Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Have a Heart

Welcome to my Blogger's Quilt Festival post!  I am sharing the quilt I made for my husband to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary....which was yesterday actually!

30th anniversary quilt
Other than the thinking, planning, designing and ordering fabric which I did a while back, this quilt came together start to finish rather quickly.  This was only because I completely lost track of time procrastinated and only had two weeks to get it done!

lots and lots of triangles

The quilt design was inspired by a Pandora jewelry display seen around Valentine's Day, and I imagined a quilt with a lot of negative space with half square triangles going this way and that to form a rough outline of the heart shape and tapering off so to speak.

Yay...no trimming!
Since my wrist isn't healing as quickly as I think it should, I worked the pattern around the Accuquilt Go! die I have for half square triangles. That sure cut down on the cutting and trimming time.  My HSTs came out a perfect 3.5" square.  Just wish I had that 3.5" square die in my possession for the 300+ squares I cut.   It's now on my "To Buy" list.

cutting squares the "old fashioned" way!
The fabrics in this quilt are almost entirely solids, and I used a very scientific method for selecting those colors ;-)  Pearl is the traditional gift material for the 30th wedding anniversary, according to the experts at Google, so I went with Kona Pearl Pink for the background color.  Other Robert Kaufman Kona Cotton Solids I ordered were chosen (within the pinks, reds and grays) because of their names including Valentine, Azalea, Pomegranate, Lipstick, Rich Red, Camelia, Peony, Flesh, Plum, Silver and Graphite.  I also used some solids in the red and pink family from the Michael Miller Cotton Couture charm pack gifted at SewDown Nashville. The few prints used are from a Pink Chalk bundle aptly named Passion Pink.

My Flatter spray matches the scientifically chosen colors!
I really like the pale pink color for the background.  I was worried about using a pink color since it's theoretically for my husband, but you really can't tell it's pink unless you look closely or at a certain angle.  And the heart shape isn't really apparent either unless you spread the quilt out.  I just like the scattering of various HSTs in arrangements of flying geese, pinwheels, hourglass blocks, and then it's a nice surprise when you see the heart.  So I don't think it's too girly.  The backing fabric used is a light gray, Kona Cotton Silver, to make up for the pink front ;-) 

where the heck am I gonna baste this?!
The quilt finishes at 78" square which is a rather large size for me to quilt on my home machine since FMQing and I aren't good friends, but I managed.  I had issues with thread breakage but after a while decided it was due to the bulky seams in certain areas of HSTs and then I was able to work around that.

an outside picture
For quilting, I used Aurifil thread color #2410.  I usually use the 50wt but tried the 40wt this time which I like for this type of project.  The quilting was done on my Juki with various FMQ styles trying to remember everything I learned at SewDown in Angela's class;-)  The center of the heart was done in meandering loops and circles.  I quilted different designs on the HSTs and background ..... some more perfect than others.... sort of like life and marriage.  I even, purposely, left some areas unquilted to represent years and experiences yet to come.  I left mistakes in...some points not exactly perfect...quilting definitely not perfect....again representing the ups and downs of everyday life.  I also designed the heart to be off center a little to the left... I like that rather than smack dab in the middle.  I actually meant to have it more off center but the quilt was getting rather large so I stopped where I was;-)

pieced heart for the backing and label
I quickly took pictures for this post and realized I didn't get all that I wanted.  For example, I quilted our names and anniversary date near the bottom of the quilt and the word "love" here and there in the quilt to serve as a permanent label in the addition to the pieced heart I stitched on the back for a label.

does anyone else do this...iron back their binding after machine stitching on and before hand stitching to the back?

stitching with a view
This quilt was finished just in the nick of time.  My husband and I went away this past weekend and the quilt went along too.  I was able to do some stitching of the binding while relaxing by the pool, and I finished hand stitching the binding on yesterday while watching movies on Netflix. When my husband came home from work, I was able to give him our anniversary quilt on our anniversary!

closeup of quilting
My very first Blogger's Quilt Festival entry was of the quilt I made to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary.  Doesn't seem that long ago.  You can see that post and quilt here if you'd like.

