Romance is in the Air

Fellow Quilters,

A very Happy New Year to you! As we put 2020 behind us and herald in 2021, I wish you health, happiness and many pieceful moments😊. To help you with that, I am sharing with you my block for the January edition of Quilt Block Mania. If you’re dropping in from another blogger’s site, welcome! Please consider subscribing to my blog (the link is on the right) for quilting tips and tasty recipes a couple times a month. You can also subscribe to my newsletter over at Patti’s Patchwork, where I share newsy stuff, quilty goodness and subscriber-only specials (the link is at the bottom of the web page). And I’m on Facebook too 😊. Shall we get straight to the good stuff?
The theme for this month’s Quilt Block Mania, organized by Carolina of Always Expect Moore, is “romance”. Twenty-nine quilt designers are sharing their complimentary heart-themed block pattern with you, allowing you a month to make a project or 2 for Valentine’s Day. These blocks are ideal for placemats, table runners or mini wall quilts. There are some adorable applique blocks perfect for the little ones in your life, and some great pieced blocks for teens and beyond.  Here is the list of participating bloggers.

Chain of Hearts by Carolina Moore
Heart Postage Stamp by Slice of Pi Quilts
Special Delivery by Appliques Quilts and More
Intertwined by Devoted Quilter
Interlocking Heart Halves by Blockofthemodotcom
Romantic Patchwork Heart by Love to Color My World
Love Notes by Blue Heron Quilting
Woven Together at Patti’s Patchwork
LOVE ARROWS by Cotton Street Commons
refracted heart at Duck Creek Mountain Quilting
Puppy Love
Be Mine by Perkins Dry Goods
Love is family at Puppy Girl Designs
Love Owl-Ways by Studio R Quilts
Lacy Hearts by QuiltFabrication
Piece of My Heart by Orange Blossom QDS, LLC
Quilting by Candlelight by Snowy Days Quilting
Sunset Walk Block by Sara Flynn
Mini Log Cabin Heart by Katie Mae Quilts
Flowers and Candy by PhoebeMoon Designs
On Point Heart by Oh Kaye Quilting
Love My Gnome
Love Conquers All
Blue Bear Hug by Blue Bear Quilts
Love Me Knot by Pretty Piney Quilts
Pieceful Heart by Off the Wall Quilt
Rose Buds by Rona the Ribbiter
House of love
First Love by Sarah Marcina
Love postcard by Capaquilts

Woven Together by Patti’s Patchwork

My block is Woven Together and reminds me of a small heart-shaped potpourri holder given to me by a dear quilting friend several years ago. I added pieced hearts in the corners to create a secondary design when the blocks are sewn together – how cool is that?!?
In the pattern I used Northcott’s lovely suede-look texture Toscana, however I had none in my stash when I sat down to test the block. Rifling through my tiny stash I found some bits of Northcott’s Bliss, and a coordinating piece of FIGO’s True Kisses by Heather Bailey for the background – even the names of these collections sound romantic!

My scraps of Bliss and True Kisses ready to go

So, here’s a tip when you are sewing this block.

Sew the strips together then cross-cut them

The center is made from strips that are sewn together then cross-cut and reassembled to form a checkerboard block.

Re-assemble the sections

I pressed the seams in the strip set to the darker fabric. Then when I sewed the cross-cut sections back together, I pressed the seams to the lighter fabric so that I could spin my seams to reduce bulk.

I spun the seams to reduce the bulk and allow the block to lay flat

See how nice the back looks?
The block goes together like a 9-patch – sweet!

It’s a 9-patch in disguise

Nine-patch blocks are very versatile and play well with so many other blocks. Just for fun I whipped up a couple of digital wall-sized quilts with this block.

A 9-patch of blocks make a 36″ wall quilt

This first one is a 9-patch of 9-patch blocks😊 – see that secondary design made from the corner hearts?

Five on-point blocks make a 34″ wall quilt

And this one is 5 blocks set on-point, with heart corner blocks in the setting triangles too.

PC253 Splendid Split Stars pattern

The Bliss scraps are from my new Splendid Split Stars pattern and the True Kisses fabric is from my upcoming Hexie Crush pattern.

Join me in April for the Hexie Crush quilt-along

I’ll be hosting a quilt-along (my first!) for this pattern in April – watch for the sign-up link next month (I’m so pumped! 😊).
Speaking of sign-ups, my Road to California classes are now closed but you can still sign up for my inspiring “Interesting Quilts” hour-long trunk show TL04 on Thursday January 21 @ 1:30PST here. AND – drum roll please – I have been invited to teach 7 classes on a Hawaiian quilting cruise in February 2022!!! The cruise is organized by Deb Roberts of World of Quilts Travel and you can find the details here. I have taught on 7 cruises and am absolutely thrilled to be back on the high seas. Hubby and I were on a cruise 14 months ago that included Hawaii and I have to say that it is the perfect cruise for quilting and sightseeing – you’ll have ample time for both. I loved seeing Hawaii by sea and I’m so looking forward to this travel adventure. I’ll be sharing more details in upcoming posts.
Last month I finished up my new pattern Castelvecchio PC256 made with Northcott’s stunning Stonehenge Verona.

PC256 Castelvecchio pattern includes 3 sizes

This quilt is much easier than it looks – I let the panel and border stripe do the work in this quilt. There are very large pieces of fabric that only look like they are pieced (this is the type of quilt I talk about in my Interesting Quilts trunk show). In the next few weeks I’ll be adding several more new patterns to Patti’s Patchwork. It will be a busy month ahead.

Until next time,
Patti