April's Crazy Heart Block Tutorial

Hi ladies!  I am so excited to share this quilt block with you. It is a Buggy Barn quilt pattern that I saw on Pinterest and completely fell in love with.  The company has some really fun other patterns that I see ending up in my collection soon. heehee!

Sometime within the next week you should each be receiving your envelope of goodies from me.  Inside there will be some already cut fabric pieces, and a few pattern pieces that need to be cut.  There are three different color combinations divided up among all of you.  Some have red on the outside, some have white, and some have pink.  All red and white pieces have been included, along with some pink for the outside ones.  The remaining pattern pieces you have, regardless of which block you will be sewing together, are all for pink material.  The block is more fun the more fabrics are used, so dig through all those scraps and find as many different kinds of pinks as possible.  Any hue, any pattern, as long as the overall color is pink.

Once those have been cut, it's time to lay out the block.  I have included a scaled down version of the pattern to be used as a guideline.  Each pre-cut fabric piece has been labeled to help you out. When you are done, it should look something like this.

You will see on the included pattern that there are pieces labeled  1A, 2A, 3A, 4A or 1E,2E, etc.  Sew these pieces together first, following the numbered order.  So first 1C is sewn to 2C, and then 3C and 4C are added to the ends.  You will need to iron each seam as it is created, and then trim where necessary to create a straight edge to attach the next piece in the group.  It should now look a bit like this.

But oh goodness, there are hardly any perfectly straight edges.  This is normal.  It does not mean you sewed it together wrong. :)  Iron the pieces flat and then trim all edges, using the pieces themselves as your guide.

I laid my ruler on the long edges of the two middle pieces and whatever was left on either end, I chopped off.  Sometimes you will need to cut off a lot, sometimes there won't be anything to trim.  Main thing is to end up with a perfectly straight line.  Lay the pieces back out again, according to the included pattern, so you won't get confused while assembling the block.

Start in alphabetical order, sewing section B to section A.  Iron flat, trim edges where necessary, and then sew section C to the whole group. This is the only time you will need to really worry about lining up any seams perfectly.  Where piece 2A and 1C come together in the lower right hand corner must be just right, or the heart shape will be off when you are done.  However, as I discovered, just lining up the seams exactly doesn't do the job.  I ended up folding back the material to approximate a 1/4 edge seam, and then laid it over the fabric to line up the edges, and then pinned it there.  Sewing it wrong first actually helped with this as I could then follow the little holes left in the fabric for my 1/4 inch line. :)

Once that is done, iron and trim again, and then sew the outside pieces on, again following alphabetical order; D first, iron and trim, then add E, etc. 

Tada! The heart is all done!  Isn't it so fun?  Do not do any final trimming of the block, I will do that myself.  Not sure which size I will need to cut them to.....Thanks, ladies.  Can't wait to see your gorgeous creations!