Hard to Imagine...

I, personally, love to applique -- the traditional way, needle turning every edge, and by hand. But even I have a hard time imagining that anyone can applique THIS much! This quilt came to me earlier this month, and is a block of the month pattern called Affairs of the Heart. It's gorgeous, truly exquisite. If the applique is not enough, all of the gold/yellow filigree is stem stitched. Holy Cow!
So I guess it is no wonder why the carpal tunnel in my right arm is acting up a bit. I spent an insane amount of time doing very careful outlining and detail quilting as neatly as I could. I opted to simply stipple the black background because, honestly, I didn't think it would show that much. It is funny how it never really shows much until it is taken OFF of the frame! I really just wanted the background quilting to disappear and let the appliques show.

The quilt has wide - 8" borders. In honor of the BOM name, and the fact that nearly each block has hearts on it, I did a feathered heart on each side of the wide border in a red variagated rainbow thread. I carried the red color through as ribboning along the spines of the border's feathering. The borders are a touch busy, but I think that they relate to the quilt.

I have discovered that Rainbows "Rain Forest" is one of my favorites. I used it on the feathering here as well as on a previous batik quilt. I also used an orange variagated on the appliques.

Quilt backs always take on a life of their own, which is neat. On this one, the bobbin was black throughout, so it just appears as texture. You can see the border quilting and something different for each of the blocks -- all 36 of them!

Since I love the many blocks so much, I will show several of them here.

I outlined around the yellow embroidery filigree, and quilted on the flower petals.

I quilted along the swirls on the green hearts and around the white ones.

This one has more quilting on the appliques themselves, along several petals, around the green and on the hearts.

You get the idea...

I like this one - like flaming & colorful artichokes. Appropriate since the quilt was mailed back to California today :-)

The colors here are so vibrant - I love that all the heart-y petals are different colored.

It is ever so pretty, and most detailed. I have to gear up for the next wave of quilts after my daughter has surgery next week. We are beginning to prepare ourselves for a week of high stress, little-to-no sewing, and probably the same for our sleep. She is having a 2nd surgery on her feet to correct for having been born with damned club feet. It really sucks. She's my shining angel, the absolute sweetest of all little girls. It just kills me to have to put her through this ordeal at age three. Wish us all luck-