A RANDOM ACT OF KINDNESS

 I just had a thought! A happy thought! 

Back during COVID I told Wayne I wanted to do something I had never done before. He asked me what.  I told him I didn't know since it was going to be something I had never done before. 

When our Lead Pastor asked me if I would head up a group to make unleavened bread to use for communion, I thought that might be it since I had never made unleavened bread before. I'm still doing that and enjoying it, but maybe this random act of kindness I am enjoying is it, too. 

I sew, but I have never made hand-sized hearts and then leave them in public places for someone to find. The hardest part for me is to not know who finds them - assuming someone does. I did go back the next day after I left my first one at the entrance to a walking trail to see if it was still there. (It wasn't.) But I just remind myself that's not the purpose of the act. There is always a chance I might find out if the person goes to the web site and reports it. If I were really lucky, I might even see it on Facebook if it were reported.

Facebook is how I discovered this activity. Because I react with several quilting sites, Facebook shows me more. I don't remember now which I did first but I joined a group called I found a quilted heart VT and started following a community Page called I Found A Quilted Heart. The website for the latter is ifoundaquiltedheart.com . I found the general instructions and rules and decided I wanted to make quilted hearts. 

Now I am encouraging my friends to make quilted hearts also. 

On the website you can also see blog posts that you can check out. The first one tells how they found a quilted heart in Nevada back in 2014 when on vacation. They told friends who told friends and now it is world-wide. You can also see pictures of different hearts people have made. The only provided instructions are things not to do. There is a link provided for a printable sheet for the tags that you can place on the heart. Everything else is whatever you want to do.

In my capacity as a blogger, I thought I would offer some suggestions to make the project easy and encourage you to join the community and start giving people a blessing. If you follow the page or join the group, you can be blessed by reading the testimonies from people who found them and what it meant to them to do so.

First of all I saw this as another great way to use up some scraps I have and then I started thinking how I could make it easier to do so. You could make every heart look the same if you don't have scraps and had to buy some fabric either by yardage or to buy fat quarters, etc. Think of each heart as being found by different people and they will never know what the rest of your hearts look like.

I also saw this project as a way for me to experiment with the different special stitches my sewing machine will make. This is the first quilted heart I made...

See all of the different stitches I used. It was so much fun. Took forever also. 😊 Not really but probably an hour. The scraps came from the quilt I made for my granddaughter Sadie. Her favorite colors were yellow and orange and I had kept everything. Some of the strips are narrow because I had even kept the edges I had cut away. 

I had a paper heart pattern that I found that I think I made from a heart cookie cutter. It is about 5" wide and 4-1/4" tall. (This is a picture of the back of the heart.)

For this first one, I sewed several strips together to make three sets and then arranged them to make a size big enough for the heart to fit. (Sew the top two sets together and then sew to the bottom piece.) 

I did one more heart from a similar set...

At this point you can lay the pattern anywhere on the set to make cut out your heart.

I also cut a heart out of some scraps of batting and

made a "sandwich" with the pieced heart, batting, and backing. You can trim off any edges that don't match so don't worry.

I quilted it together by stitching over the seams.

I cut a piece of narrow ribbon for the hanger,

doubled it over and inserted the ends inside the heart, pinned it, and sewed over it as I zigzagged around the edges. (I now just stitch about 1/4" in from the edge. Then I can trim it at the end.)

I trimmed the excess off the edges before I sewed around the heart.

As with most projects you can get involved with I came up with easier things to do as I made more hearts. Instead of making a set just big enough to make one heart, I made a bigger set using this time pinks and purples from granddaughter Hallie's quilt.

I then cut several several hearts by moving my pattern around the set. Just like you would do if you were cutting out cookies from rolled-out dough.

Don't forget the back of the heart...

One time I folded the fabric and cut two hearts at the same time. When I looked at the one underneath, I realized the selvage showed, so I just sewed another piece over the edge

to cover it and

trimmed for the

heart shape. Turned out cute.

I got four different  hearts from that set.

As I mentioned there is a link on the website for printable labels you can use on the hearts. I had some cardstock material that I cut the width of the label and stuck it on using double-sided tape.

I punched a hole with a hole-punch and later added a piece of tape over the label in case the tag got wet.

I pinned the label to the heart using a small safety pin.

These are the first ones I made.

My first one I left at the entrance of a walking trail.

I left this one when we were on vacation last week. I bought some buttons and sewed some on the finished hearts I had taken with us the first night in the hotel.

In addition to the pretty buttons I also bought some different trim to decorate the hearts. I will come back and add some pictures of them when I get some made.

I made pieced hearts but you can use one piece of fabric for the front if you like. There really are no set designs that the hearts must follow. On the website you will read the dos and don'ts.

Now I invite you to join me in making a quilted heart and leaving it in a public place for some random person to come along and find your Random Act of Kindness.