Easy Heart Quilt with 2.5 Inch Strips

We all have those days where all we want to work on is a quick and easy quilt. Maybe you need to make a quick gift, need a project to take with you on a trip or just want to work on something that doesn't take a lot of effort. I just recently did a heart quilt that used 5" squares. It came together so fast that I thought it would be a good idea to do the same thing but to use up some 2.5 inch strips I had in stock. We were going to our cabin up North for the weekend and I wanted to bring along just a small amount of fabric and work on something that my kids could also help with. I opened up Electric Quilt 8 and mapped this out pretty quickly.

And then I packed two rolls of 2.5 inch strips that had been sitting on my shelf for awhile. But...this would also be so easy to do with your scraps. You need one set for your background and another color for your heart.

And once you have this picked out, the cutting goes very quickly.

1) With the fabric for your heart you want to cut (94) - 5" x 2.5" rectangles. You will need 12 strips to cut this many as long as your strips are at least 40" WOF.

2.) With you background fabric you will need 29 strips (again as long as your 2.5" strips are at least 40" long. From this you will need to cut (217) - 5" x 2.5" rectangles and also (22) - 2.5" x 2.5" squares.

Then you want to piece together your 19 rows.

Row 1: 14 white rectangles

Row 2: 1 white square, 13 white rectangles, 1 white square

Row 3: 14 white rectangles

Row 4: 1 white square, 13 white rectangles, 1 white square

Row 5: 4 white rectangles, 2 blue rectangles, 3 white rectangles, 2 blue rectangles, 3 white rectangles

Row 6: 1 white square, 3 white rectangles, 3 blue rectangles, 2 white rectangles, 2 blue rectangles, 3 white rectangles, 1 white square

Row 7: 3 white rectangles, 4 blues rectangles, 1 white rectangle, 4 blue rectangles, 2 white rectangles

Row 8: 1 white square, 2 white rectangle, 10 blue rectangles, 1 white rectangles, 1 white square

Row 9: 2 white rectangle. 11 blue rectangles, 1 white rectangles

Row 10: 1 white square, 2 white rectangle, 10 blue rectangles, 1 white rectangles, 1 white rectangle

Row11: 3 white rectangles, 9 blue rectangles, 2 blue rectangles

Row 12: 1 white square, 3 white rectangles, 8 blue rectangles, 2 white rectangles, 1 white square

Row 13: 4 white rectangles, 7 blue rectangles, 3 white rectangles

Row 14: 1 white square, 4 white rectangles, 6 blue rectangles, 3 white rectangles, 1 white square

Row 15: 5 white rectangles, 5 blue rectangles, 4 white rectangles

Row 16: 1 white square, 5 white rectangles, 4 blue rectangles, 4 white rectangles, 1 white square

Row 17: 6 white rectangles, 3 blue rectangles, 5 white rectangles

Row 18: 1 white square, 6 white rectangles, 2 blue rectangles, 5 white rectangles, 1 white square

Row 19: 7 white rectangles, 1 blue square, 6 white rectangles

Row 20: 1 white square, 13 white rectangles, 1 white square

Row 21: 14 white rectangles

Row 22: 1 white square, 13 white rectangles, 1 white square

Row 23: 14 white rectangles

And when you have done all that it looks something like this:

The good news is that none of the seams need to nest so you can iron them anyway you like! Then sew your rows together. When sewing long rows I usually switch which side I start from each time..so start sewing from the left of the quilt for row 1 then from the right side of the quilt for row 2. I find it makes it so the quilt top doesn't get wavy.

I also pinned each row at a few spots so that the seam lined up in the center of the block.

When all the rows are sewn together it looks like this:

This ends up being about 60 inches wide by 46 inches long without borders. I believe I will be adding borders when I get back home. I'll upload finished pictures when it is all done. Hope you find this to be a quick, easy and adorable quilt. And a fun way to use up some fabric you have in stock.