Hearts on a Chain

This year I decided that I wanted to finish at least three of my old UFOs.  This is my first, and it is probably over 10 years old, but I can't be sure.  Several years ago, I saw a picture of a quilt that looked very similar to this one in either a magazine or catalog.  I didn't order a pattern or anything, I just looked at the picture and figured it out.  Today I spent a good part of the day trying to find that old picture, so that I could get a better ballpark date on when I started this quilt.  I looked through years and years of Quiltmakers (2000-2007) but couldn't find it.  I also looked through some Quilter's World and Quick and Easy Quilting issues that I had from that time period, but still no luck.  I finally just gave up finding the original inspiration. 

Once I gave up on finding the print picture, I decided to try doing a Google image search.  I have no idea what the original pattern name was, but I searched for "heart Irish chain quilt" and "heart quilt" with no real luck.  I found one quilt that had the same pieced heart, but not the Irish chain setting.  So if anyone knows the name of the original pattern, or where it might have come from, let me know.

So anyway, years ago I saw the pattern and thought it would make a nice seasonal sofa throw for Valentine's Day.  It was super easy to make with nice, big pieces.  I made the top, but never quilted it.  I know that at the time that I made it I didn't have a dedicated sewing room and had difficulty finding the space to set up the quilting frame for larger projects.  Even once we moved to the new house, and I had a sewing room, I never got around to quilting it.  I didn't know how I wanted to quilt it either, so it just sat. 

Finally, this year, I decided that I would have it machine quilted.  I thought that a pantograph of hearts would look nice, so that is what I went with.  The backing fabric that I had bought all those years ago was not big enough to accommodate long-arm quilting, so I purchased some new fabric for it, too.

When I got it back from the quilter, it was past February, so I figured there was no hurry in getting it bound.  I've been working on it at the library, during our sewing time, for several weeks.  I've also worked on it some on car trips, because I like to work on hand sewing in the car.  I finally finished it last Friday on the way home from the Radney Foster concert in Atlanta (well actually Duluth, GA).  So after many years, and many miles, this UFO is finally finished.