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Needlearts

Sheepy Hearts for Valentine’s Day

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Happy Valentine's Day
Happy Valentine’s Day

Happy Valentine’s Day! We love you, our faithful blog readers and friends.

Today also kicks off Random Acts of Kindness Week. What a wonderful overlap with Valentine’s Day.

During this week, we are encouraged to make kindness a priority. We probably don’t need a special week for this (hopefully it is something we can keep in mind all 52 weeks of the year). Nevertheless, even though everyone wants to help others, it’s easy to get caught up in our own activities and responsibilities (I know it is for me).

So, this week, I am going to take this special opportunity to reinforce my commitment to perform a not so random act of kindness each day. Need ideas? Check out this site: http://www.randomactsofkindness.org

p.s. The little heart pillows are sachets I needlepointed in Persian wool. My Sheepy friend is a Dora Designs doorstop I purchased at the Charles M. Russell Museum in Great Falls, MT last summer. And that is why this is called “Sheepy Hearts”. 🙂 Actually, I’ve never used Sheepy as a doorstop. She is just too cuddly to be relegated to a mundane job like that.

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Friends of HeartStrings Gallery

Carolyn’s Hearts Quilt

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For the blog category “Friends of HeartStrings Gallery”, I’d planned to set aside one day each week to feature someone else’s creative talents. You might have noticed that over the last few weeks. (See “Joy Cyr’s Beaded Winter Wonderland Socks“, “Layering against the cold”, and “Priceless because they just grow up too fast”.) My original intent was that it would be someone who had used a HeartStrings pattern as inspiration or a jumping off place in their own creations. This week’s talent deviates from that a bit, but still deserves a “heart” place in the HeartStrings Gallery. This week I proudly present my sister Carolyn and the Hearts Quilt which she made from her original design.

I have two sisters and they both are the best in the world. You might remember last week that we were getting together. (See “A small(-er) family reunion“.) We had such a good time, but as always, much too short. My sister Carolyn brought a quilt to show us. She had recently made and entered into a prestigious competition. You know how I love hearts, anyway. But this quilt is even more special than just that, because I am so proud of my sister for making it her original design. And she got a blue-ribbon in the competition, too!

The blue-ribbon-winner original quilt design by Carolyn Bailey
The blue-ribbon-winner original quilt design by Carolyn Bailey

Here were some quick, candid photo shots I took of Carolyn holding her quilt. She told us how surprised she was that her quilt earned the first place blue ribbon, as there was fierce competition with more elaborately designed quilts. I expect that the simplicity and superb execution of Carolyn’s work had won the judges’ hearts. 🙂

As always, photographs don’t really do it justice, and obviously the informal setting did not contribute very good lighting either. But I think that you can get a sense of appreciation for it if you know anything about quilting. And even if you don’t, I think it will win your heart, too.

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