Happy Valentine’s Day Runner Featuring Moda Blockheads Block 5 – LOVE

 Happy Valentine’s Day, Friends! It’s not really a big thing at The QP, but I love red, white and pink quilts. So I will take that excuse any day for more red, white and pink quilts! However, I did score a beautiful card and chocolates (all nut varieties…none of those pink or orange cremes aka yuck-a-saurus)  from Scott and cute messages from the girls.

This week’s MB3  “LOVE’ block is brought to us by Brigitte Heitland of Zen Chic available here. This is a Foundation Paper Pieced or FPP block. If you are new to this technique or have never tried OR maybe it is not your favorite, again I encourgage you to give it a try. It is a fun block and Brigitte’s instructions are great. Also, here is a YouTube video with wonderful step-by-step instructions. I opted to make my block into a Valentine’s runner vs. including it in my quilt. That is what is so fun about this sew along, you can do whatever you want!! But I encourage you to print the blocks off and save them for something else if they are not singing to you for your quilt. The instructions are well written and the designers have come up with some awesome FREE blocks that you can make something else with.

So details on my runner, if you would like to make one too! I made 12″ finished blocks. My runner finishes at approximately 84″ x 15″. Perfect for my table! I used a variety of scraps, a handful of fat quarters and about 1 yard…give or take of background. I pretty much winged it.

I made 4 blocks plus a center “candy block” that measures about 22.5″ finished. The reason for the candy block is that I typically have a centerpiece or something in the middle of my table that would cover my runner. This kind of “pushes” blocks out so you can see them better. I used 2″ finished sashing pieces between the blocks and 1.5″ finished on the sides. I worried I was running out of background, so I made that a smidge narrower.

The heart block is 12″ finished so my squares and half-square triangles finish at 3″, 3.5″ unfinished.

I have mixture of Valentine novelty prints and reproductions.

 I will refer you to Bridgitte’s block for the FPP. But it is not hard at all. You just have to wrap your brain around it. I just used regular old copy paper for mine and shortened my stitch length to ease tearing the paper off.

 You can use one of those Add-A-Quarter nifty rulers, but I just used my regular old ruler to trim up the 1/4″ seam and my block.

 Looks a little crazy until it is trimmed up.

My first block Love block was not without errors, but I was cool with it.

As you can see my E is not how it is supposed to be. I clearly was not paying close attention to the pattern.

Supposed to look like this. 🙂

 I quilted it on my Innova with the digital quilt pattern Hopscotch by Leisha at Quilting It, edge to edge quilting available here. I thought the pattern was perfect with an Xs and Os looks. I love using Leisha’s designs! I used Hobbs 80/20 Bleached Batting and Innovatch tread on top and Magnaglide magnetic bobbins.

My dough bowl sits perfect on the candy center without obstructing the blocks. 🙂

My studio tree has become a holiday tree. Kind of by accident. It did not get taken down with the rest of the Chrismas decorations, so I made it a Valentine’s Day tree for the month of February. I have really enjoyed it too. I will change it out in March or if I am sick of it by then, it will go join the rest. I hope you’ll make the Love block or a runner like mine…or pillow. 🙂 Happy Valentine’s Day!