Early morning go-to sewing

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Hearts made last night after my fave basketball team won. Lol.

Fashioning hearts because love matters.

So lately while my husband eats his oatmeal, I've been sewing jewels into hearts. I finish breakfast before him, mostly because his oatmeal takes ages to prepare (he chops an apple and uses old fashioned oats, which takes a good five-plus minutes to cook). Yet I don't like leaving the table just as he's sitting down to eat. Years ago I kept English paper piecing on the dining table, as I was awake before he was, and wanted to do something productive, if I wasn't writing, before he left for work. I don't like being idle, it makes me twitchy. Better to sew something than feel twitchy any day.

Anyway.... Since starting these hearts, I've tried to squeeze time to make more of them. There's plenty to do for Alexandria, and I am, stitching hexagon blocks like the one above. I have eleven more to make, then of course HEAPS more to configure, but these hearts, oh my goodness, they're addictive!

Quick to cut the fabric, a breeze to baste, then one needle's worth of fine EPP thread and voila! I'm comforted by them emotionally as well as the sense of making something pretty and worthwhile. I have no idea who this quilt will be for, only that as the new year approaches, hearts matter.

They matter because every person has one. Some are healthy, some are ailing. Some are resilient despite previous damage and some are running on two of four chambers, wondering if another will give out and the whole muscle will wither. Some hearts are, well, not as big as they could be, mine included. And some are ENORMOUS, making me wish I could be so magnanimous.

Hearts are the engines of our bodies, sorry lungs, blood, brain, and guts. Our hearts not merely pump that blood, providing oxygen to that gray matter, but they fuel our affections, dreams, goals. In making us what we are, hearts are imperative and heart health care, both physically and emotionally, cannot be ignored. And right now I am feeling the need to focus on hearts, mine and everyone else's, through stitching, writing, prayers, and this blog.

We all need reminders of how fragile is the human heart. How vulnerable, yet mighty. Hearts absorb far more crap than they deserve, and often I've noted that a heart once broken is so much larger, more empathetic, and stronger too, if it can heal properly. Not every heart does heal properly; many shrink or shrivel, leaving that person unable to move forward. Yet there's always hope for restoration, for as long as a heart beats, healing is possible. Healing, then joy.

So yeah, hearts. Morning EPP hearts, evening EPP hearts. Hearts on my mind, hearts in my prayers, hearts all over the dang place! As 2024 winds down, expect to hear more about hearts in the coming weeks and months. I suspect hearts will need the attention no matter what happens.

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