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Pixelated Heart Quilt + Heart Quilting

May 21, 2014 jennifer Quilting and Sewing

My Pixelated Heart quilt , which is also my first finished quilt of 2014 (finished back in February) is something I intended to share here but never did. I want to share it anyway, largely because the idea for quilting it was such a fun experience for me.

Because there is no sashing between the blocks, the horizontal feel of background fabric throughout the quilt seemed a little stronger than I wanted, so my goal was to find a way to balance the lines in the quilt. I also wanted to keep the quilting very simple while trying something new, and my daughters hoped it would include hearts. An idea struck and it worked, and I had so much fun doing it!

Vertical quilting lines, one line per each 2 1/2 inch strip of the quilt but with little hearts quilted in every other square, was what I did. Super simple, and yet I’ve never seen it done before and it did the trick! All of a sudden the movement in the quilt is balanced and there are all these cute little hearts dancing through the background between the pixelated hearts. This turned out to be a simple way to quilt, almost straight line in nature, with a little bit of free motion quilting thrown in. Not a bad way to practice, learn, get a little experience and develop quilting skills if you’re like me and spent way too long being afraid of free motion quilting. I feel like the design adds to the design of the quilt. Because I’ve had many people try to figure out how I did it, I thought a couple of photos of my sketches might be useful:

Essentially, there are 4 steps to the pattern. A straight line down the center of the strip you’re quilting, then one half of the heart, then straight back up the center of the heart, and then stitching the other half of the heart, ending at the bottom point ready to continue down to the next one. As I was quilting I kept thinking of hearts dangling on ribbons from the ceiling. I didn’t like the idea of hearts everywhere, so I quilted each line in an offset way so that there would be open space as well.

I like the way each pieced heart is now framed by lots of little ones in the background. Quilting this quilt was a fun experience in trying something new to see if it would work. I think you could run with this idea of quilting in mostly straight lines but throwing in a small design along that line and use it with all sorts of shapes or motifs. This is filed away in my imagination as an idea I may want to come back to in the future with some other design. And like I already mentioned, it’s a comfortable way to step out of your comfort zone if straight line quilting is your thing. I should mention that I used my darning foot, and not my walking foot, for this design.

The backing is made up of a vintage piece of fabric I’ve had for too long (on the top) and some sweet hearts on the bottom.

Continuing with my love of black and white bindings, I used a small houndstooth print to bind this quilt. I love the way it frames everything.

And finally, I found this little label at my LQS and decided it was perfect for the quilt, so it now has a label on the back. This is something I want to do more of.

The quilt has now seen many hours of use and I love seeing my children snuggled in things I’ve made for them. When I wrote down my quilting goals for 2014, four main categories emerged for the projects I felt drawn to. One of them I have labeled “chase an idea.” I want to leave room in my sewing to follow an idea when it comes and see what happens. The layout of the quilt (tutorial found here) , followed by the quilting, certainly fall into that category. I find it is very satisfying when, after sketching and brainstorming, the idea comes and I act on it with decent results.

Hooray! I hope you’re chasing an idea today!
Jennifer

4 comments quilting, sewing, valentine

Heart Mini Quilt

February 5, 2013 jennifer Quilting and Sewing, Valentines Day

What a fun project this little quilt was! When I realized I’d gone a little crazy cutting pink squares for my Scrappy Swoon Quilt, I decided to use them right away instead of tossing them in the scrap bin. With Valentine’s Day approaching, a heart came to mind and I had just enough squares to put it together. I decided to use grays for the background squares.

Once it was pieced and basted, I quilted it in straight lines on both diagonals. Simple and cheery, it’s adding a bit of festivity to our wall.

I backed the quilt in an old Anna Griffin ticking stripe print I had on hand, and the binding is a Flower Sugar print from Lecien.

A few quick stats on making one if you’re interested:

fabric needed: 48 – 3.5 inch squares various pink or red fabrics for the heart, 9 – 3 7/8 inch squares of both pink AND gray fabrics, and 34 – 3.5 inch squares of various gray prints for the background.

Pair each 3 7/8 inch pink square with a 3 7/8 inch gray square and make 18 half square triangles using a scant 1/4 inch seam allowance.

Lay your squares out as follows, from left to right :

Top row: 10 gray squares 2nd row: 1 gray, 1 half square triangle block, 1 pink, 1 HST block, 2 gray squares, 1 HST square, 1 pink, 1 HST, 1 gray 3rd row: 1 HST, 3 pink, 2 HST sqaures, 3 pink, 1 HST 4th row: 10 pink squares 5th row: 10 pink squares 6th row: 1 HST, 8 pink squares, 1 HST 7th row: 1 gray, 1 HST, 6 pink, 1 HST, 1 gray 8th row: 2 gray, 1 HST, 4 pink, 1 HST, 2 gray 9th row: 3 gray, 1 HST, 2 pink, 1 HST, 3 gray 10th row: 4 gray, 2 HST, 4 gray Sew each row together (1/4 inch seam allowance, of course).

Sew strips together to complete quilt top:

The quilt top should measure 30 inches square. Choose a backing, then quilt and bind according to your taste. Done!

With all the projects I’m in the middle of right now, it was a pleasure to put together a quick little project just for fun. It’s also my first finished quilt of 2013. It will keep a smile on my face this month when I walk past it, and that’s no small thing on gloomy February days!

Thanks for visiting, Jennifer

3 comments quilting, valentine

Serve Quilt – 5th Pattern in Resolute Collection

February 23, 2023 jennifer Quilting and Sewing

Awake , Arise , Stand , Listen.
What’s next? Here is my Serve Quilt, the 5th pattern in my Resolute collection. As I’ve said previously, each pattern was designed based on a single word. I chose them for their value in my personal life AND in my creative life. When I first made my list of words, I had no idea what kinds of quilts would follow. All I knew was that it would challenge me and also be a very “me” sort of project. Now here I am, at the end of the list. So let’s talk about the Serve Quilt pattern!

Serve is primarily a half rectangle triangle (HRT) quilt pattern. I have grown to love the HRT block so it was no surprise I began sketching with them. I made a video/tutorial post for half rectangle triangles to assist you in making them. It’s available here . The HRT blocks in the Serve quilt create a large 8 pointed star, with a smaller center star at the heart. There are 8 stars orbiting the main star.

My reasoning? Let me quote from the pattern introduction: “I feel like everything we experience and learn in life can be used to serve others. One definition of ‘serve’ is ‘to be sufficient for a purpose’. I like that. As I pondered and sketched, this star took shape. It’s big and bold, and it also has an orbit of smaller stars surrounding it. To me, it feels like showing up in our biggest, best, most sincere and authentic ways to serve others, even when things are spinning around us. I want to do more good in my sphere of influence. This design is how I say it in fabric.”

The quilt measures 72″ square, but it also includes measurements for a smaller, 48″ square version. This original version is all made with solids, and I really love it, but I’ve also made a second, colorful version. I think a scrappy version would be interesting to make. So many options with this bold pattern !

I love buying cool fabric on clearance and saving the yardage for a quilt back down the road. This amazing bird design by Thomas Paul was the perfect thing for the Serve quilt.

A blizzard rages outside as I type this. I wish I could curl up with a book under this quilt today, but life has other plans. I get to go serve! I’m a volunteer in a place that’s dear to me, and where the weather changes nothing, so it’s out into the snow I go! I hope you’re warm and safe, and hopefully doing something creative today. Happy sewing!