Hearts

I recently resurrected an old project that was created in Electric Quilt 4.  In an attempt to find the inspiration for that project, I ended up opening a number of my old projects.  Although I never found the quilt I was looking for, I did discover the quilt I am sharing with you today.  

The quilt has blocks on Layer 1 and Layer 2.  And two different heart blocks.  I was actually pretty impressed that I was able to do it in EQ4. 

However the EQ4 fabric options weren't very pretty (i.e. they were ugly in those days).  And I did see a few flaws in my design.  So I decided to redo the project in EQ8.

This ended up being a quilt that I made from my EQ4 design-- because I thought that was what I was suppose to do with my EQ designs.

Fabrics

Hollyhocks and Roses by Bunny Hill Designs for Moda

In my search for a collection of fabrics with pinks and reds, I found Hollyhocks and Roses by Bunny Hill Designs for Moda.  It was part of the EQ Stash Collection - 2024 Download 2 - from Electric Quilt.

If you don't want to purchase the Stash collection, the fabric can also be downloaded from the Moda website.

In the video, I share how I added the fabrics from the Stash Collection to my Hearts project.

(I did end up including an additional red (solid) for my cornerstones.

Heart Blocks

While EQ does have a heart under Shapes in the Applique toolkit, I don't actually love the shape of the heart. 

Rather that editing that heart, I decided to pick a heart block from the EQ library that better reflected the style of heart I wanted in my quilt.

In the video, I cover finding and editing the block from the library and creating two different heart blocks that were used in the quilt.

Heart Flower Block under Contemporary Applique - Hearts in the EQ8 Library

Heart Block for Quilt Center

Heart Block for Remaining blocks in the Quilt

The blocks will be set in an on point quilt, so don't worry about adjusting the fabric rotation on the block worktable.

Hearts Quilt

Set up a new quilt with the style On Point.

In the Layout tab, set  the number of blocks at 3 horizontal and 4 vertical.

Set the size of the blocks at 4 inches.

Set the sashing at 1 inch.

On Point Layout for Hearts Quilt

The quilt has three borders:

Border #1 - 1" Long Horizontal

Border #2 - 3" Mitered  (I went with Mitered as I used a directional print in the border.)

​​Border #3 - .25" Mitered (for binding)

Hearts Quilt Layout with Borders

The 2nd heart block was placed on Layer 1 with a single click in each of the block spaces.

The remainder of the quilt was colored (with the exception of the four squares and sashing in the center).

Not coloring the blocks under another block, will improve the fabric yardage calculations.

The 1st heart block will need to be dragged onto Layer 2 and the size set with the adjust tool.  There are no predefined spaces on Layer 2 -- so we get to decide both size and placement of any blocks.

Hearts Quilt - Layer 1

Heart Quilt - Layer 2

Check out the full tutorial in the video.

Create your own heart quilt in Electric Quilt.  If you would like to challenge yourself, consider using a different applique element in the blocks.

I would love to see your design.

I've set up a separate post in the Learning EQ Group where you can share your designs.  (Or even your favorite heart quilt).

Learning EQ Facebook Group Post for Hearts Quilt

Hearts Quilt Construction

Rather than use applique hearts, I used a collection of doilies for my Hearts quilt. 

I did a straight stitch over the edge of the doily (using a matching thread).  Super simple (and fast). 

​Some of the doilies were quartered. 

​For the smaller doilies, I just centered them in the block.

Heart Quilt with Doilies Created by Kari Schell

Happy quilting.

​Kari

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