It's Almost Valentine's Day!

Last Summer I bought some adorable Valentine's Day fabric with no project in mind.  I just bought it and hoped I would have enough of everything when the time came.  This week, I decided to get started since I wanted to hang it for this Valentine's Day.  Here is the fabric I fell in love with.  I think it is oh, so cute.

I had a pattern in mind, a pattern of my own creation, so I got to work cutting, sewing, ironing, and sewing some more.  Here is the finished quilt top.  It is a little busy, I admit, but I also think it is adorable and very Valentine-y.

I added a border and started to work on the binding.  Unfortunately, through some unknown error, I did not have enough of the red heart fabric for the binding.  I was so devastated!  Generally, quilters use a 2 1/2 inch wide binding.  My mom and I use a 2 inch binding because we like it better.  Well, for this quilt I had a small section (about a 1/2 yard) that was 1 1/2 inch binding.  I wasn't sure it would work and I am here to tell you that I will never, ever try that again!

I won't say it didn't work because it did, but it was very awkward and I and my machine were not happy campers.  The end result looks as if nothing was different but every time I look at this little quilt I will remember that I needed just 2 1/2 more inches of fabric to avoid the debacle of the too-small binding.

Because I love this fabric so much I just couldn't bear to throw any of it away.  So I started to make a little quilt out of the scraps.  I didn't have much left: one 2 1/2 strip of the pink and white and just a 2 x 9 inch piece of the red.

I didn't have a pattern in mind but just started in.  I love pinwheels so I decided to make one and see if I got inspired afterward.  It worked.  Here is the finished product.  It is a mere 7 1/2 by 7 1/2 inches.  Just a miniature quilt, maybe a table decoration or a very, very large coaster or something.  It's not a hot pad, but it is the right size for it.  

And here are my leftovers.  I didn't even have an inch of the red hearts left.  I love that fabric!

I might do something else with the pink but I tossed the white since I didn't like it as much.  Maybe I can make more Valentine's pinwheels with the pink.