Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, it must be time for a heart quilt block pattern!
Although, this block isn’t strictly for Valentine’s Day – it could be used any time of the year for anyone you love. Heart quilt block patterns are an especially lovely way to welcome a new baby or celebrate a newly married couple.
I’m sure you’ll have no trouble adapting this block to suit your gift-giving purposes through your choice of colours, patterns and block positioning. Here’s a few I came up with:
- This block is fat eighth friendly, using a F8 for the background and only half a F8 for the heart.
- Although there are quite a few pieces in the block, strip piecing makes it come together quicker than expected.
- My “don’t do this” tip – I made a version with a super scrappy background of four different colours and it looked like a hot mess. When going scrappy, the fabrics all still need to be in the same colour family otherwise the heart gets lost.
Here’s a four-square mini quilt/table topper I made with some Carolyn Friedlander black crosshatch scraps, a solid red and an Anna Maria Horner True Colors print.
To make this mini you’ll need:
- a half yard of background fabric,
- a fat quarter of low volume red fabric for three hearts, and
- a fat quarter of red solid for one heart and binding.
The instructions required to sew up one block are coming up. You’ll need to sew four blocks. Once finished, sew the four blocks together, quilt, bind and enjoy!
Fabric Requirements For One Heart Block
- One F8 (9″ x 20″) of background fabric
- One F8 (9″ x 20″) of heart fabric
Cutting Instructions
From the heart F8 cut one strip 2½” x 20″ and one strip 1½” x 20″.
From the background FQ cut two strips 2½” x 20″ and one strip 1½” x 20″.
Sub-cut the two background 2½” x 20″ strips as follows:
Set all the sub-cuts to the side, keeping the last two 1½” x 2½” units handy.
From the heart 1½” x 20″ strip sub-cut two 2½” units.
Take these two 1½” x 2½” heart units and sew them to the two 1½” x 2½” background units that you’ve kept handy. Press seams toward the background fabric.
Sew and Cut Strip Sets
Take the remainder of the heart 1½” x 20″ strip and sew it to the remainder of the background 2½” x 20″ strip. Press seam toward the background fabric. Sub-cut this composite strips as follows:
Finally, sew the heart 2½” x 20″ strip to the background 1½” x 20″ strip and then sub-cut as follows:
Sew the Patchwork Units
Lay out and sew together your pieces as follows:
Press the patchwork units as sewn below to enable seam nesting:
Add the last little background rectangle in between the third row and press the seams outward. See diagram below:
Next, sew the bottom two rows together and add the largest background rectangles to either side:
Nearly done! Now sew the bottom half of the heart block to the top half and press seam as preferred.
Congratulations, you’re done! You’ve sewn a patchwork heart quilt block.
Nice work!
Happy Valentine’s Day!