At the Sprat & Winkle Quilters Group we have been asked to make small quilts for the Special Baby Care Unit at Winchester Hospital. This is something that we do usually every other year. The maximum size of the quilt should be 24 inches square and this year the theme is Hearts.

I remember a design used by Jo at Cowslip Workshops in Cornwall that featured squares with appliqué hearts and decided to base my quilt on that idea.

inspiration

I checked my (giant!) box of scraps and selected several pieces in the Red colourway. These were pressed and the final selection was 3 different pieces to which I applied HeatnBond fusible web. I have a great ‘folk art’ style heart-shaped die for my Sissix machine and used that to cut 25 shapes from the prepared fabrics.

Using mostly plain calico (from Lady Sew & Sew) I cut some 5 inch squares to which I then applied the heart shapes. Then I arranged the squares/hearts in a symmetrical design before using a fine satin stitch around the edge of each heart shape.

The squares were sewn together using a 3/8^th seam allowance and turnings were pressed open and flat. The quilt sandwich is made from some cotton/polyester wadding from my scrap plus more plain Calico for the backing.

The quilting was done on the machine using a 3.5 stitch length, a quilting needle and walking foot. The design is a grid straight lines 3/8^th from each joining seam. The binding was cut from one of the other remnants in my scrap bin. I cut on the straight grain 2½ inches wide with diagonal seams. The binding was pressed in half wrong sides together before applying to the right side of the quilt. I mitred the corners and turned to the reverse of the quilt before hand stitching in place. The finished quilt measures just 21 inches square.

I am so pleased with the quilt that I intend to make another! Next time using remnants of Blue print cottons and possibly striped fabrics for the background squares as demonstrated in the Cowslip Workshops cushion.