Free-motion Quilted Hearts in a Border

January 22, 2021 Lori Kennedy

Let’s learn how to free-motion quilt a heart border!

Add a little LOVE to your next quilt with these sweet hearts. This versatile motif looks like hearts and upside-down hearts when stitched on red or pink, but don’t reserve it just for Valentine’s Day–the hearts are beautiful on many quilt styles!

I’m Lori Kennedy of Lori Kennedy Quilts with another step-by-step free motion quilting design–perfect for quilting on your sewing or longarm quilting machine. This edge to edge design can be completed in one pass from left to right or right to left. Be sure to doodle the pattern to develop muscle memory before stitching. (I like to doodle a motif several days in a row before stitching to improve fluency.)

Once you learn the basic heart, add a design element for a little more flair. Small changes create all new motifs–a great way to add to your repertoire of quilt designs.

The Basic Heart Border

Begin by drawing two parallel lines. Start stitching just above the bottom line. Stitch the left half of a heart.

In one fluid motion, stitch the right side of the heart and curve back up. Pause here. The shape looks like a backward S.

Stitch down to the bottom line and curve up and to the left. Curl to the right, brushing the top line, and pause here. The shape looks like the letter S. As you are stitching, it might help to think of making the letter S–from the bottom to the top.