What is it about Valentine's Day?  Is it the little hearts?  Or is it all the red and pink?  The little flowers?

There's just something about sweet Valentine projects that makes a girl - okay, me - melt every time.  I want to stitch them all - the piecing, the applique, the embroidery... everything!

It's a safe bet this is going to spell L - O - V - E -  Spell It With Moda.

It's going to be a pillow - a big one - and as soon as it's assembled, I'll share a picture.  You know I will.  The lovely red floral fabric is Strawberry Fields Revisited by Fig Tree & Co. and the gorgeous text-print in the background is from Lexington by Minick & Simpson.  If you haven't made any Spell It With Letters blocks, this is an excellent place to start.  Four letters - they took longer to cut out than to piece.

What about a pincushion?

Vanessa Christenson of V&Co. has several make-it-now and make-it-quickly projects to make for Valentine's Day.  This is my favorite - French Knots.  Vanessa's blog has this tutorial and others.

Another terrific tutorial-pattern is from Megan Pitz of Canoe Ridge Creations.  She's designed the True Love Mini Quilt and the pattern is available as a free download.

Miss Scarlett by Minick & Simpson.  Ten charm squares and a fat quarter for the background.  While this collection won't be available for another month or so, this will work with any assortment of red and pink print fabrics.  So you can so do this by Sunday!  Mine is quilted, I just need to finish the pillow.  (Yes, I seem to use pillows more than mini-quilts or table-runners.)

On a side note, the background fabric here is Miss Scarlett - Ivory - Number 14817 11.  It's a really great background fabric and goes beautifully with collections from Fig Tree, Bonnie & Camille, American Jane, Lella Boutique and April Rosenthal.  It goes with many more than that but you get the point, right?  It's a keeper.

If you have any qualms about making quarter-triangle squares, I highly recommend Pat Sloan's new book, Teach Me To Sew Triangles. It's full of great techniques and tips for every manner of triangle.

As for True Love, I liked this pattern so much, I made it twice...

Friday afternoon sunshine streaming into my sewing room... it just looked pretty.  I used Megan's pattern and added a row.  A row and a little bit - 5.25 squares tall x 6 squares wide.  The fabrics are assorted prints from Pat Sloan, April Rosenthal, Stacy Iest Hsu, Brenda Riddle, Kate Spain, Bonnie & Camille and Wenche Wolff Hatling.

(By the way, the gorgeous little scattered heart print is from Kate Spain's upcoming Christmas collection, North Woods.  It's wonderful but the heart print is highly-stashable.)

The background?  That's Moda Denim.  It's the weight of regular quilting cotton - it's quite wonderful.  I'm using it for a quilt right now - and I have great plans for the new colors of Denim and Chambray we have coming not-soon-enough.  This one is quilted but also not quite finished.  By Sunday?  I think I'll get there.

My other current favorite project that I'm working on is from Amy Sinibaldi of Nana Company.  Before Christmas last year, Amy published a wonderful little Christmas pillow pattern as a free download.  She called it the Merry & Bright Cushion Cover.

Since then, there have been all sorts of Christmas versions and of late, several talented and amazing stitchers have been tweaking the design to suit other occasions and purposes.

This is from Chelsea of Pink Door Creations.  The fabric is the swoon-worthy First Crush by Sweetwater.

Then there are the pillows that Corinna from Australia has been making, each one more perfect and wonderful than the one before.

What I love about this little design is that it's made with mini-charm squares and it would work with any style of fabric from Reproductions to Halloween, 30s prints to Regent Street lawns.  It's also the perfect opportunity to put to good-use the cursive lettering you haven't used since school.

That's it for today - Tuesday.  I'm off in search of embroidery thread.

And maybe a light box... I have been looking for a reason to get one of these...

Long story.  Maybe next time.