Patchwork Heart Pocket Prayer Quilt Tutorial + FREE Pattern
In this video, Jen shows you a variation of the Pocket Prayer Quilt that includes a pocket so you can keep a list of people you’re praying for, a special quote, or a small photo. Add the cross inside the heart or display it on the front, like Jen does.
- Patchwork Heart Pocket Prayer Quilt Pattern
- Pocket Prayer Quilt Pattern (the original)
- Pocket Prayer Quilt Pack
Includes 12 gold crosses, 12 printed prayers, 12 safety pins
NOTIONS USED IN THIS VIDEO:
- Creative Grids I Love My Quilting Friends 2½” x 6" Ruler
- Rotary Cutters, Blades, and Mats
- Karen Kay Buckley Perfect Scissors
- CutRite Heavy Duty Freezer Paper
- Panasonic 360° Freestyle Cordless Irons
We’re sewing on a BERNINA 770 QE and we love it! We used the 1D presser foot in this video.
For personal use ONLY, not for commercial production. No part of this pattern may be reproduced, shared, or distributed in any form unless given express written consent by Shabby Fabrics. Not to be used with any online classes or video tutorials other than the official Shabby Fabrics tutorial. All designs, photographs, and images are protected by federal copyright law. All rights reserved.
Video Transcript:
Hi, it's Jen from Shabby Fabrics. A couple of months back, I showed you how to make the pocket prayer, and that was hugely popular. You guys have loved that video and loved being able to make the pocket prayers and give them, especially during the time we're living through right now. The instructions inside included the four patch as well as the hourglass, and of course, it uses the pocket prayer pack which has the pins, it has the nice cards printed on the back, and of course, the beautiful gold crosses.
Well, as time has gone on, I've been thinking about the pocket prayer because I know the one that I have kept in my purse, naturally when it is in my purse and my keys and my phone and just the shuffling through my purse, that paper has become a little bit tattered. And I thought, what would that be like if I truly made a pocket prayer, where I could either put the paper in the back to protect it, or to truly put a prayer list?
And so, that's why we came up with the Patchwork Heart Pocket Prayer, and it's really fun to do in just a very scrappy look. It could be in your favorite color, and we also found with the one and a half-inch strips that are called honey buns, it's a super convenient way to just jump into the project because the strips are already one and a half inches wide.
So let me tell you how to make this. Now, what will be included in the download? I'll be showing you how to do the patchwork, how to create your pocket, how to assemble everything. That process will be included, and of course, you can be sure to grab those pocket prayer packs which have the pins, they have the crosses, as well as the cards on the back.
Now, what we've also done is created an additional pattern that will have all the instructions, but will also be included are some prayer lists. So, if you want to be able to have that list of people that you're praying for every day, I think we all have that, where you'll be able to write their names of who you're praying for so you don't forget somebody or maybe you meet somebody during your day, and they're like, "Please pray for my brother, please pray for my father." You can just write their name down so you can be sure to include them.
So, we have different sayings at the top of those. That's why having the pattern, the paid pattern is great. We'll have 12 prayer lists in there, including some blank ones you can put whatever you want in there, maybe a heartfelt message, and then when you give that to somebody, they'll be able to just put that in the very back of that pocket and keep that with them forever.
So let's jump into how do we make it. First, we'll start off with the patchwork heart. As I said, it can be very scrappy, it can be just completely different fabrics you have on your stash, maybe fabrics you have leftover from making masks or quilts or whatever you're doing. It could be a honey bun, it could be a charm pack, they all work really well.
So, I just grabbed purple today. I cut some strips one and a half inches wide by five. Of course, that's the size of a charm square is five inches. Just cut them very accurately, be sure you're using a fresh blade in your rotary cutter. I always want to remind you about that because we want to have very precise piecing.
Once you sew all the rows together, I went ahead and pressed those seams open so it lies nice and flat. Much to cover, so I'll go ahead and skip you know how to sew quarter and seam allowances so I'll skip right ahead to you'll need a piece of batting as well. You want to get a nice lower loft batting. I definitely found when I was working with making these, and I was trying to figure out the right process, I had some fluffier batting that gave me just a little bit of a problem turning it through. So if you have the choice of a lower loft batting, go ahead and choose that more lower loft.
