Mended Hearts Quilts
A 45 x 52" lap quilt by Betty Reynolds
Take a look at the same quilt done in spring
colors...
...or the same
quilt done in fall colors...
...or some placemats using the mended
hearts technique...
...or a really different way to assemble your mended heart
blocks--Jen's mended hearts quiltlet
...or, on to a new season with mended leaves
This quilt was made from blocks received in the first
round of a centralized swap organized
by QuiltSwappers.
My quilt includes blocks made by Susan Geddes (CO), Jennifer Hutchings
(CA), Kathy Kirkland (MT), Cinderella Kroh (NM), Pixie Malone
(TX), Lory Penniman (IA), Grace Penno (BC), Bonnie Perry (MA), Betty
Reynolds (NM), Susan Tuttle (NY), Elizabeth Wade (MI), and Cheryl Wojak (NY)
On the left my own 42 completed blocks pose on the design
wall for a family portrait before being shipped off to be adopted by other
quilters. On the right 32 new blocks arrive in the mail on
Feb. 8.
When my blocks arrived on Feb. 8, I trimmed them all to
equal size (7 1/2 inches), butted them together and zigzagged the blocks
together. Then I put on a traditional scrappy red doublefold binding.
Here's one of my favorite blocks--one of 10 that I kept
for my own quilt. The other 32 were traded with other North
American quilters
On the left is the back of the quilt when my original heart
blocks turned their faces to the wall.
On the right is the
back of the finished quilt.
A closeup of the back showing the pieced binding
Instructions--How to make the blocks
Fall Mended Hearts
Supply List
1. Making your heart template: Fold a 6" square of paper in half and cut
out a half heart just like you did in first grade. Unfold and take a
look. If you like it, that's your template. If you don't try another
one, skinnier, fatter, whatever. That's the instructions for a
symmetrical heart. If you'd prefer a freeform, lopsided heart just draw
it on your 6" paper square and cut it out.
2. For each set of two blocks you will need two different 8 1/2" squares
of light colored fabric for background, two different 8 1/2" squares of
any medium to dark fabric for backing, 2 8 1/2" squares of Warm &
Natural batting, and two hearts cut from different fall fabrics. It's
good to have fabrics that contrast with one another as well as hearts
that contrast well with the background.
You can cut 5 backing or background blocks from a long quarter yard.
You'll have less wasted fabric if you use long quarters rather than fat
quarters. One yard of 90" wide Warm & Natural batting will yield 30 or
more blocks.
3. You'll also need a variety of thread colors and types. Here's your
chance to use up tidbits of leftover thread and colors you no longer
like. Rayons and variegated threads work especially well. No thread is
too garish or too ugly for these blocks.
Instructions (Originally designed by Jennifer Hutchings & Susan T'Kon
Tuttle)
1. Trace around your heart template on the back of one of the 6" fall
fabrics. You can cut 4-6 hearts at a time if your shears are nice and
sharp.
2. Place two different backing squares face DOWN on the table and put a
square of Warm & Natural batting on top of each one. Top each stack with
a background square face UP and center a heart on each square. You don't
need to measure, you can do this by eye. Don't get obsessive about this,
it's meant to be fast and fun. Pin the whole sandwich together through
the heart. Now set your machine to zigzag, and sew the heart to the
background. This shouldn't be a satin stitch, a plain zigzag will do.
You might also want to experiment with some of the embroidery stitches
on your machine for appliqueing the heart to the block.
3. Now you're ready to quilt. You have a wide range of choices for
quilting. You can do free motion quilting with the feed-dogs down, or
use your embroidery stitches with feed-dogs up, or just do straight
stitching back and forth. Here's your chance to practice your machine
quilting without putting a huge quilt through your machine. Relax and
enjoy it. Try for a range of stitches and colors on each block. Squiggle
all over that block!! When you're tired of it--QUIT!
4. Now you're ready to mend. First make sure that your pair of blocks
has different backing, different background, and different heart
fabrics. Stack those heart blocks on your cutting mat one on top of the
other with the hearts facing in the same direction and whack them in two
pieces. You can either make a straight cut with rotary cutter and ruler,
or make an S curve using your sharpest shears.
5. Take a half from each block and "butt" them together--stick the cut
sides up against each other, but not overlapping. Set your machine to
the widest zigzag and mend those hearts--just zigzag right down the
middle of the cut. If you're not sure that the block is sturdy enough,
do it again. Change your stitch width or use another color.
That's it!! You're done! Total time about six minutes per block once you
begin to really churn them out (and half of that is changing threads and
stitches!) Wow, can you believe that it was that quick and easy and fun
to make two blocks?
