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Small Fabric Hearts to Share

DISCLAIMER: The photos in this post are taken from #IFAQH. They are hearts that have already been found. I don’t want anyone to know what the ones I make look like!

Quilted Hearts shown on the I Found a Quilted Heart website.

In the past few months I found a cool charity project that I want to share with you. Quilters are amazingly generous people. We often hear of people donating quilts to the Ukrainian refugees or to victims of natural disasters. I was recently the recipient of a donation of some USMC uniforms from a fellow Marine Mom to make something special for my son and I feel her love each time I look at those uniforms. I will share that project eventually- it is still in my head working out the bugs.

Anyway, this is a very simple project. People make small hearts out of fabric and leave them in public places where others can find them. It is a way to show a little love and kindness to a stranger.

And the stories are amazing.

I hope you will go to the website www.IFoundAQuiltedHeart.com and learn more about the project if you are interested. They also have a Facebook group that is pretty active and a feed on Instagram. Because I know you might not follow the link. . . here is some information.

There ARE rules.

  • Do not hand, give or gift hearts to people. (Hearts need to be “found.”)
  • Do not leave hearts on personal or private property, such as a front porch, vehicle, door, bicycle, mailbox, gate, little libraries, etc. (Not public)
  • Do not leave hearts in a cluster, like a giving tree. (Not random)
  • Do not leave hearts in places that are not public: hotel rooms, work desk, break rooms, office, private retreat, etc. (Not public )
  • Do not leave hearts inside any kind of retail store or on retail displays. (Can be mistaken for merchandise.)
  • Do not leave hearts in airports. (Homeland security does not approve!)
  • Do not leave hearts in National Parks, Wilderness, Forests, Monuments, Bureau of Land Managements, or other Federal Public Lands areas. (Federal Regulation Title 36, 2.22 (a))
  • Do not leave hearts in bathrooms, restrooms, washrooms, etc. (Unsanitary)
  • Do not leave in places where they may be thrown away by staff. (Super Sad)
A quilted heart that was found by a stranger.

You make the fabric heart and embellish it however you want. Then you add a small tag to it that says ONLY:

Don’t add ANY OTHER WORDS and the tag should be plain text. Here is the link to the group’s official printable tags. You can handwrite your tags if you need to, but don’t add words or artwork.

As you know, I am a longarm quilter. I often end up with extra fabric and backing on my frame at the end or on the side of a quilt and I realized that was a great opportunity to make a few hearts. And then I thought that more longarmers could do the same if they had some simple stitching designs that would be quick and easy to stitch out.

So. . . here we are… way outside my comfort zone, but I am going there anyway. I have designed three small heart designs that can be stitched on ANY longarm system that I am giving away FREE. They are not fancy and they are my first public offering of a digital stitch pattern- which is scary! I hope you will go download these and tell your longarming friends to get them as well. Let’s spread the world with tiny fabric hearts. They should stitch at about 4″ x 4″ but feel free to change their sizes.

The designs are totally FREE, but you do have to check out through The Shoppe so that the downloads can be delivered.

There are a few tips I can give you as a longarmer.

  • You can fit several designs in a 6″ border type area by flipping every other heart.
  • You can have pieced border strips ready to add at the end of a quilt.
  • Putting some of the hearts at diagonals totally changes how they look.
  • These designs are pretty small- you might want to put your stitch per inch up to about 16 to smooth out the curves- especially on the stipple heart.
FREE digital heart designs for you to use from Oh Kaye Quilting.

If you have any problems with the files (or any successes!) please let me know at ohkayequilting@gmail.com.

Harry Potter Panel Quilt

Hogwarts Quilt by Kaye Collins

Every year at Handi Quilter Academy we have a theme. This year the theme was “CinemAcademy” and the whole experience was based on going to the movies. Each team of teachers is assigned a classroom to decorate and our team chose Harry Potter as our theme. We didn’t correlate our classes with the theme but we did decorate our room with all things supernatural.

Twilight Quilt by Kristina Whitney

One of the big draws in our class was a “Twilight” quilt by Kristina Whitney who did a bit of trapunto on the chest of one of the werewolves. It was quite spectacular to see everyone feeling the quilt to find the enhanced six pack! I’ll admit it- I ran away at vampire speed when I noticed the cameras coming out!!! What a riot!

