Hearts for Block Lotto

I made these 3 heart blocks for the February round of Block Lotto. I machine appliqued the hearts onto the background fabric, with the edges turned under as per the lotto instructions, and I found that the whole thing went very quickly! I guess they are pretty simple, right?

My only snag involved ironing. I'd bought cardboard heart decorations at the local greeting card store to use as a pattern. First I traced around the cardboard heart on the wrong side of the fabric and then cut it out, leaving about 1/4 inch as a seam allowance around the outside edge. Next I cut a slit in the seam allowance right up to the "V" where the heart splits at the top. Then I stitched around the heart in the seam allowance so I could "pull" the edges in around the cardboard base and neatly press the seam allowance to the wrong side of the heart. Once the seam allowances were pressed back I planned to remove the cardboard and pin the fabric heart to the background fabric.

The problem arrose when I stupidly used the glossy cardboard heart I'd purchased as a base on which to iron back the seam allowance of the fabric heart . Of course, the cardboard was coated in a plastic film---see how shinny it is? It only took a second for the plastic to start to melt, letting off a nasty smell.

I realized it immediately and was able to save even that heart by removing the store-bought cardboard heart quickly. Then I traced it only a pice of regular cardboard (which I cut off the back of a pad of paper!) and used that one instead.  Phew!

I shot this photo of the back of one of the heart blocks. I love the look of the wrong side of blocks that have been appliqued!

I was glad to have this little project to work on this morning to give me a break from my Orca Bay mystery quilt. I'm slogging away on it, and I thin I have almost all of the pieces that I'll need for the size I'm making assembled on my design wall, but I still have a lot of sewing to do. It's nowhere near done. The pieces are so tiny and there are SO many of them. (Am I whining? I'll stop!)

Maybe that's why I chose the simplest of simple ways to put together these heart blocks? Ha ha!