Make an "Exploding Hearts" Quilt with Jenny Doan of Missouri Star

Hi everybody, it’s Jenny from the Missouri Star Quilt Company. And I have a special quilt for you today in a special place. Welcome to my personal studio. Today we’re doing this tutorial on the Exploding Heart quilt. This quilt has taken the quilt world by storm. I’ve seen so many different ways of making it. It’s so much fun. I just had to see it for myself. And we loved it so much that we decided we were going to kit it up in Kaffe fabrics. Isn’t that gorgeous? So I hope you’ll join me over at my desk as I show you how to make this.


Hi everybody, it’s Jenny from the Missouri Star Quilt Company. And today we are in my personal studio so enjoy yourselves. We are going to have some fun sewing. And we are going to learn everything we need to know to make this exploding heart quilt. Now this is such a fun quilt, literally taking the whole internet by storm. We see them everywhere, all different colors, all different ways. But we love this Kaffe Fassett fabric with it. We love, I love the background. You know, I just love a background that has some texture to it and something going on. So if you go ahead and buy our kit, this is what you get. And let’s go through it and see what you’re going to get. So the first thing we’re going to pull out of here, this whole little pack. You get this whole front little sheet which tells you what you’re getting. So you’re going to get one pack of Kaffe Fassett collected fat quarters. So that’s 15 fat quarters. You’re going to get 4 ¼ yards of background. And then you’re going to get ¾ of a yard for your binding. So we put that little red binding all the way around the edge of the quilt just to give it that framed in touch.


So let’s take a look at these. You’ll also get the pattern with the kit. And which I love that. I, you know, it drives me crazy when I buy a kit, you know, you spend so much money and no pattern, really? Anyway, so let’s take a look at this. So this is our backing right here. And look how cute this is with the dot. I just love it. Here’s our binding, ¾ of a yard for this fun binding. All the feathers and then of course, 15 of Kaffe’s warm collection of fat quarters. Lots of reds, great for the season and I just think this is adorable. A perfect kit. So as we look at the pattern. The pattern is going to give us all the instructions we need. Not everyone is a great pattern reader. I am not a great pattern reader. But once I’ve made the quilt then they start to make sense with me. So this quilt is basically a half square triangle quilt. Everything is half square triangles and triangles upon triangles. So we’ve got hourglasses, we’ve got quarter square triangles, we’ve got all the different triangles. And I’m going to show you how to make each one of those.


And the first thing you’re going to want to do is go through and cut up your fabric. So out of your fat quarters, you’re going to open these up, and I like to press them. Just go ahead and press them. And out of each fat quarter, look how cute that is, you’re going to get nine 5 ½ inch squares for a total of 135 squares. And so you’ll just want to get that cutting out of the way to begin with. And then you’re going to cut your background because the background goes with everything. So when you open up your pattern, right here on the top there’s cutting instructions, on that first page. And for your background, you’re going to need to cut some 4 ½ inch strips. So you’re going to cut, open up your background and just cut 14 4 ½ inch strips. Just like this. Then you’re going to sub cut those into 4 ½ inch squares. And you will get about eight squares per strip for 112. I think you only use 108. So that’s really good cutting. And then you’re going to cut some 5 ½ inch strips. And you are going to cut a total of 13 of those. And you’re going to sub cut those into 5 ½ inch squares. And you’ll actually get 91 but you will only need 89. So just a few little extras. So that’s good in case we make a little error or something like that.


Now all through the pattern she has these pink boxes like this. These pink boxes you only pay attention to if you have something like an accucutter or something like that. This is for using a fabric cutter to cut those. And so you will only pay attention to those if you are going to use one of those. If not, then just go ahead and ignore the little, you know, the little pink instructions. So I don’t use one of those very often. I just do the strips and cut them. So I’m glad she made that differentiation.


So once you get all your pieces cut it is time to make your squares. At the bottom of this first page she shows you all the different blocks you’re going to make. So I’m actually going to walk you through each one of those. They are all very similar and you won’t have any trouble at all once we get going. So let me show you how to do that. So I want to start by showing you that I mark up my patterns because I have a really hard time reading patterns and so I will circle the number of squares that I need and the size that they need to finish. I’ll underline those and circle those so that those will pop out to me as I go along. So you may want to go ahead and do that. So block A, we’re going to start with Block A. And because you cut your background squares, 4 ½ inch squares, they are done. And so it’s just 108 of those 4 ½ inch squares and we’re good to go. And so I have marked that up here on my pattern.


