Striped Heart Block Tutorial

In honor of Valentine’s Day, I wanted to share this heart block tutorial with you. I was inspired by Jacquie’s heart block at Tallgrass Prairie Studio. When I saw hers, I knew I had to make it. But I wanted it smaller, so I adapted the pattern slightly to make it a potholder size. It finishes at 7 1/2″ (8″ with the binding on it) and it’s the perfect size for a potholder.

A sample potholder I’ve made using this tutorial

Here’s the finished block

Materials needed:
• 5 – 1 1/4 x 18″ strips of fabric (from five fabrics)
• 4 – 2 3/8″ squares of background fabric
• 2 – 4 1/4″ squares of background fabric

(Note: This tutorial is for personal use only. Please do not use it to make anything to sell. Thank you.)

Gather your fabrics (small-scale prints works best) and cut one 1 1/4 x 18″ strip from each fabric and sew them together. Make sure to use scant or exact 1/4″ seam allowance. Because the strips are quite narrow, it is very important that you are accurate in measuring, cutting and sewing your strips or else each quarter of the block will not end up the correct size. And that will throw off the final size of your block.

The final width of the sewn strips should be 4 1/4″. Press seam allowances in the same direction.

Cut the strips into four 4 1/4″ squares. Place them in a four-square pattern and alternate the direction of the strips as shown above.

Draw a diagonal line across each of the background squares, from corner to corner.  Place the larger background squares on top of the right side of the two bottom strip set squares and sew across the marked diagonal line. Cut off the excess fabric, leaving a 1/4″ seam allowance. Press down the background triangle. Place the smaller background squares on top of the two top edges of the two top strip set squares and sew across the marked diagonal lines. Cut off the excess fabric, leaving a 1/4″ seam allowance. Press down the background triangles.

Sew the two top halves together and repeat with the two bottom halves. Press the seam allowances in the opposite direction. Sew the top and bottom halves together.

That’s it! You’re done! I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. It’s my very first one, so if you have any questions about anything, please let me know in the comments. I’d love to know what you think about it.