Heart Strip Block

posted in: Quilting | 0

Heart Block

After 3 boys, I am expecting a girl. In all honesty, I was a bit surprised when they told me it was a girl. We don’t make girls, we make: boys.

But after facing reality, and a lot of thinking and praying, I’ve come to grips with the idea of having a girl. Not that I didn’t want her, it’s just not what I was expecting.

That said, I know I’m not the only one that does this, I do have a few things that I’ve gathered over the years that are for my baby girl when I had her.

And one of those is fabric. Before I had any kids, newly married, and not thinking about children yet, I bought some fabric to make a baby girl quilt for a coworker. I did, and it turned it super cute (from what I remember).

When I was thinking about quilts for this little one I’m carrying, I remembered I had this super cute girl fabric. So I dug put my fabric bins (I have about 5 of them) and went through them until I found the fabric.

It’s been so long since I’ve used this fabric, I quickly realized a few things:

  1. I had precut some of the fabric.
  2. I did not know what I was doing then, I mean, I used a 1/2″ seam allowance. (Who does that?!?!)
  3. I don’t really remember what this quilt looked like.

Heart Strip Block

I went through my precut fabric and realized it was for these heart blocks I had designed. So I started sewing them together. I quickly realized that I had to use a 1/2″ seam or it would look good, all stretched out.

Heart Strip Block

See, just laying it out looked funny. Then when I put it together, with the 1/2″ seam, it looked like this:

Heart Strip Block

The top of it looks all weird, and I pulled out a few other pieces, made some adjustments (with the help of my husband) and came up with this beautiful block:

Heart Strip Block

Now, I will share with you the instructions on how I put them together.

Instructions

From heart fabric, cut:

  1. 1- 2.5″ x 2.5″
  2. 3- 2.5″ x 4.5″
  3. 1- 2.5″ x 6.5″
  4. 1- 2.5″ x 8.5″
  5. 1- 2.5″ x 10.5″

From background fabric cut:

  1. 3- 2.5″ x 2.5″
  2. 4- 2.5″ x 3.5″
  3. 2- 2.5″ x 4.5″
  4. 2- 2.5″ x 5.5″
  5. 2- 2.5″ x 6.5″
  6. 2- 2.5″ x 14.5″

We are now going to sew them into strips.

With right sides together, sew a 2.5″ x 6.5″ back ground fabric to a 2.5″ x 2.5″ heart fabric. Press toward the heart fabric. Then sew another 2.5″ x 6.5″ background to the other side of the heart fabric, press toward heart fabric. When you get done it will be background, heart, background like this:

Heart Strip Block

With right sides together, sew a 2.5″ x 5.5″ background fabric to a 2.5″ x 4.5″ heart fabric. Press toward the heart fabric. Then sew another 2.5″ x 5.5″ background to the other side of the heart fabric, press toward heart fabric. When you get done it will be background, heart, background.

Heart Strip Block

With right sides together, sew a 2.5″ x 4.5″ background fabric to a 2.5″ x 6.5″ heart fabric. Press toward the heart fabric. Then sew another 2.5″ x 4.5″ background to the other side of the heart fabric, press toward heart fabric. When you get done it will be background, heart.

Heart Strip Block

With right sides together, sew a 2.5″ x 3.5″ background fabric to a 2.5″ x 8.5″ heart fabric. Press toward the heart fabric. Then sew another 2.5″ x 3.5″ background to the other side of the heart fabric, press toward heart fabric. When you get done it will be background, heart, background.

Heart Strip Block

With right sides together, sew a 2.5″ x 2.5″ background fabric to a 2.5″ x 10.5″ heart fabric. Press toward the heart fabric. Then sew another 2.5″ x 2.5″ background to the other side of the heart fabric, press toward heart fabric. When you get done it will be background, heart, background.

Heart Strip Block

With right sides together, sew a 2.5″ x 3.5″ background fabric to a 2.5″ x 4.5″ heart fabric. Press toward the heart fabric. Then sew a 2.5″ x 2.5″ background to the other side of the heart fabric, press toward heart fabric. Sew a 2.5″ x 4.5″ heart fabric onto the short background fabric and then another 2.5″ x 3.5″ background fabric. Press toward heart fabric. When you get done it will be background, heart, background, heart, background like this:

Heart Strip Block

And there you done with the strips. You can now lay it out to look like a heart with a background 2.5″ x 14.5″ on the top and bottom.

Heart Strip Block

Now just sew the strips together in order. Press seams. Trim to 14.5″ x 14.5″ block.

Now you have this cute heart block to use however you like.

Heart Strip Block

As I design this quilt, I plan to post the rest of the tutorial for the quilt. Now, go make your own block!