Thirteen years ago, I embarked on a ‘Labor of Love’ as it were.

As the story goes, in 1998, I wanted to make a nifty Holiday quilt, but I wanted some practice first. So I planned a quilt-a-month project for 1999 to get warmed up. My Heart Quilt was only the second quilt on the list. [Insert heavy sigh here] It was a great start, sewing and piecing the hearts together that February. Unfortunately, the corner blocks stumped me and nothing I tried looked right. I shelved the project momentarily, but between travel, distractions and moving to another house, the better part of the decade zipped by with little more than a passing glance in 2003 & 2005 as I still had no better idea about how to finish those corners.

Then, I started going to March & September quilting retreats in 2009 and soaking up the knowledge and inspiration of my quilting collective. After my ‘Tie-land hiatus,’ I worked out the corner quandary and was emboldened in the home stretch to declare a brilliant decision to use Prairie Points around the border.

Ah, but I’ve gotten ahead of myself as I need to fill another 12″-16″ of border. The squares-on-point border is a perfect complement and although my triangles get a little wonky, it works. I’m still a tad short at the head & foot and adding an extra-wide burgundy border just seems too simplistic. Perhaps more shaded 4-patch blocks along the bottom, which fittingly look like a string of hearts when set on point surrounded by all that burgundy fabric.

So after a handful of dedicated weekends working through various design dilemmas over the past 3 years, I’m finally finished piecing. Lest I rest on my laurels too long, the binding incorporating Prairie Points is just beginning. What’s a Prairie Point you ask? It’s a square of fabric folded diagonally twice into a triangle. I hope to find a quick way to attach & finish them so I can start hand quilting, but you know easy isn’t my modus operandi 🙂

With all the detours, it has been quite an amazing journey; and seeing everything fall into place now is priceless!