Scrappy Heart Quiltalong + Block Tutorial

Hi!

I'm planning a long term quilt project for 2021, a scrappy heart quilt. I've been wanting to make a heart quilt for a while, and I like the idea of making a chunk of blocks each month. Here's what I have in mind (colors are not decided for sure yet):

The blocks are 5" square before sewn together into the quilt, including the sashing strips on the bottom two edges of the heart. The quilt made up as shown above will be twin size, 70"x95", and includes 305 heart blocks. If you want to make a throw size quilt that's about 50"x70", you would need to make 158 blocks. If you just want to make a few, 13 of these blocks would make a 19" pillow top.

So I think I'll make about 26 blocks each month this year and make up a quilt top in December 2021 or January 2022. I would love it if you join in!

Fabric requirements

Colored fabric : Since I'll be using scraps, I'm not calculating the yardage needed for the colored heart parts of each block. A 5" charm square is big enough to cut the two colored pieces for one heart though.  

Background fabric: 5 1/4 yards for the twin size quilt, 3 1/4 yards for the throw size quilt. This is enough for the blocks and setting triangles. If you want to use scraps for the block backgrounds, the yardage needed for the setting triangles for both sizes of quilts is 3/4 yard.

Block Instructions

Cut your fabric.

 

 

From colored fabric, cut:

  1 square 2" x 2" 

  1 rectangle 2" x 3.5"

 

From white or low volume background fabric, cut:

  1 square 2" x 2"

  1 rectangle 2" x 3.5"

  1 rectangle 2" x 5"

Assemble the block:

All seams are 1/4"

1. Sew the two 2" squares together, press seam

2. Sew the colored 2" x 3.5" rectangle to block as shown, press seam

3. Sew the white 2" x 3.5" rectangle to block as shown, press seam

4. Sew the white 2" x 5" rectangle to block as shown, press seam

Let me know if you plan to join in! Feel free to use the hashtag #scrappyheartquilt21 on Instagram. I'll be back soon to post my January blocks.

 

 

Finish-Along, 4th Quarter 2016

I'm just going to list one project for my Q4 Finish-along goal: my king size Maple Leaf quilt.



This is a phone pic from 2 weeks ago and this whole thing is all sewn together as of last night, 49 blocks and 84" square. I'm planning and still cutting out the 6" border around all 4 sides. I have backing fabric, I hope enough but I'm not sure. I need to order batting. And probably more basting pins.

Last time I made a quilt this big, I basted batting into the middle third of the quilt, quilted that, then hand basted batting onto one of the sides, quilted it, and then finished the final third. I'm not sure how I'll proceed this time but I'm sure I'll figure it out.

I've been almost exclusively working on this for the last few weeks (had to sew some Girl Scout and Boy Scout badges...) and it has made my sewing much less stressful than when I have several projects I'm thinking about and switching between. In the next little bit I'll also be sewing a special dress for my kiddo and altering a thrifted skirt I got for myself, but no other quilting projects until this one is done.

Blogger's Quilt Festival--Tone it Down

I wasn't quite sure if I wanted to participate in the Blogger's Quilt Festival because my blog has been so neglected lately. I started out 2016 planning to participate in the Finish-Along all year, but in February we started the process of deciding and then buying a home and that took up a lot of my time and energy (such an understatement) for 4 or 5 months. We have been in the new (to us) house for almost 3 months, school has started, and things are calming down.

I decided to go ahead and post about my tone-it-down quilt for my BQF entry, in the Large Quilts category.



I finished this just about a year ago and it is still one of my favorite quilts. It's on my daughter's bed and I still think about making another one. As soon as I clear out my WIP pile somewhat. I think this pattern would look really good with a background of just 5 or 6 subtle variations of off white, or pale pink.

A couple of attribution details:
*Pattern is from American Patchwork and Quilting and was the quiltalong pattern for 2014. Search #apqquiltalong to see more.
*My color choices were inspired by this quilt by Svetlana/SOTAK Handmade.


You can read more about this quilt here.

Many thanks to Amy for hosting the Blogger's Quilt Festival! Please go visit the festival and check out all the amazing work quilters have been sharing this time around.

Finish Along: 2016 Q2 Goals

During the first quarter of the year, I finished two projects on my finish-along list--the purple and gold jellyroll race quilt, and the My Small World quilt.

So here are my Q2 finish-along goals:

Three of these were also on my Q1 list. Clockwise from the top left they are my scrappy pillow, Alabama Chanin skirt, my Weekender bag, and disappearing 9-patch quilt. The Weekender has been intimidating me for a while, and I need to just do it. I need to buy cord for the piping, the zipper, and a solid fabric for the handles and maybe the bottom panel of the bag. I have been wanting to make a Sew Together bag but feeling like I ought to finish this Weekender first. I can do it!

Additionally, I'm also planning to work on:
Finish all the 12" leaf blocks for my leaf quilt

I started this quilt back in September. I got the idea for the scrappy blocks from Lynn at K&S Design Girls. I'm planning on making 25 of the 12" maple blocks and alternating them checkerboard style with off-white blocks. With a few small leaves for fun. I have 16 of the leaf blocks done and hope to finish the remaining 9 and most of the background blocks by the end of June.

I'm also continuing to work on my hand pieced trip around the world quilt top. Hopefully I will blog about some of these projects over the next few weeks as I get things done!

Finished Quilt: My Small World

I finished!



My Small World--quilt pattern by Jen Kingwell, this one made and quilted by me. 53"x33".

This was a big project. I started sewing it in May 2015 and finished it earlier this week. I kept track of my quilting time--8 hours and 25 minutes of machine quilting, and 95 minutes of hand quilting. The orange peel blocks and the two appliqued circles in section 2 are the only parts that I hand quilted.


The back of the quilt is made of mostly fat eighths of a Momo fabric bundle I bought a while back.



Overall, I'm happy with it. I'm also tired of it and maybe will be more enthusiastic about it after some time not working on it or having it in my list of ongoing projects. There are a few places where I don't love my fabric choices and also a couple parts of the quilting that didn't come out as well as I'd hoped.

But. I love a lot about it. I like the sky and the green background on the left side. I love how section 5 turned out. (All rainbows and sunny with the hexagons, dresden block, rainbow, and New York Beauty.) I'm very happy with almost all of the machine quilting. I feel like I learned and improved my needle turned applique skills. And I improved my fabric selection over time as I made the different sections of the quilt. Scale and value are really important when working on such small pieces.

Just so you know, the only place where I didn't follow the pattern is the 4"x2" heart in section 2. I made that heart back in the year 2001 when I was just a baby quilter. It was an extra leftover from my flag/star mini quilt, which was probably my first mini quilt ever. 

Most of the binding pieces are from my binding scrap rolls. I cut 2 new pieces for binding the sky section.
I'm so happy to have this quilt done, and I'm planning on getting it up on my front room wall really soon. 


This quilt is one of two items I completed from my Q1 Finish-Along blog post. It feels good to get long term projects finished!