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:
- I had precut some of the fabric.
- I did not know what I was doing then, I mean, I used a 1/2″ seam allowance. (Who does that?!?!)
- I don’t really remember what this quilt looked like.
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.
See, just laying it out looked funny. Then when I put it together, with the 1/2″ seam, it looked like this:
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:
Now, I will share with you the instructions on how I put them together.
Instructions
From heart fabric, cut:
- 1- 2.5″ x 2.5″
- 3- 2.5″ x 4.5″
- 1- 2.5″ x 6.5″
- 1- 2.5″ x 8.5″
- 1- 2.5″ x 10.5″
From background fabric cut:
- 3- 2.5″ x 2.5″
- 4- 2.5″ x 3.5″
- 2- 2.5″ x 4.5″
- 2- 2.5″ x 5.5″
- 2- 2.5″ x 6.5″
- 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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
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.
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.
As I design this quilt, I plan to post the rest of the tutorial for the quilt. Now, go make your own block!