At the beginning of February my friend and fellow Art Gallery Fabrics designer, Sharon Holland and I announced on our Instagrams that we'd be teaming up to host a fun and quick quilt along using Allison Harris's of Cluck Cluck Sew's Heart Block Patten. I first used Allison's pattern to stitch up a small batch of quilted heart zipper pouch bags and right away I was hooked, I had to make a quilt! After sharing my plans with Sharon, she decided to join me and quickly our quilt along plans were decided!
In hopes to not confuse folks joining us, we decided to have Sharon's blog be the landing page for all the QAL details since Sharon is the author of the instructions for how we stitched Allison's wonderful Heart Blocks into finished 52" x 61" throw size quilts. You can visit Sharon's blog to find ALL the info you'll need to sew a Heart Quilt just like ours anytime! Makers have been tagging Instagram QAL posts with the #agfLOVEquilt, since Sharon and I are both AGF designers making quilts using a combination of our prints, where you can easily follow along to see the beautiful heart quilts being made! Additionally, Sharon created this adorable Heart Quilt maker badge for those joining in to use, as well as an Instagram story highlight reel full of wonderful, helpful videos that make creating this quilt a cinch!
For my Heart Quilts I chose a combination of favorite prints from Amy Sinibaldi's new Mayfair collection + several Foresta Fusion prints that include three new prints by ME! I love this bundle so much that I collaborated with Lady Belle Fabric to carry both a ten-piece fat quarter bundle and Heart Quilt Kit including these same gorgeous prints! For the background of my first Heart Quilt (yup! I made two) I used the AGF Pure Solid in Snow. The crisp white against these saturated, jewel-tones make the colors really pop!
As I worked on sewing my Heart Blocks it was the perfect way to showcase and introduce each of my three new prints in the Foresta Fusion collection! AGF Fusions are a group of ten prints from various Art Gallery Fabric designers that have been recolored and "fused" together to create a new themed collection. I always look forward to adding these newly colored prints to my own stash and the catalog of prints that I've designed for AGF!
First I introduce to you, Mystical Woods Foresta, now available in this gorgeous teal that I originally designed for my Nightfall collection.
Next up is Stay Humble Foresta in my current favorite dusty pink shade, originally designed for my Soulful collection.
And lastly this is Simple Defoliage Foresta, a minty green modern pine trees print that I created for Autumn Vibes.
I hope you love these three new prints as much as I do!
I'm so happy with the fabrics I chose for my quilts! Together these prints created such a romantic looking quilt top, just perfect for Valentine's Day!
This first quilt top is headed to Brooke at Lady Belle Quilting as a gift from me to her, that I'm certain she'll finish with her amazing edge to edge quilting. I can't wait to see her quilt completely finished!
Below is a first peek at both of the quilts I made. Notice I used a different background for the one I quilted myself, a creamy two-tone blender print from Sharon's Spirited collection called, Bright Star Washed that I absolutely adore. It's much warmer than the solid snow, is equally lovely and is extra meaningful to me since it's a print designed by my wonderful quilt along partner!
Below you can see the subtle design on Sharon's beautiful print a bit better, as well as my binding choice, a print deigned by Katarina Rocella for Foresta called Timber that reads as a stripe here and really brings out these amazing Foresta Fusion colors!
For the backing I used my Mystical Woods Foresta print in this pretty new teal that I introduced above. As always Hobbs Tuscany Cotton is my go-to batting, and to finish my quilt I used the built-in wavy stitch on my Janome Memory Craft 15000 set at the highest width and length setting. I don't premark any lines to guide my quilting, I just eyeball to keep the stitch running straight and spaced semi-evenly as I quilt. I love the organic, twisting stitches and the texture it adds to a quilt!
If you're as smitten with my Heart Quilt as I am, be sure to visit Lady Belle Fabric to snag the Quilt Kit or a Foresta Mayfair Mix Up Bundle before they're gone!
I'd also love for you to visit my QAL partner Sharon's blog to see her sugared gum drops and candy inspired Heart Quilt that's super sweet, plus the incredible bonus project she made with her leftover HSTs! Here's a just little peek!
I'm working on making a new batch of zipper pouch bags from my HST and heart quilt scraps that I'll have for sale later this week. Even after making two quilts, I'm not quite ready to move on from these gorgeous fabrics!
Sharon and I had such a great time making our quilts and hosting this spontaneous QAL! It was just what I needed to get me energized to sew again after the holidays and spending most of January designing my Fall 2020 collection. We send a BIG thanks to those of you sewing along with us! If you weren't able to in real time, you can jump in anytime using #agfLOVEquilt when you share and be sure to tag @sharonhollanddesigns @maureencracknell and @cluckclucksew so we can see your beautiful hearts!
xo Maureen
