Thursday, February 17, 2011

free piecing study - february - heart

disclaimer - i've been sick for a week, but i really wanted to get this tutorial done. so it is probably full of typos and such. i'm sure you'll understand. right? right!

i've had hearts on the brain ever since seeing this and this and this. aren't they fab? most tutorial for hearts have a seam down the center of the heart. and it bugs me that i have to match up that seam. ugh. but after studying the hearts in those pictures, there are many ways to make them! and i want to share with you the way i made some.

basically you have a seam across the heart and then you whack off the part that doesn't match up. that's my kind of sewing!


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start with a squarish or rectangular fabric for the heart and slice it into two pieces with one larger that the other. the larger piece will be the bottom of your heart.



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now cut a background piece a little taller than your heart piece. do you see it? it's an upside down house roof! that was the aha part for me. now cut out the bottom part of your heart and the corresponding background piece.



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now use the triangular background piece for the top of the heart. look! another upside down house roof! and sew your roofs (i mean heart pieces) together.



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now use some more of that background triangle piece to cut some smaller triangles.



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sew those triangles on, and sew the top and bottom halves of the heart together. trim the sides so you add some shape to your heart and sew on some background pieces to the sides and top to frame your heart. you can add additional logs to the block to make it larger.



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a heart for molly!

hope the tutorial is useful to you!

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i've heard mentioned a few times since the start of the study two things. first, "i can't seem to free up and put angles in my blocks." second, "free piecing causes waste." i think these two thoughts are connected. maybe you're not cutting on angles because you are thinking of the waste. yes, free piecing does cause some wasting of fabric. however, it is the price you pay for not having to worry about points matching. it is also the price you pay to have a block that has more personality. i will gladly pay this price. will you? if it truly bothers you, just use scraps for your free piecing. you won't mind the waste so much and you'll be using up some of your scraps!

12 comments:

Molly said...

Thanks, girl! I'm sure I will find this helpful as I seem to always read way more into free-piecing than I should thereby making it more difficult than it should be! This is great!

Vicki said...

Thanks for linking to my photo! I don't know if I mentioned this in my blog entry about my heart table runner, or if I linked the flickr photo to the blog at all, but I got the idea (and then modified it a bit) from pleasant home: http://www.pleasant-home.com/2011/01/free-pieced-heart-table-runner-for.html

:)

susan said...

i love this heart. i will be using it for my heart for julie. i like how you get a more shapely heart. great tute!
i keep all my fabrics for the study in a box. scraps and all. if i need a smaller bit i just grab it out of the box instead of cutting something big. i am trying to loosen up!!

jovaliquilts said...

Wonderful tutorial, thanks! I really like how this heart looks.

Marit said...

thank you!

; )

the Campfollower said...

great tutorial, Sarah!

Turid said...

Thank you so much for this great tutorial. Now I can make a new try. Think this will come out much better.I always think of not waisting fabric, but in this project I've found a way out of that. I'll show you all in some days...

Scott at the Blue Nickel said...

that is a great little heart tut! Love hearts all the year...I will have to add that to my list to do!!

Scott at the Blue Nickel said...

that is a great little heart tut! Love hearts all the year...I will have to add that to my list to do!!

audreypawdrey said...

Thank you for sharing this! I have been wanting to make hearts, but I wasn't sure of a good way to start.

Unknown said...

These are seriously addictive! Thanks for the tute! :)

Emerald Coast Modern Quilt Guild said...

Hi Sarah. Thanks for such a neat tutorial. We are linking to your tutorial for the "To Boston With Love" effort.