Patchwork Heart Pillow - A tutorial

I thought I would share with you a patchwork heart pillow I made recently for Valentine's Day.  It is super easy, and a great way to use up your scraps!

You will need:
A variety of red, pinks and whatever else you want to throw in there.  Be scrappy!  The scrappier the better.
White fabric
Basic sewing tools (cutting mat, rotary cutter, thread)
Left over batting
Pillow form - My pillow is an 18" pillow form.  You could use this tutorial for any size pillow form - just adjust your square sizes and maybe the border sizes to make it fit.

1.  Cut your colored scraps into whatever size square you want them to be.  I used my 2.5 Omnigrid template. You will need 20 scrappy squares.

2.  Cut out 6 white squares, same size as your scrappy squares.

Half Square Triangles:
The heart has 10 half square triangles (HST's). For the HST's, we will need these to be a little bit bigger than our 2.5 blocks.  I found an awesome chart to help you figure out what size you will need.  There is a math formula out there, but let's face it, THIS girl does NOT do math. ;)

Click on the link below for tips on making HST's and/or the alternative method.

Courtesy of Blossom Heart Quilts

3.  Cut out 10 squares of white for your HST's - based on the chart above.  For my 2.5 blocks, I cut out size 3 3/8 white squares.
4.  Cut out 10 squares of your red/pink prints for the HST's - same size as above on #2.

This is great for fussy cutting prints.  I love these butterflies.

5.  Lay out your prints how you would like them to form the heart.

6.  Now we will make our 10 HST's.  Use your preferred method for making these.  Chain piecing is a great time and thread saver!

7.  Add your HST's to your heart layout.  Use the above as a guideline.  Also lay out your 6 white squares for the bottom 2 rows.
8.  Sew your blocks together by row, using a 1/4 seam allowance.  Depending on your HST's, you may need a scant 1/4 seam allowance.  Just watch for the corners where the HST's meet, if it cuts off the point of your triangle, rip it out and sew a scant 1/4 seam allowance.  (I had to do this a few times) :(
9.  Iron your seams flat and open.  I typically iron to one side, but for small projects as a pillow, I usually press them open as I like the look better.

10.  Now it's time to sew your rows together.  I pin my seams with the Clover fork pins.  They work great for keeping the seams in line.
11.  Once all your rows are put together, trim the heart square.

12.  Once your heart is finished, you can add borders if you want.  I cut out a 2 inch white border, then used a 3 inch red border to frame it.  You could also make it scrappy using your blocks cut out for the heart!

13.  Quilt as desired!  I sandwiched this with left over batting and a cheap muslin from Joann's for the back.  I quilted it using a crosshatch grid.  I have a Frixon pen and they are awesome for this.  Iron it once you are done quilting and the pen marks disappear.  It's magical!

For the back I used the envelope method.  There are lots of easy peasy tutorials out there for this - it really is simple.

There you go!  I hope you will use my tutorial to make one for Valentines day!  Make one, make two!
Make one for friends!  Share the love!   ♥♥

If you make one using my tutorial, I'd love to see!  Leave a comment with your link!  :)

♥