6. From the original 8 1/2" your block will have shrunk down a bit
because of the quilting. Carefully trim each block back to 8" checking
both front and back sides to make sure you don't leave any batting
showing on the back side.
7. Assemble your quilt by stitching block to block in the same way you
mended the blocks--with a wide zigzag or another appropriate embroidery
stitch that covers the edges of your blocks. For an alternative
method for assembling your blocks, take a look at Jen's
mended hearts quiltlet.
This round I'm doing "spring" fabrics and I'm setting my
blocks on point. The last block is a composite of three separate blocks
using two cuts.
These are the blocks I received on May 6 from the central swap. The
quilters are: Kathy Kirkland (MT), Kim Bagala (LA), Lisa Bouchard (NH),
Laura Selmer (VA), and Heatherlynn Swenson (NY)
On the left is the finished quilt; on the right is the back of the quilt.
This time I used the "mending strips" method of putting the blocks
together using 1" wide strips of several different fabrics on the back and
3/4" wide strips of all the same fabric on the front. For directions on
how to use the mending strips, see Jen's Mended Hearts
Quiltlet
Here are
some spring mended hearts made by Heatherlynn--be patient and let these
load so you can see double and even triple heart blocks, some with double
cuts.
Placemats using the mended hearts technique
These placemats measure about 9.5 x 15.5"
Jen's Mended Hearts Quiltlet
Jen asked me to assemble her mended hearts quilt and she gave me
instructions for doing this different method. Above are pictures of the
finished front and back using 20 blocks. The quilters are:
row 1: Jennifer Hutchings, Pixie Malone, Betty Reynolds, Cindy
Spencer
row 2: Susan Geddes, Lory Penniman, Cheryl Wojak, Kathy
Kirkland
row 3: Vivian Ernsberger, Grace Penno, Lynn Bowbeer,
Bonnie Perry
row 4: Kathy Kirkland, Kim Bagala, Patsy Brown, Elizabeth
Wade
row 5: Barb Sherwood, Susan T'Kon, Shirlee Gotterbarn, Cinderella
Kroh
Jen's block from the front and one of Kathy Kirkland's blocks from the
back
Two more shots of the back including K2's other heart block
Now, here's how it's done:
Cut a whole bunch of 1 1/2" squares in whatever colors you want for
"mending sashing" and binding. The more variety in colors and prints
the better to go with the variety of fabrics in your blocks. If your
hearts are particularly large and come close to the edge of the blocks,
you might want to use smaller squares (1" or 1 1/4") but use 1 1/2"
for the binding squares. From the same or different fabrics cut (or
tear) 1" strips for "mending" the back seams. Again, the more variety
the better, so don't make these strips very long.
You start working from the back of the quilt. Put fancy thread in
your machine for the top and any old thread in the bobbin because the
bobbin thread will later be covered. Change to a wide zigzag stitch
(I like to use a three-stitch zigzag) Butt two blocks together, lay a
piece of mending strip along the seam and zigzag right down to the bottom
of the blocks. Then butt the next two blocks below and continue to zigzag
down the center. When you run out of mending strip, overlap another one
and keep going. Continue to add two blocks at a time until you come to
the bottom of the quilt. Turn it over and admire your work. If there are
a few little gaps don't worry because you'll mend again from the front.
If the gaps are major, fix them now.
Flip to the back again and starting from the top add another column of
blocks. Continue until your whole quilt is put together in vertical
columns. Now begin the whole process again on the horizontals.
Congratulations, the back is finished!
Now flip over to the front. You can either do the horizontal rows or the
verticals first. I did horizontals first and worked from the left side
of the quilt to the right side, but with the quilt upsidedown so that I
was stitching from right to left. Put fancy thread in both the top
and the bobbin and lower your feed dogs. Get set to do some free motion
stitching. Starting at one edge put a mending square down on point covering
the seam and start to scribble on it to hold it down. Before you get all
the way to the left hand point, overlap another square and continue on all
the way to the end of that row. Continue with the other seams until
they're all covered with overlapping squares.
Now you're ready for the "binding". Again you start from the back. You
can either do this free motion or return to a zigzag stitch. Put fancy
thread in the top and anything in the bobbin. Start at one corner, put a
square down on the diagonal with the widest part right along the quilt
edge. Begin to stitch it down and overlap the next square just a little
more than you overlapped the seam squares. When you get to the next
corner make sure you have enough square left to cover the corner, turn and
start down the next side. When you've done all four sides, flip the quilt
over, put in fancy bobbin thread, return to free motion, and scribble
stitch those points around to the front. Once around the quilt might not
be enough, so go around again for good measure giving it lots of loops and
swirls right into the quilt.
You're done! Hope the closeup photos above make this clear if my
directions haven't.
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