Anybody else take their Christmas decor down and immediately put up all the hearts? Okay, I waited a week before I pulled out the Valentine’s decor so I could get some deep cleaning in between the holidays. I think when the hearts get put away, the Easter bunnies might be coming out and that will be followed closely by Summer decor. I enjoy changing out my decor for any reason at all!

As soon as I finished the “Winter Wonders” quilt at the end of December, I pulled my heart strips blocks out. I’ve been working on these blocks for a few years. No hurry. Trying to use up scraps. I had 45 blocks when I came home from North Dakota.

While this quilt is no where close to being finished, I wanted to share it now in case anyone wanted to make these fun heart blocks. The pattern is free from me. Just click here! And download!

I tried out different layouts on my design wall.

Nope, didn’t like that!

But that one might work.

I added three more hearts last week so I would have 8 rows with 6 columns. With the white fabric corners, each block is 10 1/4” unfinished.

Typically I make a plan when I design my quilts. I haven’t done that with this project yet. I want it to be queen sized but still need to decide how to get it there. Make more heart strip blocks? Add borders? A different type of scrappy block? I’m not in any hurry to finish this quilt so I have plenty of time to work on that design.

I made these blocks on three different sewing machines. I started making them on my BabyLock Unity. Then took them with me to the “Sew Cool Workshop” and stitched them on my Bernina. And lastly, they traveled to North Dakota where I finished up all the blocks on a Singer HD. They should be 7 1/2″ square unfinished. I swear, every block is a different size. And quite crooked. I thought I was sewing a scant 1/4″ seam but it seems, uh, not so much. I also didn’t starch the strips before I stitched them together. And I know better!

In order to get all the blocks the same size, I made the Half Square Triangles on the corners a little larger than necessary.

I still don’t have a plan on the final design of this quilt. I’m leaning towards making it queen-sized but I really need to put some thought into the best way to do that.

Meanwhile, I do like it on my design wall. It really brightens up my creative space!