Elizabeth's Heart

Do you feel Springy today! I do! Spring is back in my step as well as my yard. My daffodils are poking their fat yellow heads above the soil. I can barely wait a moment longer.


What a perfect day to share how it is that I make my hearts. I have made them since childhood and have always given them away to people who inspire my life. Here you can see my stitching has been completed with very simple and basic stitches. I have used one strand of floss to baste my first heart on to a second cut slightly larger. Giving your heart a dry press with the iron a few seconds at this point will create magic, I promise!

Starting at the center of the heart, stitch to the LEFT between each pink with two strands of floss.

If part of your border is to be little flowers or shamrocks such as I have stitched here, they can be done during this step. Hearts secured, remove basting thread.

Attach your hanging ribbon with a few stitches. Position your heart back piece, stitching to the LEFT with one strand of floss, go down through the front of the felt between peeks then come up almost in the same spot. Needle will then go behind point of peek and down in next between spot. All of your stitches will be hidden behind the points on the FRONT of the heart. Check from time to time on the back of the heart to make sure you are not coming up in the same hole you went down in.

Be sure and stuff your heart with fiberfill before taking your last stitches. Here you can see how tiny the stitches are. They create the sewing line for the next step. Pull thread through the felt at a distance and cut off, a knot is not necessary.

Using three strands of floss, stitching from RIGHT to LEFT, following the tiny tacking stitches. Note the parallel placement of my needle. Bring needle up at first tacking stitch, down at next tacking stitch, back up the slightest bit ahead of first stitch. This is called the outline stitch, my very favorite stitch of all. I use this stitch to "write" my words.

All done and tucked inside my childhood Easter basket.

A day to feel Spring in my step. A day to share my heart pattern. A day to give thanks for wonderful friends who added their prayers to mine.

Summer Circus and The Bobwhites

Truly my childhood days were very much what I imagine circus life to be. An extraordinary life not noticed at all until the Ringleader calls for the spotlight to shine your way. The Bobwhites and I often found ourselves in the most fantastical places because my mother seemed to know the most interesting people.


Friends with the owner of Iverson Mall where the Paint and Pallet's art shows were held, she was commissioned to paint very large sized oils for the executive offices at his new business venture, the Capitol Center in Landover, Maryland.


One of the country's first covered arenas and home of the NHL Washington Capitols, the Bobwhites got to attend every event that came to town, Admit One tickets in our pockets!


We especially loved the Wringing Brothers Circus. The Flying Walendas thrilled us with their tower of chairs perched on a tight rope as high as the rafters. Lions that could escape at any moment, whispered rumors that one had been caught just that morning. Clowns in tiny cars, beautiful women on horseback, sequins and colors keeping our eyes wide.


Forever summer days would soon become winter boyfriend love. Tickets for two close to the ice, no room for childhood friends. Days spent with the Bobwhites seemed as childish as the circus.


Forever Love allows the memory to travel back in time. The Ringmaster's spotlight finding forgotten moments of youth when young girls thrilled to be together with Admit One tickets in their pockets, Free.