Hearts are very popular in quilting with hundreds of heart quilt patterns from pieced and patchwork to appliqué. This heart quilt block is a simple pattern using only squares and half square triangles to form a heart. It is a perfect quilt block for beginners who want to practice patchwork and half square triangles.

Here is a layout of the units for the heart block. I’ve used five (5) colors for this sample of the block. You can use more or less! The important part in selecting your fabric is to make sure that the fabric used for the background clearly stands out from the fabrics used for the heart. Here I’ve used a pale blue for the background, with a variety of red, pink and lavender for the heart.

Heart Quilt Pattern

Here is how to cut your fabrics, using five (5) fabrics. Basically, you need two corner squares of your background fabric, eight (8) half square triangles that use your background and heart fabric and six (6) half square triangles from your fabrics used for the heart design.

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One (1) quilt block

Heart Quilt Tutorial

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Active Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 40 minutes

Difficulty: Beginner

Easy to make patchwork heart quilt block from squares and half square triangles. Use as many fabrics as you'd like, as long as the background fabric clearly differentiates from the fabrics used in the heart units.

This is a perfect quilt block for beginners who want to practice their skills at half square triangles and patchwork piecing. And, it makes a great Valentine's Day project - turn it into a pillow cover or mini quilt!

Learn how to make a heart quilt block with our step-by-step tutorial.

Materials

1/4 yard each of five (5) different fabrics, or five (5) fat quarters
Thread

Tools

Iron
Ironing board
Sewing machine
Rotary cutter
Cutting mat
Quilter's ruler
Marking pen or pencil, I used a Frixion pen

Instructions

Cut your fabrics according to the fabric calculator above. You can use fewer fabrics for the inside of the heart, if you'd like, for a less scrappy look. You need eight (8) half square triangles that use the background fabric and the fabrics selected for the heart.
Draw a diagonal line on the wrong side of your larger background fabric squares and three (3) of the heart fabric squares.
Here are half of the squares used for half square triangles with the diagonal line marked. This will be our stitching guide line.
Layer right sides together with a square on top that is marked with a contrasting fabric. For the background fabrics, always layer one of the heart fabric. Using the marked line as a guide, stitch 1/4" on both sides of the marked line. If your sewing machine has a 1/4" foot, it makes it super easy. With a Bernina, it is foot #37 or foot #57. Here is stitching the first seam.
Turn and sew 1/4" on the other side of the marked line. Press the seam to your preference. To learn more check out our article on pressing seams in quilting.
Take all of your units and begin to lay them out on a design wall, or on your table. I've got a small design wall made from a foam core board covered in batting. Start by placing your background units, with the smaller squares in the lower corners and then form the heart outline. Then, fill in the middle. Have fun moving and shifting units around until you get a design that makes you happy.
Sew units together into rows. Press seams to your preference.
Sew the rows together to finish the patchwork heart quilt block. Press seams to your prefernce.

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Here are a few variations of the same heart block, using different (and more) colors. I varied the background colors for more of a scrappy heart look. A perfect wall hanging for Valentine’s day! You can line three hearts up in a row and make a Valentine’s day table runner, too! Or make more for a hearts quilt. Check out our full downloadable pattern on Etsy for the wall hanging.