So, we're just going to go ahead and put this onto a piece of batting, and I have loaded a piece of purple in, or a purple spool, and I'm just going to stitch in the ditch. You could do something else, do whatever you want, maybe some stipple or whatever you want to do. I'm going to keep it simple, just starting with stitching in the ditch.
Okay, our pocket is sewn that nice rounded edge. So, what we'll do, this is our backing, there's our pocket. So now when we lay this down here, I want you to note something. Notice how the pocket needs to come enough below that "v" so that when you sew your heart closed, you don't accidentally sew that pocket closed. So, you need to make sure that that pocket is at least about 3/8 beneath where you're going to sew, maybe a quarter, no closer than a quarter. So, I could certainly scoot this down here and maybe a little bit too. You know what, I think no matter what, you're going to be safe, but I just wanted to point that out in the event you really got that down there and maybe sewed a really healthy quarter of an inch, maybe even beyond that, you could inadvertently sew that pocket closed.
Why I know that is, I already did that when I was making one of these. I just got a little bit too close, so I just wanted to mention that. Okay, everything is lined up. We know we're well away from that.
This is when I'm going to use those flower pins, flower head pins from Clover, because they're just a little bit too much fabric for me to use my normal patchwork pins. I pieced things together when I was sewing my strips together. You can certainly use the patchwork pens, but when you're dealing with bulkier layers being put together, go ahead and use those pins. They're just made to go through an additional bulk.
Now we'll go ahead and we're going to start. We could probably start right about probably right about in here and we're going to sew a quarter of an inch. If you have a needle down option on your machine, select that because once we get to the point of that heart, we'll pivot. We'll come back the next direction again, down here, pivot. We're going to leave an opening about right there on that side. I don't like to leave openings on curves if I can avoid that because they're harder to close on a curve.
So I'm gonna even mark that. That way, I don't inadvertently sew past that spot. We'll leave that opening and, you know, as you know, the more bulky that is, the harder it is to turn to the opening. So go ahead and reinforce here as well as when you where you end and then we'll get our project turned through.
Once it's all stitched down, we'll go ahead and cut that out, and there's enough of the kind of scraps that if you want to make the other version of the pocket prayer, the original version, you'll have that. You know, it's kind of fun sometimes when you get ready done with a project, like what do I do with these scraps? Like what do I do?
And one thing that I thought would be really fun is if you're going to make pocket prayers maybe in a sewing group, you save your scraps, they save their scraps, they all come together, and people can truly make it so scrappy that it's part of her quilt and his quilt and my quilt, and it's just this really neat community thing.
I think there's a lot of opportunities to do things and to make the pocket prayers both styles for people, not only in our family but in our community as well. So one thing you can do is go ahead and give a little snip anywhere you feel like it'd be nice to relieve a little bit of the pressure when you do turn, and you can be sure I'll be grabbing for my point turner as I turn this through trying to get those curves nice and rounded as well as that point.
So now we go ahead and we will just begin to push that through. Now, as I'm working this out, one of the things about the original pocket prayer was that the cross is inside. And as you can see on the ones that I did here with the heart, I put the cross on the outside because it's so beautiful. I love being able to actually see it.
So now, once we get this turned through, before we close it, you have to make a decision. Are you going to put the cross on the inside, or are you going to put it on the outside the way that is shown here? So that will be your decision.
If you want to use the card, what the card says is this pocket prayer quilt was made especially for you to slip in your pocket throughout the day. When your fingers touch the cross inside the quilt, be mindful of God's love and grace for you. Keep it as a tangible symbol of God's peace. If you think you're going to put these in back here, maybe pin it and keep it secure. You might want to go ahead to stay true to what's on the card, go ahead and put the cross on the inside.
So I just wanted to, it's that decision time where you can decide what you want to do with that. What the cool thing about the point turner, as you saw, I just worked out these beautiful curves with this, but then the other point, the other end is the point. And I get to work out that pointed part of the heart as well.
So I just love that Clover products really do think through all of the things. Alright, so let's get that warmed up. The first thing I want to do whenever I have to close an opening is I like to go ahead and just get everything pressed out.
So I understand what, what do I have here? Is everything nice and curved? Do I want to make any corrections? Do I want to turn it right back so the outside is on the outside and make any corrections? I'm happy with these curves. If you had any issue, pop it right back out. Do a seam rip and just fix it before proceeding.
