4. MAKE A PRACTICE BLOCK

You are going to need:

  • 1 yard of one color for the quilt top and bottom, and ¼ yard of another fabric for the heart. It's a lot more fabric than you'll need, so feel free to mess up.

  • All purpose thread in a color to match your fabric selection

  • Your sharp scissors (don't run with them!)

  • Pins

  • A medium-sized piece of cardboard (a cereal box or file folder will be fine)

  • A needle (any size is ok)

  • A small piece of batting (a six-inch square will do)

  • Quilting thread

  • A fabric marking pencil or pen

Here's how to go about making your very first block:

  1. Cut out a 6-inch square from your yard of fabric. This will be your quilt back. You can use your cardboard to make a template first and then you can trace around the cutout onto your fabric (with your fabric pen) and cut it out. Place the square to the side and ignore it.

  2. Cut out another 6-inch square This will be your quilt top. Again, feel free to use the cardboard as a template.

  3. From your ¼ yard of fabric for your heart, cut out 3-inch square and cut a little heart out of it.

  4. Pin the heart shape to the center of your 6-inch square.

  5. Stitch around it.

  6. Cut a 7-inch square of batting.

  7. Now it's time to put your sandwich together: quilt top on top, batting in the middle, and quilt back on the bottom. Place a pin on each corner and one in the middle. Make sure the quilt sandwich is not moving (that is, the batting's not sliding around, and everything stays lined up nicely). The batting should be sticking out around all the sides.

  8. Make a knot at the end of your thread. Pull the thread through the quilt block (pulling the knot through too, so that the knot gets caught in the batting).

  9. Make even stitches that go through ALL three layers (make sure you catch the batting). Go all the way around the square.

  10. One you get back to the beginning, pull the thread so that you are on the quilt back, make a little knot, and you have a nice, neat quilt top.

  11. Trim the batting around the edge so that only ¼ inch sticks out.