Piecing the heart together on this sweet Valentine-themed quilt

Yesterday I showed how to make 2 decoratively stitched fabric circles using the Circular Attachment and the SA186 open toe foot on the Brother Innov-ís BQ3050 machine. Today I’ll show how to make a simple pieced heart and use these circles to make a border for a little Valentine quilt.

materials

Red heart fabric

2 – 3½” x 6½” rectangles for heart shape
4 – 4½” squares for outer border

Light border and background

4 – 1½” squares
2 – 3½” squares
2 – 1½” x 6½” rectangles
2 – 1½” x 9½” rectangles

• I’ll be sewing squares to the red rectangles to make half-square triangle corners, so this is a good time to use the laser light feature on the Brother Innov-ís BQ3050. Press the laser light button on the screen and the red guide line appears.
• Line up the red laser line so it goes from corner to corner on the squares. Then start stitching.
• Remember to watch the laser line and not the needle while stitching.
• It’s also helpful to use the SA186 open toe foot for accurate stitching.

• Sewing from corner to corner of the squares, sew 2 – 1½” squares to the top of each red rectangle to make half-square triangles.
• Sew a 3½” square to the bottom of each red rectangle in the same way. Sew the square on the right side of one rectangle and on the left side of the other rectangle.
• Trim the extra fabric from the squares if desired.
• Press squares back over the rectangles.

• Sew the 2 sections of the heart shape together. Press seam open.

• Sew a 1½” x 6½” sashing strip to the top and bottom.
• Sew a 1½” x 9½” sashing strip to each side.

Make the outer border

• Carefully remove the stabilizer from the back of the stitched circles.
• Cut the 12½” square with stitched circle in half to make 4 border strips.
• Trim to make each strip to 4½” x 9½”, making sure to keep the half circles centered.

• Sew one border to each side.
• Sew a 4½” square to each end of the remaining half circle borders.
• Sew these borders to the top and bottom.

Using the Circular Attachment along with the SA186 open toe foot and laser light function on the Brother Innov-ís BQ3050 makes this a fun Valentine project. This 17½” square is perfect to use for a Valentine project such as a table topper, wall quilt or tote bag.

Come back tomorrow to see some variations of the Four Hearts design that I made on Monday and Tuesday, as well as some other design ideas using the Circular Attachment.