day! Woo-hoo! This is the first time I've been invited to participate in a blog tour/hop as a DESIGNER, so this feels like a bit of history. And golly gee, but aren't I just terribly impressed with myself?!

Seriously, though, as much as I'd just love to think you're only here because you want to visit with ME, I know you're here for: (1) the prizes, (2) the fun, (3) the prizes, (4) the project pattern, (5) the prizes and, maybe somewhere after I list "prizes" a couple more times, . . . (16) me. So let's get on with it, shall we?

There are probably three of you who visit me regularly and have been waiting to see what I've come up with, so I'll end the suspense and show you. Ready?

At this point, if you're not all that impressed with the project, this is where you skip ahead to the comments part and leave one so I can enter you in the drawings for (1) a kit to make the runner, (2) a $50 FAT QUARTER SHOP gift certificate, and (3) a chance to get into the BIG drawing for a $100 FAT QUARTER SHOP gift certificate. Names will be drawn on January 16th and posted shortly thereafter.

Still here? I think I see two of you out there. Ah,you there on the right. You're just waiting for me to turn my back so you can grab the candy on the table, right? Okay, then, take a piece and move along.

Finally! Someone who's interested in making the runner! First of all, click RIGHT HERE to pop over to the PDF of the pattern and print it out. I'm going to give you the Reader's Digest condensed version in photos and a few words below, but you'll need the pattern too. I'll wait right here while you go do that.  [NOTE:  IF YOU ARE UNABLE TO ACCESS THE PATTERN THROUGH SCRIBD, PLEASE EMAIL ME A REQUEST, AND I WILL EMAIL BACK A PDF OF THE PATTERN.  YOU CAN GET MY EMAIL ADDRESS THROUGH MY PROFILE.]

Back and ready? Well, of course, the main focus of the runner is the hearts. So let's concentrate first on making the heart blocks. After you cut your fabric according to the pattern directions, separate out the pieces needed for the hearts--the pink and red strips, the 4-1/2" x 2-1/2" red and pink rectangles, and the twelve 1-1/2" and three 2-1/2" background squares.

Next, using the strips cut from the charm squares, sew pink strips to red strips.

Subcut each pair of strips into 1-1/2" wide pieces--you'll get three from each pair. Each heart block will use eight of those subcut pieces.

Arrange the pieces like a checkerboard, alternating pink and red squares, and sew them into a 16-patch (four squares across by four squares down). For the runner, you'll need to make three of these.

Now let's do something else. Position a 1-1/2" square of background fabric on two corners of each of the pink and red 2-1/2" by 4-1/2" rectangles. Sew the little squares on the diagonal. I took a photo of it to show you what I'm talking about--those pencil lines are where you'd sew. It's always hard to explain, but you can see what I mean, right?

Trim away the underneath excess layers, and press the squares back (see next photo if what I'm saying isn't clear). You'll need to make a total of three red pieces and three pink pieces. Now lay out the pattern pieces like this . . .

. . . with all the top red rectangles on the left and all of the top pink rectangles on the right. You will also (probably) want to have the 16-patch squares all oriented the same way, with either a pink square or a red square at the top and bottom tips. Sew the pieces together. Now you have three heart blocks, right?

Okay, let's skip ahead. In the printed pattern, I talk about how to make half log cabin blocks and some other stuff that's necessary, but photos would probably just make you yawn. And for some reason, I didn't take any. So here we are, on page 3 of the pattern, with all the block parts made. (The half log cabin blocks are the ones at the upper and lower edges of the runner--there's a bunch of blue in them. See?) Now we can put everything where it goes, and it will start looking like a runner. In the pattern, I did not specify the direction of the heart blocks because I thought it might depend on your own taste and where you planned to use the runner. YOU might want all three blocks side by side. I liked mine with tips of the outside heart blocks pointing to each end of the runner. There is no WRONG WAY, okay?

In the printed pattern, I also don't really mention the background pieces at both pointed ends of the runner. When I made mine, I attached those pieces to the two heart blocks along the bottom sides right away, but in hindsight, I thought it would be best to leave them loose at this stage to be sewn into rows. Take a look at the drawn illustration on page three, and I think you can see what I mean with that arrow near the right margin indicating what constitutes a "row." Can you see the rows? There are five of them. Sew the pieces together in rows and then sew the five rows together. Clear as mud? Let's move on then.

This, below, is what your runner should look like before adding the outside border.

See the blue sections at the pointed ends of the inner border on each side? I wanted to point those out so that when you get to them in the pattern, you'll know what part I'm talking about.

After getting this far, you just need to add the scrappy outside border and maybe--but only if you want--the appliqued arrow for the center heart (refer to photo for placement). After that, just quilt and bind the runner. Easy, right? Mais oui!

If you haven't stopped by to visit with me before, I hope you'll come back again and visit. We have some fun here--at least I think so!

Now, two more things: Remember to join the Flickr pool and post your Be Mine projects there (you can click into the pool from my sidebar) and leave a comment on this post in order to be entered into the prize drawing. Thanks for stopping by!

[JANUARY 16, NOON-ISH--UPDATE: Comments closed; winners being drawn and will be posted. Good Luck!]