This is a simple quilt: she used a length of the novelty fabric and surrounded it with three borders. It is quilted with an Edge to Edge design but I can’t remember what it was.

The quilt I made for the classroom was a cheat by my standards! I bought a panel on Amazon and put an Edge to Edge design on it using Anne Bright’s Wizard’s Wear design. I didn’t even add any borders because I thought it would detract from the panel rather than adding to it. I did put a pretty cool backing on the quilt using fabric from the Space Glow line by Lewis and Irene.

Find Anne Bright’s design HERE

Contact me if you are looking for the BACKING fabric. . . I have several yards available.

The panel is NOT cotton but that didn’t matter to me and it quilted up beautifully. It is polyester and comes in two sizes- a 70″ x 70″ and a 70″ x 90″. As we all know, prices on Amazon fluctuate but this item appears to be in the $19.99-$21.99 range so it is a great deal!

Find the panel HERE

This is an affiliate link. When you use the link I receive a small percentage of the sale.

Although it didn’t take too long to make this quilt, it really has a lot of impact. I used 80/20 batting in it and I put the binding on while it was on my longarm frame and then finished the binding with my domestic machine. You can get a sense of the scale of this quilt seeing Shauna Westergard and I sitting in front of it during class.

If you make a panel quilt, share your work so I can enjoy it!

Potter Academy Quilt Label
Glow-in-the-Dark Fabric on back of Harry Potter Quilt

Striped Friendship Star

I think you are going to love how this month’s Quilt Block Mania quilt block looks. . . but even more how fun it is to make. It is MUCH easier than it looks because you aren’t going to be sewing any little pieces. I promise this one is quick, easy and satisfying.

I recommend that you pick 5colors that go together in an ombre-ish effect plus an unusual background color that makes things pop.

When you cut the triangles, you end up with two color orders, so why not just whip up a quick quilt?

Don’t forget to grab all the other great Friendship Blocks!!!

Friendship Heart Circle by Carolina Moore
Best Friends by Inquiring Quilter
Friendship Butterfly by Inflorescence
Mans Best Friend by Scrapdash
Circle of Friends by Sugar Sand Quilt Co.
Friendship Bracelets by QuiltFabrication
Hearts Entwined at Patti’s Patchwork
Friendship Chain at The (not so) Dramatic Life
Tea Cup by Penny Spool Quilts
Dog Paw by Crafty Staci
Scrappy Friendship Star by Katie Mae Quilts
My Best Friend’s House by The Quilted Diary
Striped Friendship Block by Kaye Collins
Circle of Friends by Applliques Quilts and More
Loving Friends by Epida Studio
Friends by Patchwork Breeze
Intersections by Brown Bird Designs
Pineapple by Emerald Falls Quilts
Friendship Bracelets by A Piece of Quiet Quilts

Good Fences

This was a tough theme for me. . . mostly because I was slow to sign up and all the obvious things were already taken. Then I remembered the quote “good fences make good neighbors” which comes from Robert Frost’s poem “Mending Wall”. I can say that this quote has certainly proved true in my own life. “Nuff said.

This block is traditionally pieced and it is easy. . . BUT there are 32 little pieces that make it up so sewing a consistent 1/4″ seam is important or things might get wonky in a hurry.

Just a note- if you want to make several of these blocks, I give strip piecing instructions at the end of the pattern. There is also a section that will teach you how to “snowball”.

Store Front Quilt Block by Carolina Moore
Funky Town by Inquiring Quilter
Swing Set
Rail Fence by Scrapdash
Neighbors by QuiltFabrication
Neighborhood trees
House of Worship at Patti’s Patchwork

Jellybean Row by Penny Spool Quilts
Mr. Roger’s Sweater by Crafty Staci
Block Party at Lovingly, Lissa
Mid Modern Home
Home Sweet Home by the Quilte Diary
Bird House
Applique English cottage by Flowerdog+Co
Street Sign
Park Entrance at Patchwork Breeze
Good Fences by Kaye Collins
Down the street
Mr. Rogers Trolley Quilt Block by The Quilting Room
Log Cabin Garden by Epida Studio
Garden Flags by A Piece of Quiet Quilts
Charleston Palm Tree
House and Tree