11.3- Put A Heart on It

This week is the 3rd challenge of Project Quilting Season 11, this one was actually pretty easy, the rules stated you just had to have a heart somewhere on your finished quilt. It didn't have to be prominent or the main focus of your quilt, you could hide one somewhere, use heart pattern fabric, it didn't matter, as long as there was a heart. This is the last challenge before Valentine's Day so a heart is a fitting way to acknowledge that holiday.

My long arm machine has had some minor major issues and needed some parts replaced and some  adjustments. I spent most of the month of January learning to be a machine repair person on YouTube, replacing, re-timing, and adjusting, then ordering more parts as needed and repeating! LOL

This past weekend I finally felt like I had it working again. Monday I was supposed to be in the hills for medical appointments, but they decided to have a little snow storm and nasty roads, so I cancelled and stayed home. I  decided my window of opportunity to get a project done this week was going to be Monday.  There is a pile of customer quilts crying "finish me" I knew I needed to devote the rest of my week working on.

On Sunday when the challenge was announced I saw the word heart and I knew what I wanted to do. I wasn't sure how I was going to do it, but at least I had a mental plan.

A number of years ago my daughters and a friend of mine and her daughters attended the Rocky Mountain Folks Festival in Lyons, Colorado. It was a random decision to go and was solely based on the fact that Emmy Lou Harris AND Nanci Griffith were both performing. It was the start of a whole new adventure and one we have repeated a number of times over the years, adding more friends and family to the list of people who have joined us. It also has introduced us to a whole world of musicians we may never have discovered if we hadn't attended that year. One of them is Peter Mayer a Minnesota Folk Musician who writes the most beautiful songs, they are magical. If you haven't heard his music or had a chance to see him perform, FIND HIM, take the time to listen and I guarantee you will be hooked. Even if you don't agree with his theology you will find something he has written that will touch your heart, and his guitar playing alone is worth the listen.

So anyhow...there is a song of his titled  'The String' which I just love. I won't type out all the lyrics because its rather long & I don't know how all the copywrite laws work, but I will include a couple of verses so you get the idea of what I was trying to create  :) The full lyrics can be found on his webpage.

"I have found a hole in the center of the heart
Through which a thread goes, enters and departs
It's fastened in the middle to inside of me
From where it then continues through the heart of everything"

"When pain is not just mine alone, that's when I know
Somebody's tugging on the string"

"Everything's connected like peas are in a pod
Or beads upon a necklace, decorating God
Going around the rosy, we're are all in the ring
Hand in Hand, like a strand through the heart of everything"

So that is what I created- a little quilt using batik fabric I thought looked like a little universe. I painted just a shadow of a God, added a heart using water color fabric I thought looked like a real heart and then connected it all together with a piece of real sinew (from a deer not a person! LOL)

Pretty basic but when you know the back story it makes sense. I added extra batting to the heart to make it stand out, quilted the background with spirals so I could sew the sinew into the center of the spirals, then I added some silver beads to a necklace on the god shadow, and at the ends of my "String". The sinew is knotted in the back but you can tug it and move it between the different spirals.
My finished quilt is 4 x 8.

I do encourage you to look up Peter Mayer, Minnesota Folk Artist, there is another Peter Mayer who plays with Jimmy Buffet so you want to make sure you add the Minnesota to your search. Listen to his music and read his lyrics, you won't be disappointed.