I LOVE Valentine’s Day. I know I’m in the minority, but I just do. I really don’t think you need to have a significant other in your life to enjoy candy heart bliss and bountiful boxes of $1.99 Valentines! Sometimes I get a little defensive about it — loving a holiday that so many others despise can be a little exasperating. I always make an effort to give Valentine’s Day the attention it deserves!

I recently completed the LOVE paper piecing pattern by Diane at From Blank Pages, available here on Craftsy. Diane, along with Sandi at Crafty Planner, was offering the letters L-O-V-E for free so I could try out the pattern before committing to the entire alphabet. I created this little quilted swatch using scraps, but haven’t yet decided what to do with it. I think it may become a zipper pouch or just a little Valentine’s Day wall hanging. Ideas and suggestions are welcome!

By completing the pattern and linking it to the designated hashtag on Instagram, I was entering for a chance win the entire alphabet pattern (including numbers and punctuation) and I WON! Waking up to the message that I had won this morning was so magical. I am really, really, really excited to put the alphabet pattern to good use in the future and make lots of personalized, paper-pieced goodness!

And while we’re talking Valentine’s Day, I also wanted to share my completed project for #SewMyStash2015 — Challenge 1! The first challenge was themed to Valentine’s Day. These were the rules, proposed by Leasa:

1. You must incorporate hearts!
2. You may sew any project you want.
3. You need to finish by Sunday, Jan. 25.
4. You must use approximately 75% from your stash.
5. Use the hashtag #sewmystash2015challenge1 on your finished project.

Here’s what I completed as part of the challenge — Valentine’s Day bunting!

I’m proud to say that 100% of the fabric used was from my stash!

• The beige fabric was a creative upcycle – I used an old bed skirt that my mom was going to throw away!
• The red polka dot fabric was some Christmas fabric I had gotten on sale back in November.
• The bias tape was homemade, and leftover from Morgan’s collapsible shopping tote.

Do you see the edge of those pennants? They are SERGED! Yes, I used my new serger to complete this project. Obviously pennants don’t require serging, but it was so much fun to finally use the serger for a “real” project and incorporate the red thread for a decorative finish. And it made the project go a lot faster since there was no need to turn/press/topstitch and all that jazz.

Not only did I complete this challenge, but I also crossed off multiple line items on my 100 No Pressure Projects list!

• Bunting for every month of the year – February is now complete!
• Use a serger!
• Upcycle an old shower curtain or bedding and turn it into something else (I had previously checked this item off the list with the hanging laundry bag I made from a shower curtain, but it’s worth mentioning anyway!)

That’s a lot of project work and goal-smashing for one day, so I’ll leave it at that… for now.  😉

Have a great weekend… can’t wait to see what everyone else came up with for #SewMyStash2015!