When life hands you lemons...

Life didn't exactly hand me this lemon... it was of my own making! I was trying to tat Laura's Victorian Heart in size 10 Flora, color #133, with my new Grizzly Mountain Arts signature shuttle. About half way through the second round, I realized I was tatting the wrong number of stitches. I wasn't in the mood to retro-tat, so I finished up the round and added the final ring.

I didn't want my tatting to go to waste, or even sit in a basket waiting for me to be inspired. So, I decided to start a crazy quilt block. Of course, I needed colors that would compliment the heart, so I looked at my fabric stash and chose fabrics that were left from previous projects... a rather simple task, considering my stash! My fabric choices don't always thrill me when I'm piecing a quilt block, but somehow I'm always pleased when the block is finished. We'll see if that holds true for this one!

I've crazy quilted Christmas stockings before, but they've been completely machine embellished using stitches on my sewing machine. This will be my first attempt at hand-stitching embellishments. I've pinned the tatted heart in the spot where I think I want it to be, but I'm not ready to sew it on yet. I think I'll try some embroidery work first to see if the heart still fits in this spot.

Thank you, Melissa, for all your CQ encouragement and inspiration!