With all the HeartStrings group quilts I’ve been completing I’ve been thinking about what makes some of the tops appeal to me so much more than others and in the end it mostly comes down to symmetry. 

I quilted another one of the 24 block tops that I’ve added borders to today and got it trimmed and the binding is on and ready for me to hand stitch down tonight but I got a bit sidetracked before getting the binding on. 

Of the 10 small 24 block group tops sent … these 4 are my favorites but I tend to always lay my Heartstrings blocks out in the same way and working on all of these tops got me to thinking about different layouts.

I pulled out the iPad and opened my TouchDraw app and started making symmetric layouts. There are 2 different 24 block layouts to each image

Another two… on the right layout – I’d make 4 blocks without a center string in order to get the dual heart image.

And 2 more…

So why spend time playing with layouts? I’ve got lots of leftover strips and strings and I’ve liked working on this batch of group quilts. I don’t often make 24 block HeartStrings myself, usually making the 48 block ones but I kind of want to pull out my bright strips and strings, find some fun borders, and make some of these myself and play with different SYMMETRIC layouts! 

And since it will be a while before I can dive in and play, documenting it here will make it easy for me to refer back to. 

Using our 9 inch finished HeartStrings blocks and adding a border cut 6.5 inches, these quilts finish at 48 x 66 inches. A nice size for kids or lap size for adults. And of course, if you’re making the set of 24 blocks yourself, you can use any color for the center strips … I like to coordinate with my chosen border.