Heart for Hugs
This one was also fun to make. The story starts with a decision to make my own templates......... in this case heart templates!
..... the rest of the story
I started by making a variety of heart templates in acrylic and then designing a quilt to suit. The various sizes were never going to tesselate together nicely, so I was always going to have to use sashing to balance the sizes and make it manageable when sewing. I designed the pattern to work in six sections, but more about that shortly. First the templates...........
There are 9 different sizes and two different shapes.
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They are available through various Fabric/Quilting shops like "The Stitch House" in Carseldine, Brisbane
I had the perfect fabric with the "Dit-Dot - Evolution" range by Jason Yenter for "In the Beginning Fabrics and "Twilight" by Sally Kelly for Windham Fabrics. Sally's fabric is for the hearts, the Dit-Dot range is for the blenders and one of the sashings.
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This quilt does lend itself to using up scraps, just make sure your fabric is 100% cotton.
Quilting by
There are 79 hearts in the quilt.
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I made the hearts as appliqué, using Embroidery Stabiliser Appliqué Fuse and Fix sheets. I chose a product specifically for quilt appliqué as they can be stitched through and will not gum up the needle and does not leave the appliqué feeling overly stiff. This was important when quilting.
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I also had fun with decorative stitching around and on the hearts.
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The complexity was in the construction and use of sashing, I wanted to avoid any awkward joins so, ​I created a chart for the layout, which is divided into 6 sections for easier management when sewing.