Patchwork Heart

I had hoped to get this post up last week for Valentine's day, but life seemed to get in the way. But love is an every day thing, right? So it's OK to make one of these anytime!



I originally had the idea for this heart from a similar one I had seen on pinterest. Sadly, I don't think the link still works (it was to flickr, and the user is no longer active). However, it was easy enough to recreate my own version!

I cut my squares at 2.5 inches and my HST's at 3 and trimmed them down after joining into HSTs. If you want to make your own heart, I don't have a tutorial (I forgot to take pictures while I was sewing this up!), but it is fairly self explanatory.

You'll need 5 3" white squares and 5 3" red or pink squares. Make HSTs however you would like. Trim down to 2.5".

Next you'll need 14 2.5" pink or red squares and 6 2.5" white (or your choice of background color) squares.

Lay out your heart by following the picture. Ignore the border at this time - ie: don't start each row with a white square - you won't have enough!

Join your squares into rows, press, and then join your  rows into the block.

After your block is completed, choose the size border you would like (I went with 2.5" again), and sew it onto the sides and top and bottom (measure your finished size of the block - it should be about 12.5" wide by 10.5" high).



Back, Baste and Quilt as desired! I quilted straight lines about 1/4" away from the seams using light pink thread.

If you want pockets in the corner to hang your heart, attach them before (or during) you sew on your binding. I forgot, so I'll be adding a sleeve later.

I was excited to use all scraps from my stash for this project! The backing is left over from the girls' valenteine's dresses, and the pinks and reds came from the scrap basket. I even had just enough of the dark pink binding left over from another project. It was nice to make something without a trip to the store! :)