Happy Valentine's Day

After my run to the post office today, I took a little drive around town and saw such pretty Valentine greetings on the doors of various homes.  I thought about making something, but just didn't have that budgeted in my time.  However, I do have this treasure.  I think it's about 23 years old.

 I made this when I lived near Camp Verde, Arizona.  I think this was the result when my quilt guild held a workshop with someone from the Phoenix area.  I'm pretty sure every one of these fabrics appeared in quilts during that time.  I'm hoping to make one or two more quilts from these fabrics one of these days. However, for today, I was glad I remembered to get this out.

One of my all time favorite quotes is lettered in the center: "...For it is turmoil and confusion and not calm assurance that mark the growth of the mind."  That was written by Timothy Ferris in Coming of Age in the Milky Way Galaxy.   I loved his books; he has a magic way with words, but I'm not sure how many people are familiar with his works.

Yes, the ink was heat-set (Pigma Pen), but it has faded, as have the rest of the quotes I copied onto this little quilt.

It's interesting to me that I used both hand and machine piecing and both hand and machine quilting.
From the size of those stitches, I'm guessing I used size 12 betweens and Mountain Mist Quilt Light batting.  (I'm told the quality of the batting has seriously declined over the last 25 years.)

This is my other heart quilt.

This one hangs in my living room. This too was made in a class my Camp Verde guild had.  I made this around the time I had started machine quilting; if I quilted it today, it would be full of feathers. I did use a lot of Sulky metallic sliver thread in silver, gold, purple, and teal to quilt it.  The batik background is quilted in huge swirls.

The story behind this quilt shows how times have changed.  The instructor told us to use reds in our quilt and was not very happy with my choices.  She also told us she had spent two and half days figuring out the pattern and not to share it with anyone.  However, she herself had copied it from a famous quiltmaker whose name I have forgotten.
Edit:  I just remembered whom she copied this quilt from: Emiko Tado Loeb.  You can view Emiko's Gallery online here.

I hope your Valentine's Day has been filled with hearts and flowers and many other lovely things.  (I think I'll have my supper on an antique rose strewn plate and my tea in an antique rose cup.)


Happy quilting and knitting, as well....