So then we start with Block B. Block B is made by making half square triangles. So we’re going to take two of our 5 ½ inch squares, one background and one color. We’re going to put those together like this. And then we’re going to draw a line on it side to side just like I’ve done right here. And we’re going to sew on both sides of that. So let’s go ahead and do that. So we’re going to line up, I just line my presser foot up along the side. And we sew on that side and then we’re coming down and sewing on this side. Alright, so then what we’re going to do is we’re going to go ahead and trim these in half like this, just right on the line. And then we’re going to press them open. So I’m going to press these open just like this. And press to the dark side. Whenever you use red, particularly with a light background, you want to make sure that those seams stay on the red side so they hide under there and they don’t show through your background.


Alright so then what we’re going to do is we are going to take another background square like this that we have drawn the line on. And we are going to put that on here like this, crossways. So our line is going to come, I drew the line on the front on that. I’m going to have to redraw that on the back. Let me do that. We’re going to cut through it so it won’t matter that it’s on there but I want to be able to see it to sew on both sides. Alright, so then what we’re going to do, we’ve drawn the line, we’re going to go ahead and sew on both sides of that. And you want to be able to open it up like this and see that this matches the picture of your block up here. So you have the little color with the large background part down here. So we’re going to go ahead and sew this on here. And line it up. It won’t fit exactly but just center it up on there with your little points of your square matching up on your line. And then sew on both sides. Alright, and then we’re going to cut this in half just like this. And I’m actually going to square them before I open them. So these are going to be squared to 4 ½. All your blocks end up 4 ½. This is a great ruler to do that because it actually lines up on your upper seam line and your crossways seam line. And so I am lining those up and just going to trim like this. And then this is a perfect little block. Let me press that for you. And I’ll show you how I square this one. Here it is. I forgot to show you. It’s so cute. So you’re actually going to make 56 of those. So you know all those pieces will be there and you’ll go ahead and make them. And then for me I’m going to go ahead and trim this one right here. And again I’m lining up my seam line on their seam line on both directions. So we’re just going to go here and here. And then you’ll just move these little pieces off to the side. And we will press this open. And just like that. Super easy. And you’ll just make a stack of these. So you are actually going to need 54 of these. So just start cutting and getting going and keeping them in a stack. And we’ll get onto Block C.


So now let’s make Block C. Now if you’re wondering, my little papers here are just a little copy of this page and so you have this page just like I do. This is block C right here. It’s an hourglass. And again it’s made the very same way but just a couple of different fabrics. So we’ve got two colors and two backgrounds right here. I’m going to go ahead and draw my line on the backgrounds like this. Put my ruler, oh I almost cut it. We’re drawing it. And golly that would have been a bad mistake. Well, it wouldn’t really. I would have just got another square. I mean we all make them. But let me go ahead and draw a line for you. Alright so now what we’re going to do is we are going to take these two pieces and we are going to sew on both sides of both of these squares. So put right sides together and we’re going to sew on both sides. So let’s do that. And I’m going to chain piece these so I will go down this one side and then I will slide this other one in. So you’re going to actually need on Block C, you’re going to need to make 18 of these. And so you can actually just get your 18 5 ½ inch squares and your 18 of background and 5 ½ inch squares of color and you can just go ahead and do the whole thing. You’ve already cut out all your squares which is really nice about this quilt. It makes it go together very quickly. I’m just going to do two so I can show you how to make the block but you may want to just go ahead and chain piece this whole thing. So I hope you saw that, I flipped that around and now I’m going up the other side and then I’m going to trim these apart right here. You can use scissor or a rotary cutter. And then we’re going to trim them in half like this. And we are trimming this time. It is so funny, you just grab something and, you know, it’s like oh I’m going to draw a line and you look at your hand and it’s your rotary cutter. Alright so now we’re going to iron these open right here. And I’m just going to press them back to the dark side. And I’m going to keep my two colors together so that I’m putting different colors together when I go to make my hourglass block.


Alright, so we have these two colors. We’re going to pair this one with this one. We’re going to put them on opposite sides like this, just like this. And this is the same. So your color goes to your background like this. You can feel that seam lining up in there. You want that to lay together. And we are going to draw a line again on this side. So we’re going to come down this side. Sometimes it’s easier when you have a seam to start at the middle. But mine worked ok that way. Sometimes I just start here at the middle and go out because it feels like it’s easier than going over the piece. Alright so again when you have them like this, make sure those two seams are nested. You can pull this up and peek and make sure it’s still nested. But make sure that you don’t feel any space in between there. And then we’re going to sew down both sides again. So we’re going to go this way. And these you can also chain piece the whole thing. So just go ahead and slide that next one in. Make sure your seams lay flat and they stay nested. And then we’re going to flip that around and go down the other side. Alright, and then we’re going to go ahead and cut these apart. And get our little ruler and cut on the line. And this one on the line as well. Alright, then we’re going to trim these up to 4 ½. And again I’m using the clearly perfect slotted trimmer. This ruler makes sense to my brain. You know, it’s one of those things where you’ve got to know what works for you. You could use the bloc loc. You can use whatever you want to square your blocks with. This ruler seems to make sense to my brain because I’m lining up my seam line on both lines and then just trimming around like that. And we have these two over here and I might as well go ahead and do it. There’s this one. All my little pieces. And here’s this one. That seam line isn’t quite so straight but with any luck we’ll be fine. My seam line, not theirs. Alright so then we’re going to open them up and they should look like this. And there’s a little hourglass block and it’s just as cute as it can be. And so we’re going to press those open, press one more over here. And then you’re going to make a stack of those and you are going to make 18. And again they’re 4 ½ inch squares so you will just stack those up right there. And we are onto Block D.


