Saturday, February 11, 2023

Heart Quilt Finished!

Just in time for Valentine's Day, my Storm at Sea Heart quilt is finished! I know that the color for February at the Rainbow Scrap Challenge is pink, and my quilt is mostly red with just a few pieces of pink included, but it seemed like the perfect time to share it.

Storm at Sea Heart, 30" x 27"

This project was one of the oldest UFOs in my sewing room. The heart at the center was pieced in 2001, based on design ideas from Doreen Speckmann's book Pattern Play. I've been fascinated for many years by the appearance of curves possible with the Storm at Sea pattern. In January of 2022, I added the borders. It took another year before I did the quilting, but now it is finally finished and ready to be displayed!


This is the fabric I used for the back. There's no info along the selvage, but I believe I purchased it around the time the quilt top was made.

One thing I have learned as I've done more free-motion quilting in recent months is how helpful it can be to have some contrast in the thread color. Yes, the quilting is more visible, making any irregularities more obvious. However, that improved visibility means I can see my stitching more easily and keep track of where I'm going/where I've been. Instead of using red thread to quilt the heart and the outer border, I quilted those areas with a hot pink thread. The heart is quilted with echoed hearts that flow in every direction.


The quilting in the border is mirrored double scallops with hearts in between, also stitched in the same hot pink thread.


The background is quilted with a lighter pink thread in a meandering hearts design.


This is my first UFO finish of the year, and I hope to have many more! I've been starting an awful lot of new projects lately and need to include more of the UFOs on my to-do list too.

Be sure to check out all of the wonderful scrappy projects at the Rainbow Scrap Challenge every Saturday,and at Oh Scrap! over at Quilting is more fun than Housework on Sunday.


Happy quilting everyone and Happy Valentine's Day!

Julie in GA

12 comments:

  1. Your quilting is so inspiring. I like the contrasting thread. My quilting is a little shaky for that, but coming up is a contrasting quilt with pieces too small to change the thread All the time. Wish me luck!

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  2. That's a beautiful finish, Julie! I love your quilting - so detailed. If that were my quilt, I would probably want to leave it up year round!

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  3. I spy bits of PINK and that PINK quilting is fantastic, Julie!!

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  4. I had that backing fabric, too. I fussy cut some of the faces and put them in windows.

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  5. Such gorgeous free motion quilting!

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  6. Your heart quilt is exquisite. Glows like fiery rubies!

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  7. Congrats on the finish, it's really a pretty one!

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  8. Congratulations on your Valentine quilt finish! The quilting is beautiful!

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  9. I find the piecing of the heart to be an interesting use of blocks! Love how it turned out for you!

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  10. Well done with a finish from your UFO pile! Lovely heart and beautiful quilting!--TerryK@OnGoingProjects

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  11. Great finish Julie - love the quilt shape, colors and quilting

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