Template & Photos from Canva. Quilt photos from Martha G. Brady.
My original plan was to do this series in December. But I realized that December was way too late for this series. November is a bit late too, but I’ll do it now. I’m getting today’s post up late, but I plan to get them up on Fridays, and earlier in the day.
I’m starting with a block I have just recently learned and experimented with. It is not one I have recently seen. It has been around forever. You may have done it in paper in school. I’m not sure I did. But I have always thought it was pretty. It is historically a Christmas tradition and I admit, I have most often seen it in reds and whites. That may be why I have most often seen it around both Christmas and Valentine’s Day. But it is such a lovely block, there is no reason why you can’t make it with any color combination as long as the two colors have some contrast.
In making up some combos both for gifts and for practice for these posts, I found that this was not nearly as easy as I expected for a variety of reasons so I am also giving directions to the non-sewing Swedish hearts as well. They are fun decorations for your tree that can be made from paper or fabric. Click here for non-sew directions for a non-sewing Swedish heart. Can be made of paper, felt or other non-fray material. This will be fun if you are making it with kids too. It is on YouTube so you can stop it and rewind if you get stuck. That’s why I go to YouTube for instructions for everything!
Now, back to the instructions for Swedish Heart quilting options. The link I’m giving you is once again for Missouri Star when they give the Triple Play once a month. Three of them give a different version of a block. I enjoyed it and have tried two of the three. I suspect the one I haven’t tried will end up being my go-to. We’ll see. Link for sewing directions with 3 variants.
Photo by Martha G. Brady These are the tiny hearts.
The tiny hearts are second in the video and have special considerations if you plan to make them up.
The first heart in the video is medium sized, the second is tiny and the third is largest. The last one does the curve in a different way than the other two. I’ll show you photos of how my versions came out. My caution is that any errors you make on the tiny hearts are magnified. i knew that in my head, but seeing it was another thing. It is also true that once it is all put together, those errors aren’t quite as bad as they look all by themselves. I’m glad I tried the hearts and I will finish the project I started. But I was not thinking that I had to make 8 of those boogers to complete the project!! I made some for Christmas and some for a non-christmas project. I have about 8 total done. Now I have to complete the rest to finish what is needed to complete the two projects! But i had to set it aside! I was going nuts! Here is a photo of 4 of the Christmas ones. Of course, they still need to be trimmed. You notice the tiny checks here do best with solids or very, very tiny print. I think the cut strip here was 1 inch so by the tine that was sewn, these checks were only 1/2″ square. That is very little!
The larger hearts are below. There are things about them that are easier to make. You just need to balance out what your preferences are and why before you decide which to make.
Photo by Martha G. Brady
The third heart is the largest. It takes only four to make a good sized table runner. I’m making one in Fall colors. It is ready to quilt and bind. I have four projects to do. I’m hoping to have them done this week. As you can see, this one has an actual curved heart top rather than the tops of the other two that were snowballed.. Surprisingly, that curved seam was not difficult like I expected. Simply using the one pin in the middle and holding each end helped a lot. It was great! Sewing those seams slowly worked great. I was pleasantly surprised and I like the curved seam a lot. Gave me courage to try more curved seams with the curved ruler I have had gathering dust. You’ll notice, the bigger checks can handle larger prints and will show them off a bit.
Find time to get together with family or friends to make gifts together either for others you love or for others in need.
Try to think of a way you can get together with friends or family in the next month or so to either make Swedish Hearts of paper, felt or wool and pass them on to family and friends as ornaments attached to gifts. A link is in this post to help you. Or if you have a friend two who love to sew, get together with them and sew up a storm with them making Swedish hearts or using up blocks that have been sitting around or whatever, and even making them up as gifts for others.
I have a huge stash of both made up blocks that are extras and lots and lots of good fabric. I might as well give it to others while I can and use the time to enjoy others too. So join me the next few Fridays as I show you some ways to use up your stash of goodies to benefit others.
