For many of us, we have so many quilts, that we get excited when we have a “reason” to make another. I find that holidays can be the perfect reason to create a new masterpiece. My recent Valentine’s project – Bless Your Heart Banner makes my heart happy.
This is another design that has both up close and far away appeal.
Top Design
Desiging banners can be both enjoyable and challenging. Most of these include either a panel or a center section where applique resides.
As I considered how to design Valentine’s Day Banner, the concept of hearts was at the forefront. I did not want to create something that was predictable. This is where the Bless Your Heart concept was born. This Texas sentiment does double-duty inside this banner
The first thing I did was decide on fabrics. I love how the Burgandy, whites, and black in my choices play so well together and provide impact.
The block designs are – wait for it… Paper-Pieced! By now you know I love paper-pieced blocks. These not only look super-cute, but they also provide a backdrop for custom quilting.
For the stylized hearts inside the middle, I sewed strips of my fabrics together. Then I cut out the larger hearts. For the smaller hearts, I made squares instead of strips and cut them out. Again, this helped to make areas for some fun custom quilting.
Custom Quilting
Speaking of quilting, there is a lot of custom long arm motifs in this quilt. Each quilt block has it’s own design as well as the applique hearts inside.
I used a McTavish pattern for most of the background quilting. This technique was developed by Karen McTavish (of course). You can learn more about her work in this video:
I adore how pretty this technique makes the background.
Final Quilt Stats
Quilt Name: Bless Your Heart Banner
Size: 40 x 60
Quilt Pattern: Custom
Thread: 10002 Super White Glide and Maroon
If you want to see more projects
- Visit the Blog Page on my Website
- Join the Facebook group Sewing and Quilting with Robyn. Here you can not only see what I am up to, but also share your own projects!
You must log in to post a comment.