What is Millefiori?

My husband asked me the other day, "What is Millefiori?"  I started to answer him and then realized - I'm not sure!  So I went to Google and on Wikipedia I discovered that it is an Italian term for a glassware technique which produces distinctive decorative patterns on glassware.  The term millefiori is a combination of the Italian words Mille (thousand) and Fiori (flowers), which is very appropriate.  The term was first used by Apsley Pellatt in his book Curiosities of Glassmaking,  and the term appeared in the Oxford English Dictionary in 1849. Since the late 1980's the Millefiori technique as been applied to polymer clay "and other materials" (and as we know - quilting!). I hope you enjoyed this tidbit of information.  My Millefiori quilt is certainly beginning to look like 1000 Flowers :)