My Favorite Quilt

Molli Sparkles did a post on his favorite quilt that is on Sew Mama Sew. Turns out, there is a link up for this, so I decided to write one up on my favorite quilt and join in.  Choosing my favorite quilt was easy. It is the first one that pops into my head.

What is your favorite quilt? When did you make it? What pattern? What fabrics?
This quilt is one that I adapted, just a wee bit from one shown in an issue of Quilter's Newsletter. It was in either 2005 or 2006, and called Hearts Afire. There was to be one heart on fire and I think there was supposed to be a ribbon swirling through the hearts, but I am not sure if I am remembering that correctly. All the fabrics were from my stash and it is meant to be very scrappy. I am not usually a fan of doing so much applique, but this quilt cried out to me to be made. I began piecing it in the winter of 2006. I wanted to have a hand quilting project ready to take to Savannah with me when my first grandson was born. I was going for the labor and delivery and to help out for a week or so afterwards. I can't live that long without something to work on.  It worked out well, since my daughter was put on bed rest for the last week. I sat by her side and stitched as we talked and watched TV, waiting for the time to pass.
Have you shown it at any quilt shows or entered it in any contests?
I did enter it in the Blogger's Quilt Festival one year. I was not blogging when I finally finished it in 2010, and I wanted to share it with people. I even worked on it some when I went to be with my middle daughter for the birth of her son about a year later in 2007. Lots of quilting on this baby.

 What memories or people does the quilt make you think of? My family, my grandsons. I remember that time, waiting for them to be born.

 What do you like best about the quilt? I like all the different fabrics. This is the scrappiest quilt I have ever made. I also love the hand quilting.

How did you grow as a quilter while making it? It taught me patience for sure. It takes a lot of time to had applique that many hearts onto fabric squares. Each heart is quilted with an eye to the fabrics used in it, so each is different. The only machine quilting on it is around the hearts at the borders.

If you could make this quilt again what, if anything would you do differently? I would like to have hand quilted the entire thing. My new found patience wore a bit thin near the end.

Where is the quilt now?  It is folded in a stack of smaller lap size quilts that I rotate on my couch and chairs in my living room.

Would you like to add anything? Just that this quilt is now extra special, since it is one my daughter chose to hang up and be married in front of a few years ago. That cemented it's position as favorite as far as I am concerned.