Heart Wreath from Fat-Quarter Fancywork

Feathered Heart Block by Karla Menaugh

18" x 18"

For Valentine's Day Karla and I are giving you a free quilt pattern for the Feathered Heart wreath we designed for our book Fat-Quarter Fancywork. 

Fat-Quarter Folk Dance sampler by Karla 

The book is almost out-of-print, and we hate to see this wonderful heart design disappear. So here it is in a JPG. I scanned the page in the book so it's not the best image but you can use it easily for a pattern.

How to print:

• Create a Word file or a new empty JPG file that is 8-1/2" x 11".
• Click on the image above.
• Right click on it and save it to your file.
• Print that file out 8-1/2" x 11". The pattern itself should measure about 8" across.
• The 8" pattern would fit a 10"-15" finished block, but we planned it for an 18" block. Enlarge it 150%.

Cutting:

• Cut 1 of the wreath, the heart, the bird and 49 of the berries, which finish to 3/4".
• Add seams to the pattern.
• Cut a background square 18-1/2" (Karla says 19"to allow for shrinkage as you applique.)

Fabric:

Above are fabric suggestions from two of my latest Moda collections, Richmond Reds and Union Blues.

For the feathered heart wreath you need a 13" square of red. The berries in blue and red can be scraps or cut from Charm squares, as can the bird and the small heart. For the background, which finishes to 18", you need a fat quarter. (Hence, the name of our book Fat Quarter Fancywork).

Our inspiration for this pattern came from the album quilts of Baltimore in the late 1840s. Several quilts we've seen in online auctions include a variation of the heart wreath.

Quilt date-inscribed 1845 from the Maine Antique Digest

Quilt date-inscribed 1850, Mary Boyd from

Skinner Auctions

Karla and I called it a Feathered Heart but I notice in my new catalog from the Daughters of the American Revolution Museum that curator Alden O'Brien and her team of researchers call it a "heart-shaped berry wreath," which describes it better.

Quilt date-inscribed 1848 from McCullough Auctions

Quilt date-inscribed 1847 from a Skinner Auction.

This block celebrates President Andrew Jackson,

who died in 1845.

It's signed:

"Presented by Miss Mary Ann Grooms/Democracy is my Motto/Baltimore/1847."

Miss Grooms named the block (or is it the pattern? ) "General Jackson's Heart". Part of that inscription is at top left above. See more at Skinner:

http://www.skinnerinc.com/auctions/2509/lots/689

Album Quilt made for Betsy Hobbs Harper & Wm. Harper.

Collection of the D.A.R. Museum

One of the quilts in the DAR Museum's current show Eye on Elegance features a "heart-shaped berry wreath" in the center block, similar in shape to the "General Jackson's Heart" above.

The red wreath also refers to Andrew Jackson. As best I can make out from the catalog photo the inking on the left reads:

"Andrew Jackson's Heart. Victory at New Orleans. January 8, 1815. 'The Blessings of Government like the dews of Heaven should be equally dispersed on the Rich and Poor.' A.I.W. Jackson."

Perhaps the best name for this heart-shaped wreath might be "Jackson's Heart."

See the Harper album quilt at this link:
http://eyeonelegance.dar.org/node/33

Karla and I have always loved the Fat-Quarter Fancywork book, which we self-published for our Sunflower Pattern Co-operative several years ago. We still have a few copies in our basements. You can buy one at my Etsy shop.

https://www.etsy.com/shop/BarbaraBrackmanShop?ref=hdr_shop_menu

The just-published museum catalog Eye on Elegance is just about ready to ship. See more here: 

http://www.dar.org/dar-shopping/dar-online-store/product-detail/586