30 years ago I married my best friend
Thanks for visiting my blog and reading my quilt story!!  I hope you take a minute to leave me a comment to let me know you stopped by.

Have a Heart
Quilt Stats:  Have a Heart, original design, pieced and quilted by yours truly, 78" square, RK Kona Cotton solids and several prints (details in blog post), binding Robert Kaufman Ruff n' Tuff, Aurifil #2410 40wt thread

Be sure to visit the other quilt blogs participating in Amy's Blogger's Quilt Festival!

Happy stitching,

35 comments:

  1. I am in love with this quilt, and all the wonderful details. Happy anniversary!

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  2. Great design. Brilliant use of negative space!

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  3. I love this design and hearts are wonderful! Good luck!

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  4. Great quilt! Happy anniversary!

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  5. Happy anniversary! Love this cool quilt.

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  6. Have "loved" this for a long time now since seeing it on Instagram...I iron back my binding too! Rene', this is a beautiful quilt and I really enjoyed learning all about it! Good luck!

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  7. So sweet happy anniversary.

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  8. Wow! What a lovely quilt! congratulations. We celebrated 30 years in March! But....I didn't give him a quilt!

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  9. Oh my goodness! What a beautiful gift!
    Happy Anniversary to you both.

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  10. Congratulations on your anniversary! And what a great way to commemorate it!!! :D

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  11. What a beautiful quilt. It's a great design. And congrats!

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  12. What a beautiful story to present your quilt with, Rene'. I love it. Happy Anniversary!

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  13. We have several things in common:
    My hubby and I celebrated our thirty years of marriage on May 5th?
    Your "peace sign" quilt and now this quilt are on my bucket list!

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  14. It's gorgeous, Rene - and happy anniversary, you crazy lovebirds! :-)

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  15. Rene', this is such a lovely quilt! Congratulations on your anniversary...he's a lucky man!!

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  16. Beautiful quilt Rene' and I love all the thoughtful details you put into it. I'm with you on pressing the binding back before flipping it I've and sewing it down. I thin it makes a huge difference. Happy Anniversary too!

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  17. You really should market your design into a pattern, it's fabulous!!

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  18. I just love this quilt! Beautiful!

    Happy Anniversary!

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  19. Rene, it's fantastic! What a wonderful heart quilt, the best I have seen, and the quilting is just perfect!

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  20. I love this quilt and the back story as week! Wonderful work!

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  21. What a beautiful quilt and story. Congratulations on your anniversary.

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  22. Happy Anniversary! Great quilt. It really made me say WOW!

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  23. Beautiful! Sweet design. Happy Anniversary.
    - Katelyn @ Sing While Crafting

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  24. Utterly beautiful and such an interesting take on the heart quilt designs that have been around recently!! Congratulations on your wedding anniversary!!!

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  25. I love your quilt but I am not sure where or how to vote for it.

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    1. Thank you so much!!! I am not sure how the voting works either ;-)

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  26. what a wonderful gift! Happy anniversary :-)

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  28. Absolutely stunning! Boy, does your hubby look like your middlest in your wedding picture.....

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  29. Congratulations on 30 years! You're both so young and beautiful - in the picture, and now too. How lovely to commemorate the occasion with a love quilt. You do good work.

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  30. Lovely quilt! Happy belated anniversary!
    I press my bindings just like you do -- makes things a lot easier.

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  31. FAH-bulous! I loved reading about this, and love how your dedication to your One and Only kept you going. It's a great design with so many nice features--congratulations on a lovely finish and on celebrating your anniversary!

    Elizabeth
    P.S. I also iron my binding away from the quilt top as I clip it into place.

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  32. Would you happen to know approximately how many white squares make up the heart?

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