Mourning Heart for Hideko

My friend Hideko, with whom I was a fellow moderator of the Crazy Quilting International Yahoo group for several years, lives in Sendai. Needless to say, the devastation and loss incurred by the events of March 11 of this year have caused so much pain and suffering among all our Japanese friends.

Hideko herself began stitching a mourning quilt.  Her center panel depicts the coastline in and around the Miyagi Prefecture with sites of particular note marked (tsunami damage, the nuclear power plant, etc.).  One of our friends, Margreet, got a great idea to send Hideko a Mourning Heart. It was a six-inch heart on an 8” square of black fabric, modestly decorated in the blacks, grays and silver of mourning.  Many ladies have followed suit, and Hideko plans to piece the mourning hearts around her central panel and make a memorial mourning quilt/wall hanging.

This is the mourning heart that I completed this afternoon.

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As I was stitching the silver butterfly charm on, it reminded me of a tip that I would like to share with you. Many times I see charms sewn onto crazy quilts, and the hanging loop is still visible. Charms come either with or without the loop, and are often made both ways to allow for the end user to decide which style best fits their purpose. For example, you would need a hanging loop if you are making earrings.

Before

Crazy quilters and art quilters use the loops (if they are there) to stitch the charm to the block.  But an extraneous loop does not add to the design. What to do? Try attaching your charm with a thread color that matches the background fabric. Just a few extra stitches will wrap the loop and make it virtually disappear.

After

It’s not a perfect solution, but it’s pretty darn good.  Did you notice the missing ring in the original picture of the entire mourning heart?  I bet your eye just passed it by......    :-)

Have a wonderful weekend ...  I am starting mine off early Friday morning by visiting an estate sale here in town.  Methinks I’m about due for a Find.

Hugs,