So this is Block D. And it’s a little quarter square triangle and so you are going to need one piece of background and then two colored pieces so each block that you make. And for block D you’re going to need 60 of them. So to make this block you’re going to take your two colored pieces and you’re going to put them right sides together. And then we are going to draw the line corner to corner just like this. And one thing I love about these half square triangle blocks is every time you make one, you get two. You know, it’s just like a little present for me. Alright so now we have the line. We’re going to sew on both sides like this and then just flip it around. And come on up the other side. And then we’re going to cut this in half and press it open. And this time, you know, it doesn’t matter what side you press to because it’s all red. This just makes for such a stunning quilt, doesn’t it? I love Kaffe fabrics. Alright so then here we are this way. Actually what matters is that you press them both to the same back side. And then they’ll nest together. So on this one I’ve pressed this one to this side. And on this one I need to repress because I just happened to notice that. And we need to make sure that we are pressed to the same fabric so that it will nestle nice together.


Alright so now what we’re going to do is we’re going to take our background square and we are going to draw a line side to side on that. And you’ll need one piece for each of your half square triangles because what we’re going to do is we are going to put this seam runs this way, our line is going to run this way. And we’re going to set that on here. And you’ll do that for 60 of these, well you’ll need 60 blocks in the end. So then we’re going to sew down one side and down the other. And I am making sure that my block, it’s not the same size because we’ve already cut one down, so it’s just a little bit smaller, and just center it up in there. Alright. And then we will trim this in half. And just like that we get two. So then I’m going to flip these over and then I will trim them, square them to 4 ½. So I’m going to put my ruler here and trim here and here. So there’s 4 ½ and then this one also like that. And then what we’re going to do is we are going to press these open and press to the dark side. And you get this cute little half square triangle block. Actually it’s a quarter square made up of three fabrics. And this is your little block right there. So you are going to go ahead and make those and you are going to set those in line with your other ones. So now we have A, B, C, and D and we are onto E.


So this is Block E right here. And you can see we have three different colors and our background. And I’ll show you how to make that. So for block E you’re going to need 30 blocks. And what you’re going to need to make this is you’re going to need two blocks of color for one half square triangle and then a color and a white for the other half square triangle. So we’re going to draw the line which you can see I’ve done and I’ve done that on both of these. So I set these two colors right sides together like this. And also this one right sides together with the background and the color. And we’re going to sew on both sides of the line. This is really a good practice in making all the different half square triangles because it’s just, I mean there isn’t one I think she leaves out and so it’s a good practice for that. Alright I’m going down on this one. I’m going to slide the next one in. And then we’re going to come down this side. I have to say this line on this one is a little hard to see. Alright. Now we’re going to cut these apart and then you guessed it, we are going to sew them together. So we’re going to trim this one and we’re going to trim this one. We’re going to press to the dark side on these. Oh that’s a cute little print. Every time I press one of these it just makes me smile. They’re just so cute. Alright so this one we’re going to press to the same side. So I’m going to press to the squiggly side on this one and the same on the next one. Alright.


So then what we’re going to do is we’re going to draw our line on these two pieces because this is a little bit lighter and I will be able to see it a little better. And then this one too. And we’re drawing that line opposite of the way the seam goes. And then what we’re going to do is we’re going to line these up together to nest them. So this one is going to go, we’re going to have a red, red, red and then one of our colors. And we want to make sure that we lay these on here so our seams nest. So my seam is pressed this way. This seam needs to go the opposite way. And so we’re going to put them on here like this, push those seams together, make sure they nest nice and tight. And then we’re going to sew down the side on this one. And then down the side on this one. And then we’re going to cut that apart. And I could have slid that other one in there and I think I will right now. And back around. And you again, you can chain piece your whole lot of these if you want to. I’m kind of a rote sewer like that. I get a lot done really fast. But if I make one mistake I’m going to make that mistake 42 times, you know. So I have to be a little bit careful and check it out to make sure it’s right before I go on and sew them all. So we have three reds and our background, just what we need. So now let’s square these up. And I’ll use my little tool right here. I’m going to slide this one out so I don’t cut the edge of him off, always a good idea to make sure you’re not cutting on anything else. Oop, I have a little bit of hanging right there. On the seam, both seams lined up and trim around. And then these, you know, you guys I rarely do this, but these little slits here, these are to cut off your little dog ears like this. And see it makes, it does it just perfect. But I always forget to do that so I apologize. People are always like, what are those little slits for? Why don’t you use them? And I’m like, I just forget. I get in a hurry. And I don’t worry about those dog ears too much. Trim up and trim over. And let’s just for fun, we’re going to do those little dog ears. And one here. I have to say I’m always a little bit worried my rotary cutter is going to jump and cut me so that is one of the reasons I don’t. But it hasn’t yet but you could always be aware of that. Alright so here’s our little block. We’re going to press to the dark side. And again, you know, we sewed two and we get four, always a favorite of mine. So press away from your white square. And then these are your little blocks right here. And we will put those in our pile. You’re going to make 30 of those. And we are onto Block F.


