Hi everybody, it’s Jenny from the Missouri Star Quilt Company. And today I have a super
simple, quick, fun, easy project for you. Take a look at this quilt behind me. I love
anything pixelated. I just really love the pixelated look. I love how you can make things
out of using straight squares. And this is our pixelated heart. So to make this quilt,
you’re going to need two packs of five inch squares and we have used Artisan Batiks Inspired
by Nature for Studio K by Robert Kaufman. Then you’re going to need four packs. So
the math on this is double. Two of color, four of white. And they’re five inch squares.
If you need to buy yardage you can buy three yards of it and cut them into five inch squares.
So same size squares. Our binding out here is a half yard. No border on this quilt. And
our backing is 4 ½ yards. And it’s this pretty print from the line. And it just makes
a great little quilt. The quilt ends up being 75 by 75. Now I have made several of these
pixelated quilts. And basically I looked at the picture. I counted the squares. I sewed
together, I knew, I needed, you know, two rows or three rows of whites. And then I needed
four squares and two colors. And, you know, I just counted it out and did this. Then we
discovered that there’s actually a pattern by Robert Kaufman. So this might make it easier
for you.
So now you’re ready to make this quilt. And what you want to do is you want to look
at your pattern and you want to just sew blocks together. So you’re going to look at block
one here. There are five blocks in each row. So you’re going to sew one, two, three,
four, five, of the five inch squares right together. And you’re going to make three
rows of that. Then you’re going to sew this one right here, four whites and a colored
square. Then three whites and two colored squares. And that’s as easy as that. And
then you’ll look at your second one and you’ll put that one together. And your third.
Now I have some of those done. So let’s go ahead and sew those together. So I know
that my, this is, I know that my blocks are at the top. And this is block two right here.
And see how we’re making the center of the heart right here where it dips down. And then
this is the side over here. And you can see that I labeled them block one. Otherwise you
have to keep going back to your pattern and referring. But this way, I’m like ready
to go. And so what we’re going to do is we’re going to sew this block here. Block
one to block two to block three. So it’s like a giant nine patch. So let’s go ahead
and go to the sewing machine on these. Now the white isn’t going to show. If you’re
just a little bit off on sewing your white blocks together, that’s not going to show.
When you get down here where you have a colored block next to a white block, that’s going
to show. So you want to make sure that you get those pretty lined up.
So let’s go to the sewing machine and sew these big blocks together. You know when you
sew a quilt like this it’s so gratifying because it just goes together so quickly.
And I”m just going to take a few anchoring stitches. And I still, you know, I’m a nester
so I like to nest my little seams. And we’re going to go along here, a quarter inch seam.
Now we’re ready to add that third block. And because we have them labeled, we know
one, two, three goes right here. And so we’ll just line them up carefully. I’m going to
take a few little anchoring stitches here. Keep my needle down so that I can let go of
it and position the rest of these. Alright so we’re going along here. And again I like
to nest my seams, keeps everything lined up. Now one of the fun things to think about with
pixelated quilts is that if you can get your hands on some graph paper, you can do this.
Like you can come up with a design and color in the squares that you want and almost anything
can be pixelated. So it’s fun to think about all the different options. Alright. Now I
just sewed two seams and just like that this giant first row is done. Look at that. Just
two big seams and we’ve got the top third done. Now we’re ready to do the middle.
And so we’ve got, this is the left side, so I have middle row left side. Here’s our
whole center of the heart and then here is the other side over here. And of course you’re
going to watch, you want to make sure that you, you know, when you put your little tag
on make sure that it’s in the upper left corner but it tells you where to go so that
you make sure that your heart is going like this. And you don’t have one side like this
and one side like this. That would be terrible. Alright so let’s sew these two together
and this makes the middle section. Honestly I’ve done these for so long and have done
them with counting and this is so much easier. And this one because it’s all colors, you
know, it’s. I match up my seams. I do nest them up but it’s not one of those things
that is going to gariously show if I get it a little off. And then there’s our first
half. And then we’re going to put this piece together over here like that. And make sure
they’re lined up. So these rows are going to get kind of big and cumbersome as you’re
going along so just be careful, take your time. Sew your quarter of an inch right down
the side. Alright so now we have this second row done right here. And we’re onto the
third.
