Patchwork Heart Block

February’s nearly here! That means it’s time for candy hearts, patchwork hearts, all the hearts. Yuck, right? :)

I had some Alison Glass and Carolyn Friedlander fabrics in various shades of purple lying around my sewing table and decided they needed to become a heart patchwork block. Teamed with a variety of low-volume fabrics, I think this Valentine’s heart is sweet without being too sugary, if you know what I mean.

I made this entirely from 2″ scraps – it’s a great way of using up all those small offcuts.

I have a PDF download that takes you through the construction of this block, if you’d like to make one/some yourself. It also has some tips on choosing your fabrics to make sure the plus-sign pattern comes out, and a couple of options to use multiple blocks to make larger quilts.

How to chain piece

Sewing all the rows together is much quicker when you chain piece.

Here’s how I do it: after laying out all my squares I label the first square in each row with a sticker and then stack each row, in order, into a pile. I then take the first two piles to my sewing machine. I sew the first row’s first two squares together, then the second row’s first two squares together (do not clip apart as you go, just feed both pairs through one after the other).

Then I can clip the first row’s 2 squares free and feed them back through the machine to sew on the third square. Then clip the second row’s 2 squares free and feed them back through the machine to sew on the third square. And it just goes on from there, alternating the rows and sewing each consecutive square to the row.

If you get a bit muddled as to which row you have in your hand, or which pile to take your next square from, no worries, your sticker will tell you. And the sticker also alerts you to which is the first block, so you don’t accidentally rotate your row and start sewing later blocks to the start of your row (been there, done that.)

Don’t have stickers? Use bits of paper with numbers written on them, pinned to your first squares.

Don’t have paper? (whaaaa?) Use your phone to take a picture of the two stacks you’re working on, no 1 on top, no 2 below. Refer to your picture whenever you get muddled about which row you have in your hand (and which stack you should be choosing your next square from).

When you’ve finished row 1 and row 2, move on to row 3 and row 4, then row 5 and row 6…..until you’ve finished them all.

As soon as my 6 year old saw this completed panel he declared it needed to become a patchwork cushion for his bed. Fair enough!

I quilted the patchwork panel with wavy lines in a light grey thread, and then turned it into a pillow with a zipper back. (The back is just fabric, not quilted.)

It’s already in use and receiving a lot of love in our home.

You can get the PDF for this Patchwork Heart Panel by putting your name and email in the boxes within this post.

Happy sewing!

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