In My Heart Quilt Pattern
I designed this quilt more than a year ago when my daughter was leaving for college. She wanted a cozy, colorful, modern quilt, so I got to work.
I wanted something very special and these hearts are so her! She is the person that is always thinking about others, always trying to help, always with a good attitude and a smile on her face, even in times when things are not easy for her. She is the girl that has the best time with her peers, but can also spend the day talking to her grandpa or playing with her little cousin. It doesn’t matter who you are, she is able to really enjoy spending time with you, learning from you or telling you stories.
Oh, and don’t get me wrong, she has a strong personality, she knows what she wants and it’s not easy to make her change her mind. She is a straight A student, but you would never know, because she never brags about it. So, yes, I feel really blessed to have the honor of being her mom and she is always in my heart!
And now more about the pattern itself. It’s a block-based pattern, and it’s not hard to put together even though the blocks are on point (which means on the diagonal, or rotated, for my beginner friends). Sewing on the diagonal, or on the bias, presents the challenge that the fabric tends to stretch, so we have to be more careful.
One of the things I do is I starch all my fabric before I start cutting, and when I say I starch, I mean I heavily starch. So when I’m cutting, it behaves similar to paper and my blocks stretch very little if at all. Another advantage of starching is that you will get way less fraying which is great! Also, use a good iron in the hottest setting your fabric allows.
I think the most helpful thing is going slow; don’t step on your pedal with all your energy, take it easy and you will be fine.
I provide you with lots of graphics, I’m such a visual learner, and I’m also a graphic designer, so instead of just telling you what to do, I like showing you with diagrams and illustrations as well.
I used solid bright colors, but you could easily dig into your stash and make it a scrappy quilt or grab a fat eighth bundle and make one all coordinated.
I decided on Minky for the backing, since it’s the coziest fabric, and Kaitlyn from Knot and Thread quilted it so beautifully with this super-fun bubble pattern.
I always love a striped binding, so you will find it very often in my quilts. This one is 1/8” navy stripes from Riley Blake. I like to hand bind my quilts, but sometimes, I do machine bind them if I’m short of time or if, like in this case, the quilt is probably going to be washed a lot!
You can find the In My Heart Quilt Pattern in my shop.
Don’t forget to use the #inmyheartquilt and #sewmarianapatterns so I can see your progress in social media.