Okay, I think I'm happy with what I'm seeing. So now what we'll do, let's go ahead, I want to bring this so it's more front and center. Some people can have a little bit of struggles trying to close an opening. The easiest way, we all already know that we've sewn a quarter-inch seam allowance, so take your time and just know that the whole goal here is when it's tucked under, and I should have grabbed some wonder clips, I can already see that that's, that's my go-to that's currently missing, but that's okay.
I think we can work it out. The goal is when I check it out, can you see where the opening would be? And if you can say, "Well, there's a little bit of a bump there," go ahead and finesse that just a little bit more until you can't tell that anymore. Now, the style of the heart patchwork that I'm going to do, I'm going to actually put the prayer list because I do have a lot of people that I'm praying for.
And I'm going to be using the prayer list that's inside the paid pattern for mine. So I'm going to have my cross on the outside. If you were going to have that on the inside, what you might think about doing is starting here, sewing most of the way around, and then the very end, pop that cross in and go ahead and close it. Otherwise, you need to keep track of where this thing is and make sure it's not drifting into your seam line because you can obviously break a needle and potentially damage your machine.
So let's go ahead. We'll go to the sewing machine. Okay, I'll keep my purple thread in there because, again, we, it's going to be visible. And we'll sew about an eighth of an inch all the way around our heart to go ahead and close that and do a nice little top stitch on this whole little heart here.
Okay, fun stuff. I love being able to use leftovers. You know, the fun, we love making quilts, and when I'm done with a quote project, I have the stash of fabric, and it stresses me out. Is anybody else out there in the same as me?
I'm like, what do I do with it? I can't throw it away. That doesn't make sense to me. I often gift it to somebody else, but this is a nice way to be able to give some of it and use just your scraps because it makes the best scrappy projects. It's really fun.
Alright, so we have our heart, and now I thought it would be really pretty, and what I've done, it's, you know, these decorative stitching, this deck, the razzle, the dazzle, the wonderful threads they have a specific job, and, you know, their job is to add sparkle and excitement, whether you're doing hand embroidery or in this case, just to tie a bow.
So I went ahead and grabbed our, I'm using these, I think these are the chenille needles here, and just threaded that. If you have any problem, go ahead and use thread magic. That'll kind of tone that down, make it a little bit easier to thread that needle. And I just pop that through. I think I came in from the back, actually. Nope, I know I came in from the front just like that, and I know I came right back up right above it, and there's a nice little opening, a loop on top of that beautiful cross.
And make your thread longer than you need so you have plenty of space to definitely tie a double knot and be able to make a bow. So you don't want that to come off. Okay, if you have any trouble making loops, let me show you that. I've, I've sewn, I've made bows for so long, sometimes I do it without even thinking, and people like, "How'd you do that?"
So let me go a little bit slower so you can see it. So I'm right-handed. I just make the little bunny ear, as my daughter calls it, loop around, tuck underneath. Oh, my hands got in the way of that. Make my little bunny ear, loop around, and I just push that through.
And it's bigger than I want initially, but if I go ahead and tie that again like that, now it's not going to come undone. And that's pretty. And you could leave it long. I went ahead and trimmed mine up just a touch just because I didn't want it to be catching on things in my purse.
And isn't that beautiful? And like I said, with the pocket prayer pack, you automatically get these, so you have the option to use them or not. If you want to go ahead and use that and put that in the back, you can put that in there and also just secure that with that gold pin so it's not going to come out.
Or if you choose, you're like, "No, I definitely want that prayer list in there," then be sure to grab the paid pattern as that's not part of the download, and you'll be able to do write your list or just write a heartfelt message, be able to put that in there and be able to give that to someone who I know will just really cherish that the way I cherished my original pocket prayer that I was given all these years ago.
So thank you so much for hanging in there with me for this longer video. I know being able to just share, you know, just these amazing handmade gifts with heartfelt messages really brings a lot of joy and a lot of hope for people. So be sure to grab all the things you need, and you know, start making that list of who could use one of those and really just bless them with all the things that you create.
Now tag a friend, so maybe you know somebody that might want to make those as well, and if you haven't already subscribed to our YouTube channel, just go ahead and do that now, and that way you'll never miss out on a future shabby video. I'll see you next time.
