Scrappy Heart Garland
Designer: Cindy Staub
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Finished size 8” x 68” each heart measures 7” x 7”
Tools:
- 8 to 9 – 2 ½”-3” strips that are 32” long
- Batting 1 – 18” x 34” rectangle
- Backing 1 – 18” x 34” rectangle
- 6-8 ft bakers’ twine or thin ribbon
- Frixion Pen or disappearing ink pen
- OLFA 45mm RTY-2/DX Ergonomic Rotary Cutter with OLFA SCB45-1 Stainless Steel Scallop Blade, 1pk
- OLFA 45mm RTY-2DX/PBL Ergonomic Rotary Cutter, Pacific Blue
- OLFA RM-CG 12" X 18" Green Double-Sided, Self-Healing Rotary Mat
- OLFA QR-1x12 1" X 12" Frosted Acrylic Ruler
This is a fun project to make for Valentine's Day. I love decorating for the different holidays and I love hanging garland. It’s such a nice touch for windows, across the fireplace mantel or in a doorway. To start this project you will need some pretty valentine fabric. I found some precut red and white fabric strips in my fabric stash.
Sew 5 to 6 strips together lengthwise to make a large scrappy strip rectangle sheet.
Press your rectangle sheet.
Layer the backing, batting and the pieced rectangle to make a quilt sandwich.
Quilt as desired. I used a combination of quilting with my embroidery machine and using my walking foot to quilt wavy lines. I used my walking foot to quilt the wavy lines. Have fun with this! This is a perfect opportunity to practice your free motion quilting!
Using your rotary cutter with the regular blade, square up your rectangle cutting off the excess batting and backing. Using a Frixion pen or other water soluble or disappearing ink pen, trace the heart shape onto the backside of your quilted rectangle leaving at least 1 inch between each traced heart.
Sew on the drawn lines of each heart.
As you can see, I changed up the direction of my hearts when I traced them.
Using your ergonomic rotary cutter pre-loaded with a scallop blade, carefully cut out the hearts leaving a ¼” seam allowance from the sewn line. I was able to cut 10 hearts out of my quilted sheet.
Using a small zig zag stitch, sew the hearts onto your bakers twine (on the back side of the heart) leaving 3” in between each heart. Make sure to leave a 6-10” tail on each side of your garland. Make your garland as long as you would like! Use the leftover quilted hearts as coasters or mug rugs! My garland is 7 hearts wide.
To add extra flair to your garland you can add fabric tassels in between each heart. From your left over strips cut: 30 – 13” x 1” strips using the scalloped blade in your ergonomic rotary cutter. You may need to cut more if your garland is longer.) To make a tassel, take 3 strips, fold in half and tie onto your garland between each heart and onto each end of your garland.
