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  Plain Hearts I got an email from a Mom who asked me if I could make a plain heart pattern for her 8 year old daughter. She said the Scrappy Hearts pattern confused her a little and thought she could go it on her own if the pattern used just two fabrics. I'm happy to help a young quilter in any way I can, so here's a plain heart pattern. I'm including a quilt layout to help her make that quilt for her baby sister too! I hope you remember to send me a photo of your finished quilt. |
The young quilter wants to make six inch red and green finished blocks, but I'm not sure how many, so I'm going to tell her (or her Mom) how to make just one block. For one six inch heart block you need to first cut one 4 inch red and one 4 inch green square.
1. First, carefully draw a line down the center, corner to corner, diagonally across the lightest color square. (This will be a cutting line when you are finished.)
2. Place the red block and green squares right sides together.
3. Now if you have a true 1/4 inch foot on your machine, you can sew on either side of this drawn line. If not, you will have to draw a second line on either side, exactly 1/4 inch from the first line. This is your sewing line.
4. After you have sewn on your sewing line, 1/4 inch on either side of your corner to corner to line, you will cut this square in half on your cutting line. Don't forget to trim your dog ears. (The corners of the diagonal half squares.)
5. You will now have two diagonal half-squares, which should measure a wee bit over 3 1/2 inches. Press one to the green, and the other to the red. Now trim them on two sides to make them exactly 3 1/2 inches. Keep the diagonal line in the center to make sure that it stays in the center and your square should be perfectly 3 1/2 inches square.
(Note: Some people like making the diagonal half squares this way, making them larger then trimming them to size. I personally like making them as I show on the Scrappy Hearts pattern here, which is by cutting the original squares smaller. Try both and decide which works best for you.)
6. Put those two 3 1/2 inch diagonal half squares right sides together. Notice how the seam allowances each go in the opposite direction? They are kind of like locking two puzzle pieces together isn't is? That's because you pressed them in opposite directions.
7. Now put those two squares right sides together as shown.
8. Sew a 1/4 inch seam allowance.
9. Press the seam allowance to the left and the bottom half of your heart is finished.
10. For the top half you need two 3 1/2 inch red squares and four 1 1/4 inch green squares.
11. Put a green square on two corners of a red 3 1/2 square as shown. Now sew a diagonal line directly through the middle of the green squares. Cut the outside corners off, leaving a 1/4 inch seam allowance. On the first red square, press the seam allowances towards the red square.
12. Repeat the same steps for the second red 3 1/2 inch square until you get to the pressing. This time you want to press the seam allowances towards the green squares.
13. Now you can put the top half of the heart together. Place the two red and green squares right sides together. Your green seam allowances should be going in opposite directions and should lay smoothly next to each other. Sew a 1/4 inch seam allowance, then press the seam allowance to the right.
14. And last but not least, you can put your first block together. Simply put the top and bottom right sides together, with the middles matching. Your seam allowances should be going in opposite directions, and if not, you can repress them now. Sew the two pieces together with a 1/4 inch seam allowance and then press the final seam allowance in any direction you want. Your finished block should measure 6 1/2 inches, which will be six inches when you sew it into your quilt.
I was told that the young quilter liked my crooked scrappy hearts and wanted to make one like that. It's not hard to make a crooked quilt at all, and you can have fun with it. Since you've decided to make red and green hearts, I'm showing you how to make red and green crooked hearts. You already have made a red heart.
15. To make a green one, just switch your colors around. And to make them crooked, well that's easy too.
16. Once you have all your blocks finished, press them all neatly. Press any long scraps you have leftover from your work, and set them aside too. Now add strips to each side of a block, making sure that the background color, and the color strip you are adding are the same. If your background is red, then you want to be adding red strips. It doesn't matter if the strips are different widths, you just want them to be as long as the length and/or width of the block. Press each strip towards to block after you add it. Keep adding until you have the block as large as want it. Don't cut it yet, wait till you have a lot finished.
(I think that block might need another strip on the bottom, but I'll decide that when it's time to cut them. Since I was using scraps, I have that option.)
Now, if I was making this quilt I would make a dozen or so of each block, red hearts and green hearts. Then I would trim them to make them crooked squares. I would use a smaller ruler than my squares are, which in this case would be about 10 1/2 inches after I've added the extra strips to the finished heart blocks. (Some might be larger, some smaller, so be prepared to add more strips to those smaller squares if needed.) I'm showing you the first heart I diagramed which had a smaller strip on the bottom. And so you can see what I'm doing, I've made a ruler template to square my blocks. (Use your imitation please.)
17. You can see that my ruler didn't cover the red heart block, so I had to add another strip on the bottom. Once I did that, I cut the extra pieces off each side and just like that, I had a crooked heart. One thing you will have to know about your crooked hearts, their sides are now stretchy because they are on the bias, which is the most stretchy part of the fabric. So handle those crooked hearts carefully until you get them sewn together.
18. Want to test bias? Take a piece of scrap you cut from one of your crooked hearts and pull on the side that is perfectly straight first. Now pull on the crooked side, I bet it's very stretchy. You will see it doesn't stretch very much compared to the side that is slanted, the crooked side.
The bottom measured just 4 inches, and when stretched barely reached 4 1/4. The top was about 4 1/4 inches before I stretched it and was almost 5 when stretched. That's bias.
Remember, finished means the size your heart will be when it is sewn into a quilt. The unfinished size is 1/2 inch larger.
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Posted December 7, 2022
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