Hearts and Ribbons

This is the month to see hearts everywhere, and I LOVE it!

Hearts have long been one of my favorite motifs and they often show up in my quilts.  My quilt guild, (Heart of Georgia is its name – coincidence you think?) has themes for some of our Show and Tell sessions this year.  

We always bring new quilts we’ve recently finished, but the themes let us revisit favorite old quilts that we haven’t shared in a while.  Show and Tell is always inspiring and this variation allows new members to our group to see some past works they missed.

So I’ve been thinking about hearts in older quilts of mine, looking around the house at older pieces.  

One I found was this one Hearts and Ribbons– a project I made in the first appliqué class I took. Anita Shackelford was the teacher.   An excellent designer and teacher, she guided me through the intricacies of needle turn appliqué.   Though some of my work is more casual these days, I owe her all the credit for my beginning stitches in this technique.  

This piece features hearts that were made and stuffed, then hand quilted.  Later, they were attached to the background including other appliquéd elements.

The stuffed berries and delicate embroidery just add to the rich details of the piece.

This was one of my first efforts at free motion machine quilting, too.  I think I used an invisible thread and cotton batting.  

I don’t suppose anyone is surprised that the featured color here is blue.