October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and since it is February, you can see that my quilt finishing schedule is about four months behind. I think I will have the Christmas quilts finished by April, but who is counting.
I want to share with you a special quilt that I made.
Some of you have seen a quilt on my website called Love for Susan. It was made for a dear friend when she was recovering from unexpected surgery about three years ago. I was able to get it done by the time she was sent home from the hospital and I was happy to wrap her in love and affection. She uses it all the time and has washed it many times. With the raw-edge appliques it is just soft and yummy.
The idea for the quilt came from a cup that was distributed by Starbucks. I loved the flowers which were created by hearts. It was an easy project to design and the way I made it allowed for my family help me assemble the top. For Susan’s quilt, my husband and one of my nephews glued the appliques for me and working as a team we got that sucker done in a day!
When I learned that a friend and colleague from my husband Steve and son Nathan’s work was mounting an epic battle against breast cancer, I immediately wanted to make her a quilt like Love for Susan. However, many things slowed the progress and it took me a long time to finish the project. I made all the appliques and Steve and Nathan worked with me to glue them in place. It was so nice to be able to do this together. This month we were finally able to give it to her.
She has endured three surgeries, rounds of chemotherapy and now radiation, but she is fighting a good fight and we were so glad to finally give her a token of our love, support and admiration.
I can share the ideas and designs of this quilt with you and give you instructions to make it, but because the design was distributed by Starbucks and is likely under copyright, none of us can make the pattern or the quilt to sell. But I am sure they won’t mind if we share the Loving Hearts Quilt with friends and family. It is so pretty and quick to make when you really want to support someone special.
Here’s how to make the Loving Hearts Quilt –
Send me an email at maverickquilts at gmail dot com and I will email you templates for the hearts and leaves
Materials needed:
Background piece of fabric 55″ x 70″ (can be pieced if you can’t get wide yardage)
Scraps of pink fabrics
Scraps of green fabrics about 6″ x 10″
Large scraps of green fabrics (2) about 14″ x 18″
Freezer paper
UHU Glue stick or lightweight fusible web (see note below)
Sewing Directions:
1. Make three heart sizes by folding a piece of paper in half and cutting it into three sizes (or use templates from my email – see note above). Begin with pieces of paper 6″, 5″ and 4″. Transfer the templates onto freezer paper.
2. Rough cut chunks of pink fabrics in the three sizes. 15 of each size for a total of 45.
Note: At this point you can add fusible to the backs of each piece of fabric if you don’t like the raw-edge look and don’t want the edges to fray. Trace the heart pattern to the paper side of the fusible.
3. Press 3 pieces of fabric in a stack
4. Pin with flat head pins
5. Iron the freezer paper template to the top of the stack, on top of the pins
6. Cut out the hearts.
create 15 of each size
7. Use the same technique to create 22 small leaves and 2 large leaves.
8. Create the flower stems by cutting a 1 1/2″ strip of fabric and dividing it about 2/3 of the way.
9. Create the leaf stems by cutting a strip of fabric 3/4″ and subcut it into 22 stems 1 3/4″ long.
10. Cut the background fabric to 55″ x 70,” or so. Put it on a large flat surface with sheets underneath (so you can iron on it) or on a design wall that you can iron on.
11. begin creating the flowers by laying out 5 hearts for the middle, then add the next layer of (10) hearts to surround the center.
12. Get all the flowers in place.
13. Add the border leaves, leaf stems, flower stems and flower leaves.
14. Fuss it all until it looks balanced and even.
Note: If you are using fusible, press everything in place now.
Glueing instructions:
Get some help! I was able to make this quilt as a family project. My husband and my son each manned a glue stick (I prefer UHU brand) and I wielded the iron. I handed a heart to one of them and marked and removed the next one. They would glue the back side, and I would put the hearts back on the background and iron them in place. It felt good to all do something together for someone we care about.
a. Mark each heart’s location on the background with a pin at the point and a pin at the ‘v’.
b. Add glue to the entire back of heart, taking care not to stretch out the bias parts too much.
c. Repeat the same system for the leaves and stems.
Quilting ideas:
If you can get it quilted on a long arm, then the whole project can be completed fairly fast.
I quilted it with lots of circles on the backgrounds, leaf veins in the leaves and hearts and circles in the hearts. By sewing about 1/4″ inside the edge of each applique, I was able to create a raw edge. This will fray nicely when you wash the quilt.
Our friend is a really girly girl, so I had to use Minkee on the back and a puffy wool batting inside. It looked so great on the back!
Then I washed it on gentle in my washing machine and dried it on medium heat in the dryer.
When it comes out of the laundry, the raw edges need a little haircut in places to make everything look clean and tidy.
Send me photos and messages when you finish your quilts. We can all get strength from sharing love with the brave people who are fighting cancer.
Maverick Quilts 
I am blessed to be the recipient. I love my quilt and I love you, Alethea!
I am so glad it has brought you happiness! Love you too!
Love this quilt. Such a cute idea. Thanks for the tute!