Free Pattern for Valentine's Day

One of my students is a volunteer for hospice, and is wanting to make table toppers to be given to families that lose a loved one.  Her idea was to make some sort of heart design and she brought a photo of a runner and asked if something similar could be made into a single heart table topper.

Monday of this week, my first student of the morning had been on a three day quilting retreat and was on sewing overload, so that left me two hours to my own devices.  What ever would I do....it was the perfect time to see what I could develop for the table topper.  After a little drafting I starting cutting and sewing and I came up with this design.

Shirley, my student came to class Tuesday and liked the design, so I thought I would give it to all of you in a pattern today.
You will need 1/2 yd of each of the fabrics, a light, a medium, and a dark.  A great stash buster.

For the Heart, cut 1 - 7" square and 4 - 4" squares of the light fabric.

Of the medium, cut 1 - 7" x 11" rectangle and 4 - 4" squares

Of the dark, cut 1 - 7" x 11" rectangle and 5 - 4" squares

Cut 2 - 4" strips for the light fabric and subcut into 17 1/4" pieces for the border and cut 4 - 4" squares of the dark fabric for the corners.

Draw a diagonal line from corner to corner on the light 4" squares and place them in the two upper corners of the two 7" x 11"  rectangles and sew on the lines.

Trim the corners 1/4" past the sewing line and press open and set aside.

Make a Nine Patch of the dark and medium 4" squares following the above photo for arrangement.

Sew the two prepared rectangles and the 7" square to the Nine Patch as pictured above. 

To this piece sew a 17 1/4" border to opposite sides.  To the other two 17 1/4" pieces sew a 4" dark square to each end. 

Sew the other two border pieces to your top and you are finished.

This is a really quick and easy table topper and will only take you a couple of hours from start to finish.  Hope you have a great Valentine's Day.