Hearts

We keep saying at our house, "I can't believe it's almost February!"  With that comes thoughts of love and hearts everywhere, right? 

One of my two favorite local quilt shops, The Quilt Company, is having a UFO challenge for 2015.  I decided to participate, and in searching through all my quilty stuff I found this wall hanging that only needed the binding finished on it.  Why did I stop just inches from finishing the binding?  Well this seemed like the perfect UFO to get finished for Valentine's Day.

I used to watch Simply Quilts! with Alex Anderson.  I loved that show!  Alex is a great teacher, and I used to watch the show, tape it on the VCR, and I would take notes and write down the pattern directions.  I made a couple of quilts from watching the show, and this is one of them.  In trying to figure out how long ago that was, I did a quick Google search and found this website/blog with Alex's guest teacher on this particular episode, teaching how to make heart blocks from doilies.  I was so happy I found it!  The episode was from 2000, and the teacher was Sharon Rexroad teaching her Doily Magic.  If you want to try making your own, click those links and Sharon will show you how on her blog.

In finishing this quilt, I can see how my quilting has improved over the last 15 years!  So it is a nice reminder of my progress.

Continuing with the heart theme, this week I also finished a quilt for a client named Joyce.  She made this for her little granddaughter who is moving up to a big girl bed. 

Joyce chose the Curly Hearts pantograph and purple thread.  I haven't used this panto for a while, and it was so fun to see it quilted up again.

You may not be familiar with how the edge to edge quilting is done with a pantograph.  I thought I'd show you a picture of how the pantograph design is on a long roll of paper and set up at the back of the quilt frame.  A laser pointer shines down, and I follow the dark black lines while the machine is running.

I loved seeing those Curly Hearts on the back of the quilt.  Thank you, Joyce, for letting me quilt for you!!

I'm linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts Finish It Up Friday.  We are covered in snow here, so it is a perfect weekend for staying in and quilting.  Keep warm, and thanks for visiting!