My First Heart Swap

Linda's Heart Before
This is Linda's heart that she pieced and partially embellished before she sent it to me. We have both been hesitant to participate in the established swaps at Crazy Quilts for Newbies because we're both beginners, so we created our own swap following the guidelines for the STS swap. Her heart had been languishing in our mail until we returned from vacation, and this week I've been working on it. I'll mail it back tomorrow on the way home from church. Above is the heart as done by Linda.
Linda's Heart After
I had a lot of fun embellishing this heart. Linda had done all the seams, and at first I felt like there wasn't anything for me to do. But after I got started, the ideas kept coming, and here's how it turned out. One thing I learned was that I really like the way the Sassa Lynne Perle Fine gives definition to the stitches that doesn't seem to happen with ordinary embroidery thread. I also like the way variegated thread looks. It was fun to use some of the beads that I bought in Hawaii; it took 3 trips before we "caught" the bead shop actually open! (But it was worth it!) BTW, double clicking on the images shows the most detail.