Quiltingboard Forums - Phew! 17 months and just compelted the top: My Affairs of the Heart Quilt

Hello friends,
Just wanted to share with you all the finally completed top of the my Affairs of the Hearts quilt that I started as a quilt along with the talented ladies on the board back in May of 2011! Phew..this took a long time:):) But I am soo happy top is finally finished.

The pattern is from the book Affairs of the Hearts by Aie Rossman. I made the blocks using the invisible machine applique method with heart resistant templates..very time consuming as all the pieces have to be prepared and turned under and then appliqued on.but I can't do hand applique to save my life. This was actually my first quilt with such intensive applique work..I've done little quilts with applique before but never like this, so it was a learning process for sure...good thing I love hearts, lol.
I also learned bobbin work with this quilt...I chose to do the embroidery in a gold metallic floss and it would have been impossible to do by hand, so I leanred to do bobbin work...can you imagine how much longer this would have taken me have I done it all my hand?? LOL..

I adapted some blocks to suit my applique method (Aie does needleturn) and then I changed the layout to on point and reinvented the borders and the result is a monster 97x101'' quilt,lol.

Thanks to the ladies who encouraged me along the way..this was WAY out of my comfort zone and I still cannot believe that it is finished! Right now, I am tired of it and see all the mistakes, but hoping that by the time I get it out to be quilted (will be after the holidays) I will fall back in love with it again.:o

Thanks all for looking and happy quilting.

P.S. Monster is hard to photograph,lol.