Love is in the air

You can download a pdf copy of the original magazine pages for this project here, Love is in the air

You may well find you have all the scraps you need in your stash to make this simple appliquéd and pieced hanging.

Heart Blocks

1. Cut one 4in square from the 5 x 9in piece of fabric and one 4in square from the 5 x 11 1⁄2in piece of fabric for the hearts. Using the template provided, trace two heart patterns onto the paper side of the Bondaweb and cut out roughly.
2. Place the rough side of the Bondaweb motifs on the WS of the heart fabric, iron in place. Cut out the heart motifs accurately.
3. Take the 5in square pieces of background fabrics: peel the backing off the heart motifs and lay them centrally on the background fabrics. Iron in place.
4. Using two strands of stranded cotton, hand appliqué the hearts in place with blanket stitch, try to keep this even; you need to stitch into the background fabric just off the edge of the motif. See Figure 1.

Figure 1: Blanket stitch appliqué

Heart Template

Nine Patch Blocks

1. From what is left of the 5 x 9in piece of fabric cut four 2in squares. From what is left of the 5 x 11 1⁄2in piece of fabric cut five 2in squares.
2. Place the pieces in the nine patch arrangement. Join into rows, pressing the seams of alternate rows in opposite directions. Join the rows together. See Figure 2.

Figure 2: Nine patch block

Quilt Assembly

1. Join the three blocks as shown; pressing each seam towards the nine patch block (this prevents the seams showing through the lighter background fabric).
2. The quilt should measure 5 x 14in. Cut two strips 3⁄4 x 14in and two strips 3⁄4 x 5 1⁄2in for the inner border. Sew the longer strips to the sides of the quilt and then the shorter ones to the top and bottom, each time pressing the seams outwards.
3. Cut two strips 1 1⁄2 x 14 1⁄2in and two strips 1 1⁄2 x 7 1⁄2in for the outer border. Attach as in step 2 above.

Quilting and Finishing

1. Give your quilt top and backing a good press. Layer the quilt by placing the backing fabric WS up on a clean flat surface, followed by the wadding and then the quilt top, centrally and RS up; the backing and wadding are slightly larger than the quilt top. Using quilters’ curved safety pins, pin the layers together.
2. The quilt was machine quilted in the ditch between the inner and outer borders using invisible thread and then bound before doing the hand quilting, which is fine when working with small quilts.
3. To bind the quilt, trim the backing and wadding level with the quilt top edges. Cut two 2in strips of binding fabric across the fabric width (or three strips along the long edge if you are using a fat eighth). Join the strips using a diagonal seam and press open. Trim any excess seam allowance to 1⁄4in. Fold the binding strip in half lengthwise, WS together, and press>
4. Match the raw edges of the binding to the raw edges of the quilt top and sew in place, folding a mitre at each corner. Fold the binding over to the back of the quilt and slipstitch in place.
5. Hand quilt the top using two strands of stranded cotton. Anne simply stitched around the heart motifs, and then added cross-hatching to the appliqué backgrounds and the pieced block.
6. Attach a hanging sleeve to fit your hanger, and don’t forget to add a label with a special message for your beloved

First published in Popular Patchwork February 2006