Happy All Things Love Day!
I hope you have have a day full of love, laughter, friendship, crafts & quilts!
Lots of love, my friends!
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p.s. TTMT is on it’s way. 😉
Paper Pieced Valentine, 2009
In a couple of weeks, Cupid will descend, and pink and red hearts will be exploding from every direction. That can only mean one thing… Valentine’s Day!
What better way to share a little love than with a hand made Valentine? My all-time favorite is still paper piecing tiny hearts to attach to blank note cards.
The original card tutorial is here.
Of course, I can’t make a suggestion like that without sharing my free heart and love patterns! I even have a broken heart if you need to get a different message across. Ehem.
 Linus Heart |
 Scrappy Heart |
 Scrappy Heart II |
 Patchy Heart |
 Less Than Three |
 Bee-Treat |
 ASL I Love You |
 Broken Heart |
Not into paper piecing? You can do the same thing with simple appliqué, card stock and a few buttons!
Still not your thing? Don’t risk your love with the gamble chocolates that come in the big red hearts…try a homemade sweet treat! These are some of my favorites.
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 Autumn Apple Cookies |
 Saucepan Cookies |
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 Chocolate Chocolate Marshmallow Cookies |
 Peanut Brittle |
 Ranger Cookies |
 Faux Rocher Candy |
 Recipe Review: White Chocolate Rasp Cheesecake |
 Applesauce Raisin Bread |
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Brownies for My Sweetheart
I really don’t need a reason to tell my husband how much he means to me. Even so, any excuse to make his day a little brighter is one I’ll take. He loves brownies and homemade ones are extremely easy to make and much yummier (in my opinion!) than the store bought variety. Baking brownies make the whole house smell like chocolate, which is an added bonus.
This year I thought I’d combine two of my favorite things, baking and stenciling, and make a Valentine’s treat fit for the sweetest of the sweet, my own True Love.
I think the original brownie recipe is my Mom’s but it’s in my handwriting in my recipe collection, and I’ve been making them this way as long as I can remember, so I’m not entirely sure. Mom, let me know if it’s yours and I’ll give you credit!
Stenciled Chocolate Brownies
You can make this recipe with or without a mixer.
Preheat oven to 350°F. With non-stick baking spray, coat the bottom only of a 9″ x 13″ baking pan.
Cream together butter and sugar, adding eggs one at a time.
Sift together flour, baking powder and cocoa. Add to sugar mixture, stirring well.
Mix in nuts and vanilla. Stir by hand.
Spread into prepared pan.
Bake for 20-25 minutes. If you like chewier brownies, stay closer to 20 minutes. Allow to cool at least fifteen minutes before stenciling.
Stencil:
Fold prepared wax paper in random lines vertically along the length of the paper.
Cut hearts out of the paper along the lines. The amount and size of your hearts is completely up to you.
Completed stencil.
Place stencil on top of brownies. Trim if necessary to make sure it fits snugly as possible.
Sift on powdered sugar.
Carefully remove stencil onto another sheet of wax paper and admire your Sweetheart Brownies!
If you’re handy with an Exact-O Knife and have the time, you can get much more creative with the stencil. Share your fandom love, write birthday wishes, admissions of undying love or maybe even a marriage proposal! This same technique will also work on an unfrosted cake.
A simpler version, made with store bought brownie mix.
These were for a school party. They were cooled completely, cut and then stenciled.
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One of the best things about paper pieced patterns is that they are so easy to scale.
The great majority of the patterns I design finish 5″, which makes the math a bit easier. Want a 10″ block? Print at 200%. Want a 1.5″ block? Print at 30%.
Miniatures have long been a favorite of mine. They work up quickly and are just so darn adorable when you’re done!
Use Scrappy Heart in miniature and some card stock and you’ve got yourself a cute, fast handmade Valentine for your sweetie!
When choosing a paper pieced pattern to miniaturize, the simpler the pattern the better. Choose a pattern that is all one piece or only a few individual pieces. The more paper pieces you have to work with, the trickier your pattern will get and the thicker the seams will be.
For the Valentine’s Card you’ll need:
What to do:
Print your scaled pattern (shown here with the original 5″)
OR use the 1.5″ pattern sets created just for this tutorial (added Feb. 2012)
Piece the block like you would any other
When piecing in miniature, the smaller your seam allowance, the better. I like a scant 1/8″
This is your block finished from the back and the front.
Follow the stitching line around the block. This will make it possible to remove the paper without stretching the bias edges. Contrasting thread shown.
Remove the paper from the block.
**note – normally, the paper needs to stay on the block until it is pieced in it’s final destination, but because we are appliqueing it, that’s not an option here**
card stock and wall paper or seam roller
Fold the card stock in half, and press the crease with the wall paper roller. The same effect can be achieved with a scoring tool.
Position the block on the front of the card. Use a zig zag or other decorative stitch to applique in place.
Now fill the inside with sweet nothings and you’re ready to give it to your Valentine!
Get lots of free patterns right here on Sewhooked!
Add your Sewhooked-related photos to my flickr group and you might be featured in a future post.
Less Than Three
click on image for pattern
Back in November when I put together the post for Don’t Go Breaking My Heart, I talked about my own penchant for designing heart patterns (see below).
Geeks need love, too, so I present Less Than Three (above)!
click on image for pattern
In addition to Less Than Three, with the Pink & Red season looming and Cupid stringing his bow for another year, I thought it would be fun to find all the heart patterns online that I could get my hands on and then share them with you!
After searching around for a bit, it’s obvious to me that I’m not the only one obsessed with hearts. It doesn’t surprise me greatly, but I didn’t expect the quantity of patterns I found floating around out there.
The variety ranges from simple hand drawn patterns to chic professionally published ones. There were a few websites that I’m sure haven’t been updated in a decade. The patterns are still fun, cute and just waiting to be made!
Make a heart, it’ll give Cupid a target!
Free Heart Patterns:
*site has multiple heart patterns
Not in the mood for all these happy hearts? How about a broken one?
click on image for pattern
Also check out: Paper Piecing: Step By Step
&
Paper Piecing: Seams To Me (adding seams)
Free Paper Pieced Patterns On Sewhooked!
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