Fabric Piecing: Hearts or Tears?

Riley Blake February Mystery Block Information – HERE!

On Wednesday, I discovered Riley Blake had released the information for their February Mystery Block. This month’s block is a fabric-pieced heart. I read the blog post and downloaded/printed all the directions so I could start. Then I realized my biggest problem: I do not know how to fabric piece!!  So off I went to Google to search fabric-piecing and found some good tutorials.

Thankfully the pattern and the directions are straightforward.  So off to my studio I go with my printed directions and fabric selections. My Janome is ready and my fabric is cut. ( not sure what fabric I’m using though – it was in a large scrap bag I purchased at a quilt shop!).  As of an hour ago, this is what I had. A half a heart.  Looks pretty good for a first timer, right? Wrong.

The half heart you see above looked correct according to the pattern.  I placed it on the 13″ x 13″ square you will eventually sew the heart to, but it is a lot smaller than the completed pictures I’m seeing.  What’s gone wrong?  It turns out that my heart is about a 1/2″ smaller than it should be!!! Do you hear me whimpering? Because that half heart above is looking an awful like a teardrop – of frustration.

ETA: From another tutorial I just viewed, there is a tool that helps you measure an extra 1/4″ onto your pieces to retain the correct measurements. There lies the problem.

So what now? Would you rip it all up and start over or get creative? Normally, I would take it apart and re-do it. But I don’t have enough of this material to make a new heart so I’m going to get creative and go off on a tangent. Hopefully it will lead me to something worth sharing.

Cross your fingers. And your toes. Please?