Project Quilting 11.3 - Put a Heart on It

I've always been attracted to quilt patterns that have hearts on them.  The first real quilt that I attempted to make was made with hearts.  (As an aside, I don’t count the patchwork comforter that I made for college as a real quilt.  I think that I have written about that experience in a prior blog post, so I won’t get into it here.)

That first 'real' quilt was a pattern that I saw on the HGTV website, so long ago now that I can’t recall exactly when it was.  It might have been a show called “Simply Quilts”, but I’m not even sure about that. The show wasn’t on TV in my area, but the website had information from each episode, and sometimes had patterns.  The episode that really captured my fancy featured a scrappy heart themed quilt.  The directions started with ‘grab scraps of all your reds and pinks’.  Well, I had never made a quilt before, so I didn’t have scraps.  Over the next several months, I gradually picked up cotton remnants from the local Minnesota Fabrics store, since that was the only place that I knew of where I could buy fabric. I finished all the blocks (with hardly any matching points or edges, LOL!), sewed them together, and put a backing on it.  Then I wrapped the backing around to the front to finish the edges.  Did you notice that I missed a step?  I didn’t quilt it before I bound it!  I was such a newbie that I didn’t realize that you were supposed to quilt it first, then bind it!  I started to hand quilt it, but got busy and never finished it.  It is actually hanging on a quilt rack in my room.  Maybe someday I will finish it. ^.^

The first quilt that I had the audacity to actually give to someone was a heart quilt that I designed and made for my sister’s wedding.  I really liked it, and hoped that other people would, too.  So I decided to write it up as a pattern. I had the crazy idea that I wanted to be a pattern designer when I retired, ha ha!  That was the first quilt pattern that I had published in a magazine.  It was published in the inaugural issue of The Quilt Pattern Magazine, January 2011.  Just in time to make a Valentine’s Day quilt!  Here is a link to the site with the pattern listings.   The Quilt Pattern Magazine - Valentine's patterns

That’s mine in the bottom right hand corner!

Anyway, my love affair with hearts continues!  For this challenge, I decided that I needed a Valentine’s pillow cover to help dress up my living room.  I went to my scrap bin and got some red scraps, sewed them together crazy quilt style.  I fused the patchwork to a piece of Wonder Under, then cut out a heart. I pressed it onto a white background and added a border of red 2 ½ inch squares.  I wasn't sure what I was going to use for the back of the pillow cover, so I went spelunking in my fat quarter drawer.  I found one that has red roses all over it and knew that was the one! Roses are very Valentine-y, right? 

About the same time that the challenge topic was posted, a local quilt store announced a charity promotion.  They have partnered with Meals on Wheels and have promised to provide quilted mug rugs for each recipient this month.  Since I was done with the challenge, but still in the mood to make hearts, I decided to make a few mug rugs to donate.  The pattern I decided to use was hearts, of course!

Recently, I saw a blog post by Allison of Cluck Cluck Sew that features a quilt called Simple Hearts.  You can read it here: Cluck Cluck Sew Simple Heart Pattern

The hearts in her quilt are similar to the ones that I made in that first quilt, and as a bonus, she gives a chart to make various sizes of hearts.  I often cut my scraps into 2½ inch strips, so I used some of them to make the hearts that finish at 4 inches. These hearts are like potato chips!  You simply can’t make just one! 

To make a simple 4 x 6 mug rug like these, you only need 3 matching 2½ x 4½ inch rectangles, 2 – 2½ inch background squares and 4 – 1-inch background squares.  Follow Allison’s directions to make the 4-inch heart using 2 of the rectangles and the background pieces, then sew the remaining rectangle to one side.  Use a 4 ½ x 6 ½ inch piece of batting and the same size backing.  You could quilt it then bind it, but I chose to sew mine together envelope style since I was short on time.  I had to get them to the quilt store by this past Wednesday, or I would have made a lot more. 

But I wasn’t still done with making hearts!  I had some fabric strips leftover from making a Valentine’s table runner, and I was able to make 12 more 4” hearts.  I set them 3 X 4 and am currently trying to decide if they will be another pillow cover or a placemat!    And I still may make that cute Simple Heart quilt, since my niece is expecting, and it makes a really great baby quilt!