HeartStrings Quilt Project

In memory of Bev, our host for many years of the HeartStrings Maine sew-ins, we are doing a project to make and donate quilts to Veteran’s in Maine.

You can either make HeartStrings blocks using just red/white/blue strings to send in for group quilts or work on your own quilt to be donated.

For blocks to be sent in, the following instructions should be used:

HEARTSTRING BLOCKS – to be pieced on a cotton fabric foundation; muslin (preferred) or any cotton fabric can be used, if using dark or printed fabric foundations they shouldn’t be visible through the strings pieced on top of it.

Please start with a foundation that is 10 inches square.

Using only Red/White/Blue strings, use a 2 inch BLUE string for the center and add strings on either side of the center strip until the entire foundation is covered.

Refer to the above photo if you have any questions about how the block should look – you can click on the photo to see a larger view.

You may use strips of any width up to 2 ½ inches wide in your blocks; you may use strips all the same width or a variety of different widths in each block. You can even use strips that are not a consistent width down their entire length if you wish.

You can use any 100% cotton Red/White/Blue fabric for your strips once you’ve got the blue starter strip in the center.

When you’ve covered the entire foundation, press it and then trim it back to 9 and 1/2 inches square.

We will also accept other blocks such as red or white centers or regular Heartstrings Blocks, you would need to make a complete set of 48 blocks.  You are not limited to Heartstring blocks, I know Sharon is currently working on a RWB log cabin.  We ask that the quilt measure approx.  54×72.  When sending in a top to be quilted, if you could please include a binding cut at 2 1/2″ wide, this will be easier for the assembly crew.

Anyone wanting to donate blocks, a top, or a quilt as a tribute to Bev, can email me for the address to mail the blocks.

mmcjohnson@gmail.com

We hope to get together in September to work on these quilts so please send in your blocks or tops before then.

How cute is this?? Pat finished up a string quilt and shared the photo with us. It is SO cute I just had to share it here. Click the link above to see Pat’s blog post.

I’ve done a couple little quilts for my sister’s cats but I didn’t think about using strings. I used a panel and made a “window” for them to look out.

Nancy and her Peace by Piece quilters have been super busy since they began the participating in the Little Quilt and Critter project. Donating hundreds!

They donate them to police and sheriffs in Connecticut and Nancy was just interviewed by a local news station. Take a look at the video by clicking this link.

As you’ll see, they’ve also donated many quilts over the years including HeartStrings ones. It’s been a blessing to have Nancy as a part of our group over the years.

Stephanie is making a good start … 3 HeartStrings UFOs finished already and all of them gorgeous!

Click on the first one and scroll to see a larger view of each of them.

We’re also continuing to work on the boxes of tops sent to us by Valerie in Maine. Looking at the photo album, 75 photos had been uploaded in 2025 … and two more finishes so far this year. Some of these are getting additional borders to make them a little larger others are being finished as is.

One finished by Kat …

And one finished by me.

There will be lots more of these finished and donated in the months to come … we don’t have photos of them all but I appreciate everyone who volunteered to help with them.

We had a wonderful week in Maine working on quilts to donate. Here are some of our string quilts …

And these are just some of the other tops that were completed.

So we are still working on our larger quilts for donation even though we had fun with the Little Quilt Project. It’s also FUN to use up those leftovers.

Kathleen made this HeartStrings quilt.

Stephanie made this cute heart quilt mostly from leftover binding bits!

This is one of my Rail Fence quilts just finished made from leftover strips and strings.

And of course … Happy Blocks are always a favorite. This is one of the 3 fabric versions but they’re great for leftover novelty fabrics too!

Thanks again for your participation in our Little Quilts Project in February/March.

Nancy, Kat, and I have been working to finish tops that were sent in and to pair little quilts with critters.

I wanted to share with you just a few of them all wrapped up and ready to donate.

There are still more and we will get those done and donated too in the coming months.

Our Little Quilt project is finished and I want to thank all of you who participated by sending little quilts or little tops. We’ll be working on finishing up the tops and all of them will be paired with critters and donated.

These were the last ones to arrive this past week. Click on a photo to see a larger view and you can scroll through them all.

The little quilts and tops keep coming in! We’ve had a really nice response to our project and lots of kids will have critters wrapped up in these to cuddle in difficult times. That makes my heart happy!

Click on a photo below to see a larger view and to scroll through the slide show.

Our project is coming to an end so if you have little tops or quilts to send in please get them mailed in the next 2-3 weeks. I will be sharing these with Nancy and Kat who are both have locations set up for donation.

Please don’t mind the quality of these photos … I had a bunch of packages waiting for me when I got home from Virginia and I wanted to open them and snap some quick photos and make notes about who sent them.

Some are finished quilts and some are tops that will be finished by one of our HeartStrings members. They’ll all be paired up with some cute critters and donated to kids in need.

Thanks so much much to all who have participated and our project continues through the end of March.

EDIT – March 22

The little quilts and tops continue to come in and I have added them to the photo gallery

Click on the first photo and you can see larger views of all the photos.