Heart Garland Tea Towel

In about a month it's Valentine's Day and I'll be doing a little decorating around the house for the February holiday this week. My boys are all grown up so there's no class parties to plan for or class list to help put together valentines for, so I'm doing a little decorating here around the house. To be honest, I'm packing away the Christmas tree and taking down the socks, twinkle lights and the house will look so darn bleak, I need to hang some pops of red, so these long Minnesota winters don't seem so dreadful. Besides, I love Valentine's Day because it also gives me a really good excuse to buy chocolate.

I have a really good beginner project for those of you who are new to iron on machine applique. (Which most of my designs consist of) It's a garland of hearts and yo-yo's that embellish a tea towel. This cute towel looks adorable draped out of a basket or hanging on a towel rack. I have mine displayed with my all-time favorite kitchen gadget, my mixer. It's a great project to use up those left-over scraps (which I cannot throw away) and makes a great gift. It would be super cute paired up with a brownie mix for a special Valentine.

Isn't it cute in my mixing bowl. I love the red and white combo. So fun and cheerful.

So let me show you how fun and easy this little project is....

Following the directions for the Heat n Bond lite, I traced, ironed, and cut out eight hearts with the Heat n Bond.

Then I evenly spaced them along the bottom edge of the towel and ironed them in place.

Using a dark brown thread, I machine applique around each heart using

a small stitch setting. You can also hand buttonhole stitch this too.

To finish off your heart garland, I made seven yo-yo's using various

scraps of material to sew in between each heart.

So isn't this a fun way to use up some of your red and white scraps? My Heart Garland Tea Towel was super fun to make! Hanging tea towels here and there is a sneaking, easy way to decorate in the kitchen. It doesn't scream, look at me, I'm a decoration.... it's sorta like those cute potholders. Looks adorable, but it's useful too.

Happy Quilting!

Cindy