July 16, 2018 Hearts

We're in for a lot of fun sewing in the next few weeks. We will be sewing Christmas Cheer by Cotton Way.  The pattern can be purchased here. The fabric we will be using is Vintage Holiday by Bonnie and Camille. The kit can be purchased here. I will not be posting measurements of the pieces. You will have to purchase the pattern to find this information.

How is everyone doing on their rows? If you're behind don't worry...the blocks are easy and you can get caught up easily. We're onto row 4, hearts. This is a simple block to make and I'll give you a few hints to make it even easier. Let's get started.

First things first...decide on your fabrics for your hearts. I decided on these.

You will need to cut 2 each of all 14 fabrics. These are your A blocks.

Cut out background fabrics. You will need 56 B pieces and 28 C pieces.  You will also need to cut your filler strips and your end strips. Check your pattern for sizes and directions from the designer.

Here are my fabrics all grouped together.

I then sorted each of these into a left heart and a right heart.

Attaching B to heart...I marked a line from corner to opposite corner of the small B square, sew on the line marked on B for the inner corner of the left side of the heart. I pressed the left side of the heart to the colored fabrics. It will make it easier to nest your fabrics together when you're sewing the hearts together.

Tip! Sit directly in front of your machine, so you are looking directly at where your needle sews into  the fabric. You will get a more accurate seam, by sitting directly in front, so your view isn't off a little.

Do the same thing with the right side of the heart by adding the B square. Trim to 1/4" and press. I pressed this seam to the white.

Add the B squares after you mark the lines and sew on the line to the outer sides of the heart for the left and right side. Trim to 1/4" and press. I pressed this seam to the white.

Next I marked all of my C squares from corner to corner. I attached all of my C squares to my hearts, then attached the C squares to the right side of my hearts. Trim to 1/4" and press the left side seams to the colored fabrics and the right side seams to the white fabrics.

Sew both sides of heart together for each fabric. I pressed this seam open because of bulk.

Here is a pic of my pressing.

I then decided how I wanted my layout.

I stacked them up in the order from I wanted them from left to right, with the farthest left being on top and sewed an end strip to the first heart and then started sewing my sashing strips to the left side of all the hearts. (I added the right end strip later.) I pressed each row to the sashing strip. (I used a leader/ender to be able to press everything at one time and keep everything in order.)

I then stacked them up again (in order) and sewed heart 1 and 2 together, 3 and 4 together and so on, once again using a leader/ender to press together and keep in order.

And voila, everything went together perfectly. Measure once again from the center out for 36-1/4", trim and measure the opposite side.

Here is my completed row.  I then sewed my sashing strip to the bottom of this row and added this row to the completed rows 1-3. Check out Facebook for the my completed rows.

I'll be back in two weeks and we'll be working on the Peppermints.