In Love With Lace

This quilted heart wallhanging designed by guest Sharon Rexroad is a great quilt for beginners. It uses 22 heart blocks. Here's how to make it.

Materials:

six, eight-inch doilies with eight scalloped segments and strong edges (figure A)
six different shades of pink fabric including reds, purples and some novelty prints
purple glue stick
basic quilting supplies
pale color fabric for sashing
dark color fabric for accent pieces
fabric for border
book: Doily Magic is out of print

Cutting instructions

1. Cut a 10-inch square from each of the six shades of fabrics. One 10-inch square will make four heart blocks.

2. You'll also need to cut four strips of each shade of fabric at 2" x 5" and four strips at 2" x 6-1/2".

Cutting the doily hearts

1. With a pencil, draw a line five inches from the edge of a piece of the 10-inch square fabric (figure B). Repeat on the opposite edge to create a cross on the fabric.

Lace doily heart quilt

Figure A

Figure B

2. Place a doily on the fabric with the center of the doily over the center where the two lines cross. Be sure that the valleys of the scalloped edges fall on the lines (figure C). Tip - Pair heavily-patterned fabrics with more plain doilies. If the doily you're using is very lacy, it tends to get lost on a heavily-patterned fabric.

3. Apply purple-colored glue stick to the scalloped edges of the doilies and through the center (follow the lines you drew earlier) (figure D). Don't worry, the purple-colored glue stick will dry clear.

4. Flip the doily over and position it on the 10-inch square with the center of the doily over the center where the two lines cross (figure E).

Figure C

Figure D

Figure E

5. Place a ruler on one of the five inch lines and cut. Repeat on the other line. You now have four heart blocks (figure F).

6. Repeat the following steps with the other five doilies. You'll have 24 heart blocks, though you'll only need 22 for this project.

Block Assembly

1. Matching the background fabric to the strips cut earlier, use a shorter stitch length to sew a 2" x 5" strip of fabric to the bottom of one heart block (figure G). The shorter stitch length will help prevent raveling or pulling on the doily.

Figure F

Figure G

Figure H

2. Next, use a shorter stitch length to sew a 2" x 6-1/2" strip to the other side of the block (figure H) completing a diamond-shaped, centered heart block. Repeat these steps until you've assembled 22 heart blocks.

3. Cut 48, 1-1/2" x 6-1/2" strips of pale-colored sashing fabric and 31, 1-1/2-inch squares of dark accent pieces (figure I).

Figure I

Figure J

Figure K

4. The edges of the block piecing will require 10 quarter-square triangles (figure J) and four half-square triangles to fill in the design. To get the quarter-square triangles, cut a 9-3/4-inch square from three colors of the six fabrics used for the heart blocks, then cut the square on both diagonals to create four triangles. You'll have a couple extra of these. To get the four half-square triangles, cut four 5-1/8-inch squares from different colors of the heart block fabrics. Cut these in half diagonally to make four corner pieces. You'll have four of these left over.

5. Lay out 18 of the 22 alternating colors of heart blocks, positioning the sashing strips, accent pieces and alternating colors of triangles as shown (figure K). Place three heart blocks in the top row, two in the second, three in the third, two in the fourth, three in the fifth, two in the sixth and three in the seventh with sashing and accent pieces all around. Place one of the four smaller triangles in each corner and the10 larger triangles along the tops and sides of the perimeter formed by the heart blocks. Once the quilt is laid out, work in diagonal rows to stitch the pieces together. Then sew the diagonal rows together.

6. For the border, cut two six-inch wide pieces from the border fabric measuring the length of the finished quilt top from step 5. Cut two six-inch wide border pieces measuring the width of the finished quilt top from step 5. Place these border pieces along the perimeter of the quilt then position the four remaining heart blocks in the space at each corner, turning the block so the hearts point in diagonally toward the quilt. Stitch the heart blocks to the top and bottom border pieces then sew the each border piece to the quilt.

7. When quilting, you can machine quilt through the doilies without difficulty. Re-glue before quilting if any doilies are lifting off surface. If you want to hand quilt, slipstitch the edge of each doily piece down before you start quilting on the doilies. Guests
Sharon Rexroad
Author and owner of Through the Screen Door
Website: www.sharonrexroad.com
Also in this Episode

Simply Quilts : Episode QLT-565
•	Quilt Bed & Breakfast
•	In Love With Lace