Happy Blocks are one of our favorite projects to work on and always make such cute quilts. Here’s a recent finished top that Ellen shared with us. Some of our quilts are scrappy with blocks mixed in from a variety of quilters and others are more planned like this one. I have several different instructions on my website and I’m not sure which measurements Ellen used, but we’ve done lots of variations with the center square – from cutting them 4.5 or 6.5 inches to using Charm Squares (5 inch squares).
Just 24 HeartStrings blocks, some sashing and a couple borders and look how gorgeous Kathleen’s quilt turned out! So many different options with our HeartStrings quilts and I never get tired of them.
Our Maine sew-in was canceled this week but we still worked on our Rainbow HeartStrings quilts and I thought I’d share some inspiration here for those of you thinking of making your own quilts. You can click on the photos below to see larger versions.
You can find brief instructions for the Rainbow blocks on my website at this link. Jackie used HeartStrings blocks with half neutrals and half rainbow strings for two of her quilts shown at the top of the gallery.
One of our HeartStrings challenges for those that want to participate is to make 365 HeartStrings blocks … some do it over a single year, others just keep track and take more time. Marianne, one of our members passed away earlier this year and as she wasn’t able to participate in the challenge as she typically did, we’ve been finishing 365 blocks for the year in her memory. Here are a few of the tops and quilts we’ve been working on. So far we’ve hit 750+ blocks and we’ve surpassed our goal.
Stephanie made her own version of our Rainbow Strings quilt, rather than use a single color in each block she used a white center strip and pieced half of each block with strips of one color… it takes more planning but it’s gorgeous!
Are you making Rainbow String blocks? Sharon is and she just shared a photo of her top with me. Doesn’t it look great? These blocks can be assembled with or without sashing but I love how the black sashing with the colorful cornerstones looks.
We’re doing a Rainbow Strings project for the Maine sew-in this September and we’ve been working on blocks at home. If you’re interested in participating you can find the details by clicking here.
We’re still making our regular Red and Blue centered HeartStrings blocks but we like to play with variations too. This one of mine uses lights on one side of the center strip.
And I recently finished quilting this Sharon inspired HeartStrings quilt pieced by Barbara … a real group effort! Our Sharon inspired quilts are more planned and you can find instructions at this link.
After years of issues with Yahoo groups we finally made a move due to the changes in how they are running their groups. You can now find us at Groups.io if you wish to join in our chatter about the projects we’re making to donate. If interested, click the link below and request membership in the group.
The Maine sew in is done and we’re already thinking ahead to next year! We decided on two projects and you have options!
You can always make our red or blue centered blocks and send them to Sue or Stephanie but we’ll plan on working on the rainbow blocks and RWB blocks this year and you can sew along with us making and donating quilts locally or you can send blocks to Maine, to Sue, or to Stephanie!!
First up, Rainbow blocks … made like our regular HeartStrings blocks on a 10 inch muslin foundation and trimmed to 9.5 inches only we’ll use a single color in each block. I have some brief instructions on my website at this link.
We’ll also work on quilts for veterans … using a blue center strip and then a variety of red, white (or beige or tan), and blue strings. Again, using the same guidelines as we do for our HeartStrings blocks.
So how many blocks can we make in a year?! Make a stack and then let me know when you need a mailing address. If they’re coming to Maine, Brenda has agreed to collect and bring them in September but Sue and Stephanie are looking forward to receiving blocks too.
HeartStrings Quilt Project 