When you love to make patchwork by hand, the English Paper Piecing method will be always on top of your list.
Heart Quilt Block English Paper Piecing
The Heart Quilt Block English Paper Piecing is a quilt block made with this patchwork method, which is made by using paper templates with the shape of the patchwork pieces, then the fabric is stuck to the paper template and the seams are folded to the back of the template, when you have all the paper templates with the fabric on them, then you can stitch them together with small stitches on the back.
What Is The English Paper Piecing Method?
The English Paper Piecing Method is a piecing technique used to make Patchwork blocks and quilts using paper templates to make the different pieces that will be sewn to make a quilt block or a whole quilt.
This patchwork method is made by hand, and there are some Quilt blocks that are well-known such as: Granny’s Garden, which is made with hexagons, Apple core, shells and I should add that there are many more patterns that can be done with this method.
Why To Use English Paper Piecing Method?
The English Paper Piecing Method is easy to do and any quilter can do it as it’s done by hand, when you use this method to make your quilts, you can achieve accurate piecing and corners every time.
As the English Paper Piecing Method is done by hand, you can carry your pieces with you, to your patchwork classes, at the doctor’s office, vacations, or even when you are traveling. (When traveling by plane or train, you need to ask before if needles and scissors are allowed)
How To Do The English Paper Piecing?
This method of making a patchwork quilt block uses always a pattern or a template made of paper or other similar materials, some will be used only once, but some materials can be used many times.
You can download the English Paper Piecing Heart Quilt Block here, I suggest for you to make two copies of it, as one will be used for cutting all the paper templates to make the quilt block and the second copy can be used as a diagram to follow to know where the pieces should go.
1. Print out the Free Pattern and cut out all the paper templates
2. Lay each paper template on the back of each fabric and pinch a pin or make two basting stitches, trim each piece with a pair of scissors to cut fabric, the seam allowance should be of 3/8 ”
3. Make some small cuts on any curved seam with your scissors.
4. Fold the seams to the back and make basting stitches all along the edge on each piece.
5. Arrange the pieces to make two halves of your pattern on your work table.
6. Turn each half pretty side up, and put a piece of painters tape to hold all the pieces together. Do the same on both halves of the block.
7. Take one half of the block at a time and stitch on together all the pieces. Remove the painters tape as you keep stitching the different pieces, I did this as my needle got sticky.
8. Put two or three painters tape pieces to hold the two halves together and stitch both pieces together.
9. Cut the thread from all the basting stitches on the paper templates and pull out all the thread, remove all the paper templates.
10. Open the seams on the edge of the quilt block and press.
11. Trim the block with your rotary cutter, a ruler and the mat to 8.5 x 8.5 inches.
Note: if the seams on the back are too big, you can trim the seams to 1/4 inch with a pair of scissors for fabric.
The English Paper Piecing Heart is finished and it looks amazing.
You can add some borders to this quilt block to make a pillow, or you can make two or three blocks the same to make a table runner, if you want to make a quilt with this block, you will need to make as many blocks the same for the size of your quilt.
This block is made to be part of the quilt I will be making this year. You can find the tutorials to make the other blocks shown on this image on my blog.
Thanks so much for reading my blog today!
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