In my Heart of Hearts... V-day 2015

In My Heart of Hearts I love you best  23" X 19.5"

Number 20 in my Valentine series, which means we have spent 21 Valentines Days together. I knew when I met Mr. Not-afraid-of-color that he was the only Valentine I wanted! After we married I began making a heart related quilt each year. One of my current lectures is on working in series, and I show them all.
I often think of an event we've been through that year, or a meaning to convey when developing a design. This year is our 20th, and I wanted my husband to know In my heart of hearts, I love him best.

While looking through heart quilts on the internet I found one made of hearts which inspired me (pippapatchwork)  Although I design my own work, I want to acknowledge their work.

I started with my box of fusible scraps ( Click here for pics  )
Once I chose a background fabric and allowed myself to cut into a beautiful batik, I arranged the hearts, the spirals, the flowers allowing some to float away from the general shape. I wanted the heart to be defined enough to know it was a heart, but to have hearts melting into the background, as a visual treat for looking closely.

Before quilting it, I took some SETA color metallic gold paint, and a sea sponge, and dabbed on gold paint to soften the hard lines of the hearts and blend them together.

I took out the love stamps and ink I used in my last playdate, (click here to see more   )  and stamped words on the hearts. Because the ink wasn't strong enough I went over the stamped images with a fabric ink pen to darken them.

They look a little bit like candy hearts to me!






The quilting choices... does anyone else have a bit of trouble choosing a quilting motif?
I knew I wanted some straight lines as balance to all the curves, and got out my quarter inch masking tape.

I placed it where I wanted to use my walking foot, and gold metallic YLI threadwork.
I carefully followed along the sides of the tape. Removed it, and added repetitive lines around the heart, and more lines to the rays on the right.

The last walking foot stitching was the repetitive lines at the bottom left of the heart. (Look at the top photo closer)

It adds a base to the whole thing and a balance to all the free motion designs. 

 Ah, then the free motion stitching began. The whole top is quilted with YLI gold metallic and sparkles.
I just went where my heart sent me, some feathers, some intersecting hearts some leaves, some flowers.

 I even went in and quilted a few individual hearts inside the rays.
It needed more sparkle so I ironed on some rhinestones.

I added in some pearls as we had pearls on our wedding cake. The colorful beads around the rays are from my friend Bunny. She showed up to bee one day with a bag of them, handed them to me and said you're the only person I know who might use these! I've used them on three quilts now, Bunny.

 I resisted putting the letters on til the end. Then I couldn't help myself. I pulled out the fusible scraps, and just cut out letters letting them come out how they might, arranged them, and quilted around them with a quick free motion zigzag and gold thread, to blend them in.

Look at that bit of quilting on the bottom right... hearts on hearts. I just kept going and they developed and I love them. Maybe even more than the feathers. Please note, I didn't painstakingly stitch around each heart. I made sure each one was caught, and actually free motion quilted around several inside the center but mainly let them come and go on the background.
My inspirational quilt is very orderly, with a hard edge. Mine is loose, blended, some hearts indistinct, some must be looked for, some look like they are just quilted but are appliqued. (hint click on pics to enlarge)
last but not least, the back.

There you can see quilting better! The quilt is not smoothed out, so looks rumpled but it's not. Those are old fashioned valentine images... like the ones I used to give school mates in elementary school. Sweet! Like my husband.
Thank you to my friend nancy for asking if I'd started the V-day quilt yet!! Love her too! 
Oh, and I have a V-day story to tell, later in the week! We had an adventure!

For more Valentine quilts check out Feb/ 2014