Heart Blocks - When it Rains, it Pours Even MORE!

An easy way to do heart blocks is to select a block size for the background and cut background squares the appropriate size. Cut a heart from contrast fabric to fit in each square. Make them as wonky as you like, each one different if you like. Stitch near the edge with a straight stitch. Edges will fray out a bit, but that's okay.

Julia > Well, I need to add another HUG quilt to my list and I want to use as

Sad news for you and your family - perhaps, you will find the hearts that you are looking for here:

There are a lot of different strip pieced foundation hearts out there. I was thinking that strip piecing would go well with your bargello centerpiece. A quick cheat to get them done faster is to strip piece larger sections, and then either cut hearts out of that and applique them, or to cut sections out and reverse applique them. You get curves instead of points that way too. You can make a fair vaiety of sizes, and turn your stripes about so that you have some running vertically, some horizontally and some diagonally. You could run a section of prarie braid in your bargello fabrics, and use it to make hearts to further compliment your center heart.

NightMist

A fast way to make heart blocks: cut out a heart the right size out of plain old copy paper. When you get the shape just right, transfer it to sandpaper and cut it out. Then - taDah! ... all you have to do is place the sandpaper heart (with the gritty side down so it won't slip) on top of two pieces of fabric, right sides together, and stitch around the outside edge of the sandpaper heart. Trim, slash, turn. Viola! Press the heart, glue stick it down to your background fabric and stitch any way you like. Blanket stitch, hemstitch, satin stitch - even the one that looks like chicken tracks. Four hearts placed with their points together creates a lovely flower. Save your sandpaper template by putting it beneath your cutting mat. (I'll remember when you ask where it is.) Polly

Mary, you've had some good suggestions, and I have nothing to add to them. But I wanted to say how sorry I am about your niece and the baby. I hope the quilt brings her some comfort.

Thanks Sandy and everyone else. I now have close to a dozen different types of pp heart patterns to choose from. I'm going to use all of the ones that have lots of diagonal pieces to make really scrappy hearts. Lisa, my DNiece, likes bright jewel tones and I have lots of those colors in my stash and I think they will make great heart blocks. One of those pp heart designs is made specifically as a signature block. I'm going to get one made ASAP and send it to my DSis. She can sign it and send it back; I think this will make her DD very happy to see it in the quilt. I also asked my DSis to go to Joanns and pick out a FQ of a fabric that "looks" like Lisa and then I can incorporate it into the quilt. I'm going to make one of those signature blocks for my DD to use. I plan on having this HUG ready to take with me when we go to Lizard Land as we will also be going to CA and will be visiting Lisa so I can give it to her in person. That's MUCH nicer than having to send it in the mail. CiaoMeow >^;;^<

Tia Mary wrote:

Have you guys ever noticed that I can't usually just type a few sentences and be done with it? Seems I must always "talk story" when I post -- LOLOL! So, I got the other two quilts (Christmas HUG and Graduation one) finished that were on the list and I started on the heart quilt for my DNiece. The center is a bargello heart made of 3x6 inch pieces of cat fabrics in red & pink. This is surrounded by a white background cat fabric and the whole thing measures about 39". Fine -- no problem with that and it was finished Sunday afternoon. The rest of the quilt was to be paper pieced heart designs, several of which incorporate a cat in them -- imagine that!! 2 rows of six above the bargello heart and the same below. Of course, this measures to 36" so I was going to just add a 3x6 piece to the center of each row to even it up. Then I get an AHA moment -- unfortunately, the moment belonged to a different hour than the one I was supposed to be in!!! For some unknown reason, I decide that if I add a 1.5" border to the bargello heart panel, I won't have to add that 3x6 inch piece to the rows of pieced blocks!! WHAT WAS I THINKING?? WHERE WAS MY MIND?? Certainly not on the topic at hand! This morning I sat down and added the border to the center panel. I used a lovely multicolor all over cat print with loads of gold on it. I fussy cut four little Maneki-neko (the Japanese good luck cat who is waving at you) each one sitting on a different color pillow to be used as corner blocks. As I was sewing the LAST border on, it dawns on me that I have made the bargello heart panel even BIGGER! Now it is 6" wider than the planned rows of pieced blocks which means I need four more blocks -- VBS! OY THE PAIN -- LOLOL. I have twelve heart design blocks and was going to use each one twice as I need a total of 24 blocks. I'm not sure if I want to try and find 2 more pp heart design blocks or just cut whole cloth blocks out of another Maneki-neko fabric I have. It is a deep pink background fabric with large black cats. The cats are about 3" tall so it's not really appropriate for using in a pieced block. Maybe I'll just work on the pp blocks and decide once I get the 12 designs done up twice. I could always choose two of the least complicated ones and do more of them. I plan on having at least one outer border. The wonderful Ms. Butterfly sent me four pretty red print appliqué hearts and I was going to use those as the corner blocks on the outer border. Many grateful thanks to Ms. B'fly for sending me these :-). OK -- I guess I am open to suggestions about this "new" layout for the quilt. I *think* whole cloth blocks would be OK and have seriously been thinking about doing a lot fewer pieced blocks and more whole cloth ones. Maybe alternating pp with whole cloth? That way I could still use all 12 of the pp designs and have a LOT less work! I have already done one of the pp blocks and sent it to my DSis to write on. It's a signature block shaped as a cat head (sort of) and the center is a plain fabric. HMMMM, this alternating blocks thing is sounding better and better to me! Besides, if I use whole cloth blocks, they are PERFECT for the continuous line cat quilting design I like to use :-). Well, unless someone comes up some sort of super dooper idea, that's what I'm going with. It always helps to "talk" this stuff over with friends who understand the problem :-). Thanks & CiaoMeow >^;;^<

PAX, Tia Mary >^;;^< (RCTQ Queen of Kitties) Angels can't show their wings on earth but nothing was ever said about their whiskers! Visit my Photo albums at

LOL! TiaMary, I got *such* a kick out of your "conversation" with us and the solution you came to because of it. ;) Yes, the plain blocks sound perfect, especially since you do want to do the cat quilting pattern. :)