Make your house block

1. Cut a 20cm square from white cotton sheeting and press. Download the template and print. Trace onto thin paper and cut out. Cut one large and five small hearts from fabric scraps.

2. Pin the house, roof and chimney paper pieces onto the back of fabric scraps and cut out with a 5mm seam allowance all round. Remove the papers and set aside.

3. Pin a large heart to the centre of the fabric house piece and use two strands of coordinating embroidery thread to sew in place with a small blanket stitch (Fig.1). Do the same with one small heart in the centre of the roof piece.

4. Pin the house, roof and chimney pieces back onto their respective paper templates. Fold in the edges around the paper and tack down (Fig.2). Arrange the pieces in the centre of the white square, pin in place and oversew the edges to the square with embroidery thread. Start sewing a short distance from an angle and stop when there is a gap of 3cm left to work (Fig.3).

5. Remove the tacking stitches and use tweezers to pull the paper template from inside the applique shape, then sew up the gap. Pin the four remaining small hearts in each corner of the white square, 1.8cm in from the sides. Blanket stitch these in place with embroidery thread. Press the finished panel.

Stitch a quilt

1. Make eight house blocks, changing the fabrics for each if desired. Cut two 20cm squares from each of four different printed fabrics. Draw a line on the wrong side of each piece from corner to corner in both directions and cut into triangular quarters.

2. Pin and stitch a triangle of each fabric to the sides of a house block, right sides together with a 1cm seam allowance. Fold out and press. The resulting panel should be 27cm square; trim if necessary. Repeat for the remaining seven squares.

3. Cut several 4cm wide strips of white sheeting and use these to add a border around each panel using a 5mm seam allowance. Trim several 3.5cm wide strips from the remaining fat quarter of patterned fabric. Use these to join the eight blocks into one large panel measuring two squares by four squares, joining strips if necessary, and to outline the arrangement with one large border.

4. Cut 7cm wide strips from the remaining cotton sheeting and use to make a final border for the quilt top. Press. Cut a 100cm x 160cm panel of white cotton sheeting for backing and press. Lay on a flat surface, place a piece of wadding of the same size centrally on top and add the pressed quilt top over this. Pin all three pieces together at regular intervals.

5. Hand quilt around each house panel and also between the last two borders. Turn in the raw edges of the sheeting to measure 5cm from the quilted line. Trim any excess wadding from between the sheeting if necessary. Pin the two folded edges together and join with neat running stitch, 1mm from the edge.