So this is Block F. And block F is made from four colors and so we’re going to make room for him over here. And you are going to need to make 54 of these. And these are basically just your colors together. And we are just going to sew half square triangles, turn them into hourglasses. And we’re just going to go ahead and draw our lines and sew on both sides. And so I’m ready with this one here. And draw a line here. And I love this little ruler for this line drawing, so much less cumbersome than a big one. Alright, now we’re going to go ahead and we’re going to sew on both sides. So again, you can chain piece these right through just like this. These are laying right sides together . So we’re going to go ahead and cut these apart. Cut on our line. And we’re going to press them open and we’re going to press the blocks to the same direction. So again I’m going to look at this and I’m going to decide that I want to press mine to this side. So I will stack mine like this and press mine to this side. Stack them like this so that I know when I get to the ironing board I’m going to be pressing the same direction. So I’ll lay these over here and press them open. And it doesn’t matter which side because these are all colors. You know, if you’re using fabric that has lights and darks then you’ll want to press to the dark always, just to hide that seam. Oh my gosh, look at these gorgeous flowers, whew, beautiful. Alright, so then you’re going to choose two of them and I choose these two. And we’re going to draw a line again on the back so we can put these together as hourglasses. One more here and I am darkening it up so I can really see the line. These poor old eyes, you know. Once they get to a certain age. Alright, so then we’re going to snug these together, make sure they’re lined up. They should be the same size because you’ve taken the same seam on both of these. And, let’s see here, let me make sure I have these both going the same direction. It doesn’t really matter but it will matter for your seam. Alright. We’re going to snug this up. And we’re just going to sew on both sides. If you ever have trouble sewing, making a straight quarter inch seam it’s kind of a fun idea to practice on lined paper. You know, and just see until you get good at staying on that line. So that you can make a nice straight seam. It’s helpful in any type of quilting. I’m making sure that these are nested up. I can feel them trying to jump the fold. Alright here’s the last one right here. There we go. Now we’re going to trim these apart. And then I am going to go ahead and cut them right down on the line. Cut these on the line. Oop, open your rotary cutter. There we go. And then we’re going to press these open. Oh no, we’re going to square them first. So we’re going to square them first. And I’m looking for my lightest side which is this one. The lightness just helps my eyes be able to see it better. Obviously that’s up to you. You can do it however you want. And then that block was probably closer than it should have been. To my rolling blade, there we go. And over here. This guy and then lastly this one. Alright then what we’re going to do is we’re going to press these open right here. And this is our F block. Alright, so this is our F block right here, four colors together. And you’re going to put those in a pile over here and again you’re going to need to make 54 of those.


So then you’re ready to put them together. You’ve got all your squares lined up in rows and stacks and you are just ready to follow this cool chart she has in here and put them together. You know, again you’re going to do all your background and then as each block has a letter so when you see Block B you know that it’s this block. And so it’s really easy to put together. She’s got a great chart here in the pattern. She’s got a great diagram here of how it looks in different fabrics, really fun to make. So meet me back over by the quilt.


So just to wrap up this is the Exploding Heart quilt. We’ve loved it. We’ve loved the back. Now just so you know the backing does not come in the kit. You have to purchase that separately. But look how gorgeous that is. Love the background, just love everything about this. I want to give a special thank you to Laura Pilan from Slice of Pie quilts for letting us teach her pattern. And I’ve just really enjoyed it. It makes a great quilt, 72 by 72, really fun size. So don’t forget to grab the kit and we hope you enjoyed this tutorial from the Missouri Star Quilt Company.


Hi everybody, it’s Jenny from the Missouri Star Quilt Company. We hope you enjoyed watching this video. If you aren’t already part of the Missouri Star Quilt Company family be sure to subscribe so you won’t miss a thing. And if you click that bell it will notify you every time a new tutorial comes out. See you next Friday.