Charm Squares Make a Lovely Pixelated Heart
It’s Very Easy to Change the Size of This Quilt!
This pretty quilt is so easy to make and it’s a great opportunity for playing with leftover charm squares. The quilt relies on color and value contrasts to create the large pixelated heart against a light background.
You don’t really need a pattern for the quilt shown below – simply arrange 5″ squares to create the overall design. Lay out the heart first, moving fabric squares around until you achieve a pleasing design. Then fill in the background around it.
Of course, you can make a smaller quilt by using smaller fabric squares. A square version made with 2 1/2″ squares of fabric will be lovely on a wall or table for Valentine’s Day.
The creator of the quilt above, Shelley of Elsie’s Girl, made hers large enough for a twin bed. She arranged 5″ squares in a 15 x 19 grid, producing a 67″ x 85″ quilt. A 15 x 15 grid will make a lovely throw quilt.
Notice how many different colors are used for the heart. It reads as a red heart, but has a lot of interest from the variety of colors used.
The same is true of the background. Light versions of the colors in the heart help to tie the quilt together while giving it a soft watercolor look.
When she had the layout she wanted, Shelley sewed the quilt together in rows starting with the central heart. Once the heart was in rows, she added background squares on either side to complete those rows. Then she added rows of background to the top and bottom to finish out the quilt top.
See another example of this pretty quilt and find an alternate way of stitching the fabric squares together here.
The pretty baby quilt above, made by Svetlana of S.O.T.A.K., appears to have been made with 3″ squares.
