Free Heart Pattern – Beginner Friendly Foundation Paper Piecing
Whether you are new to foundation paper piecing (FPP) or you just can’t get enough of it I hope you will enjoy making this free Scrappy Heart Pattern.
I designed it to look a bit like the Scrap Fabric Love logo and I made it beginner friendly.
Below is a video tutorial showing how to make this pattern. To get your PDF download to print off at home all you need to do is subscribe to the Scrap Fabric Love newsletter and it will get sent straight to you for instant use.
You’ll also get any new free patterns I put out in future (and there are plenty in the works).
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Free Heart Video Tutorial
What can I do with my Free Heart Pattern Block?
You can do lots of things with this free block.
I made mine into a mini wall hanging but here are a few other ideas:
- Use it in a sampler quilt.
- Combine 4 or 8 blocks to make a cute cushion cover.
- Make a Coaster.
- Make a baby quilt with loads of different coloured scrappy hearts.
- Use in a row quilt – make enough blocks to fill a whole row with scrappy hearts.
- Mini Wall Hanging – I bound mine and put a hanging on the back.
- Zipper Pouch – add some fabric to either side to lengthen it and make a little makeup bag.
- Use 4 or more to make a panel for the side of a tote bag.
- Quilt it and turn it into a blanket for a kid’s doll.
- Applique it to the back of a jacket or backpack.
What would will you make with yours?
What Paper Should I use for Foundation Paper Piecing?
There are lots of different papers you can use.
For the tutorial I used regular printer paper but that does require you to have a strong light source nearby so you can see the shadow of your fabric through the paper to judge if it’s big enough to cover each patch.
Here are some other options that foundation paper piecing addicts love to use:
- Newsprint (you can buy blank newsprint by the ream – don’t try to put bits of newspaper through your home printer!)
- Vellum Paper
- Foundation Paper Piecing Paper
- Freezer Paper (this method is slightly different – you don’t sew directly on the paper and you need to reverse things a bit. If you are interested in this method check out this post by Karen Brown of Just Get it Done Quilts).
What type of thread should I use for Foundation Paper Piecing?
Regular 50wt thread that you would use for quilt block piecing is fine.
What should my stitch length be for Foundation Paper Piecing?
I set my stitch length at 1.5 for Foundation Paper Piecing to make it easier to tear out the paper afterwards.
Basically the needle perforates the paper more times at a shorter stitch length so it is easier to tear it away.
You can go smaller if you like but I would advise against going much bigger.
What Fabric Should I use for this Pattern?
This pattern was designed to be scrappy.
As I said in the video if you want the cutting templates for each patch just email me and I’ll make them available but I like to make this kind of pattern on the fly with whatever I have to hand.
If my scraps aren’t the right size for the patch but I REALLY want to use that colour – I’ll piece my scraps together to make a patch that fits.
I challenge you to make this pattern whenever your scrap bin is starting to overflow. Just pick a variety of low volume (background) and medium to dark fabrics (heart) and have a play.
Background Fabric
Although I used the same colour (the white with black dashes) for the background sections you don’t have to.
You can use a combination of different low volume fabrics to make it extra scrappy.
Heart Fabric
I used four colours in my version but you could use different shades of the same colour too.
A really cute idea for a scrappy baby quilt would be to make the hearts in different colours – make a little block up every time you finish another project and you will have coordinated scraps to work with!
I hope you enjoy this free pattern and I would love to see what you make with it – tag me on instagram, facebook or tiktok!
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