Look how fast this is going together. Alright here is our one block. Here’s the middle
and here’s the other side. That’s just the tail end of our heart. And we’re going
to line this up right here and sew these two together. Now I’m losing my presser foot
here now. Make sure it stays lined up. And then we add one more side to this. Now these
are easy sides to add because these two outside squares, they’re just all white so you can’t
get it wrong. It’s five by five, 25 little squares in these.And you’re just going to,
it doesn’t matter what side you sew it to, it’s going to work out so this row is the
ahhh! No worry row. Alrighty. Alright so now we have our three rows done and let’s sew
them together. I have this one stretched out nice here so I’m just going to take the
middle one and I’m going to sew it to this. I just have to make sure I have it going the
right way. Yes, this way. We’re going to fold them together and just sew right along
this. Match up these two. You can pin if you want but because we can match at every little
seam, they’re just five inch squares, so every little seam we can match up, I don’t
feel like I need pins on this because it’s pretty easy to keep track of where you are.
Alright so now we’re going to sew this one together and keep those lined up.
So since this is such a simple quilt, this is a great time to take a closer look at that
quarter inch seam. So the first thing you want to look at is the edge that’s on your
pre cut. Now most pre cuts these days have this pinked edge right here. And you want
to lay it down and you want to make sure how they’ve measured it because some of them
measure from the inside to the inside of the peak and some of them measure from the outside.
So you want to take that into account with your quarter inch. If you’re cutting your
squares yourself you’re going to have a straight edge to work with and that makes
it super easy. You can also get a quarter inch foot for your sewing machine. Every sewing
machine they should sell one for every different kind of sewing machine. There’s this cool
quarter inch tape that you can put your needle goes right where the red line is and you’re
just going to put that on here and do it. A lot of people use painter’s tape. You
can kind of put it on there and stack it up. There’s markings on your sewing machine.
I have a marking right here that says quarter inch and there’s a line to follow. And that’s
what I tend to do. I tend to use that line. But what you’re going to do is you’re
going to lay that down right on that quarter inch line and you’re going to sew along.
And it’s a great time to see how you do. Sew a little seam, take your ruler and measure
it and see how you did. See if you are on the quarter of an inch. And I am right on
there with mine. And so that’s just a great time to practice. Also you can look at some
machines’ needles move back and forth and you want to look and make sure that where
your needle hits and whatever edge you’ve made hits, it lines right up for that quarter
inch. So I hope this helps you in perfecting that quarter inch and in making this great
pixelated heart quilt.
How often do you get to see me make a whole quilt during a tutorial, right? That’s how
quick these are. Alrighty. So again I’m just going to line this up and head back over
here for the very last row. Alrighty. Now show and tell time. Just like that. Look at
this. Isn’t that great? They’re so quick and easy. So don’t be afraid to grab some
graph paper, make your own designs. I want to show you the quilt I made earlier this
year. And I bought a kit online and I loved all the different background fabrics that
were on it. This is just from stash. These are stash fabrics. They’re all lights. They’re
all different and yet it shows that color out in the middle. And I just think it comes
together beautiful. So don’t be afraid. You know we have all these white squares on
here but you could use your own squares. Also if your squares, if you find that they’re
too bright, you’re not liking that big contrast, flip them over. Don’t be afraid to use the
other side of your square. And don’t be afraid to make your own design. This is a
really fun project, super easy. Also these are squares so you can make this, you know,
I could just see Misty wanting to make this in little 2 ½ inch squares. I could see all
that happening. And so remember it’s just a square. Have fun with this. Draw it out
on some graph paper, whatever you want to do. And we hope you enjoyed this tutorial
on the Pixelated Heart quilt from the Missouri Star Quilt Company.