Vintage Colors and Pixel Hearts

There's a growing pile of partial sets of old sheets and pillowcases taking up space around here. There might be just an orphan pillowcase, a partly worn out sheet, or only a fitted sheet. The one piece that's the right size for the only bed in the house is a fitted sheet with elastic that gave up doing anything several years ago (from the look of it). So, the pile grows while I try to think of what to do with it all!

Eventually, I pulled out some of the orphaned pillow cases to think about what I can do with them.

Of course, Momo had to check them out. Once they passed his approval, and once he was persuaded to get off the sewing desk, I grabbed my rotary cutter, took a deep breath, and got to cutting.

I sliced and diced by way through the stack until I had a stack of 4 inch square blocks. Due to wear and tear in the pillowcases, and some having ruffles and other trim work I didn't want to mess with, I didn't wind up with a set number of any of them... but I had quite a pile.

The stack of squares sat on my shelves for several months, just waiting for inspiration to strike.

I suppose I was procrastinating on starting on the two quilts that are supposed to go on our bed, but inspiration struck last night and I got to work. I've been drooling over pixel heart quilts for several months, and it finally occurred to me that I could make some with my little vintage print blocks!

I should have started small and then built up - but instead I went big immediately.

If I had started with a smaller version, I would have known to be more intentional when choosing the pieces I wanted to be the heart rather than the ones I thought were neutral backgrounds. Even if I had used the exact same blocks, I could have at least outlined the heart in intense pieces so the shape was more defined.

Picking out the heart from the neutral is a little more of a challenge than I'd hoped - at this point - but I am hopeful I can do something more distinctive with the quilting to help the wanted shape pop a little more.

Photo editing is helping pop the color a little here

Despite the non-popping heart, I'm not displeased with the overall piece. Sure, I wish my block seems had lined up a little better... but I've got to keep practicing I guess!

And yes, I am making at least one more, possible two. I have the blocks to spare, and I can apply what I've learned so far. I think. I think I'm going to make one with the blues and one with my favorite prints, which just happen to be more along the pink/yellow range. We'll see if I have enough neutral blocks to make that many! I might have to put one of those on the back burner until I get a few more orphan sheets. Fortunately, that doesn't usually take long around here.