Valentine’s Day is almost upon us yet again… and since last year I shared a fun tutorial/pattern with you, I thought I’d reprise that with another fun free quilt block!

This block is all kinds of fun! I was looking up “punny valentines” to make some for my kids, and came across a “You “Gnome” I Love You card and decided that I had to make a gnome-inspired quilting project. A heart quilt block is basically a chubby, upside-down Gnome block. Right?! 🙂 I’ve made lots of heart blocks in my day, so I knew I could come up with a quick Valentine block that also represented our favorite garden guardians… the Gnome.

In this quilt block, the heart is the little gnome’s beard! And it’s the cutest thing!! Especially with some extra attention to the quilting… I made sure my little guy got the beard he deserved.

It’s basically a heart block with a hat 🙂 The fabric color placement is what makes the difference, so you get the little nose poking out.

I just made one block for this post, but it would be so cute as part of a wall hanging, or making an appearance in a quilt!

To make the block, you need 4 different fabrics. I used fabric from my Flutter and Shine line with Riley Blake Designs- turns out, this is a perfect fabric line for Valentine’s Day- and some Confetti Cottons in White and Baby Pink by Riley Blake Designs 🙂

Red Fabric: (1) 4.5″ x 8.5″

Aqua Fabric: (2) 2″ x 5″, (2) 3″ x 3″, (2) 1.25″ x 1.25″

White Fabric: (2) 3″ x 5″, (2) 4.5″ x 4.5″, (2) 2″ x 2″

Pink Fabric: (2) 1.25″ x 1.25″

This block uses one big Flying Geese unit (the hat) and the rest of the pieces are snowball corners.

With your Red fabric and (2) 4.5″ squares, make a flying geese block. (If you want tips on accurate flying geese blocks, check out my post on Scant Seams!) Mark the diagonal on the wrong side of your background square, and sew along the line. Trim with a 1/4″ seam allowance.

Do the same on the opposite end, and trim!

After you press, you’ll end up with this Flying Geese Gnome hat, which you will set aside for a future step.

Next, it’s time to snowball a few pieces!

Mark along the diagonal of your 2″ background squares, and line them up on your 2″ x 5″ aqua strips so they are mirror images of each other. Sew along the marked lines, trim, and press.

Grab your last group of pieces, the 3″ x 5″ background fabric pieces, 3″ aqua squares, 1.25″ aqua squares, and the 1.25″ pink squares. Mark the diagonals of all your square pieces, and arrange them on your background pieces so they are all mirror images of each other to make both sides of the heart. Sew along the marked lines, trim, and press.

Sew the heart sides together, and press the seam open.

Next, assemble the block by first sewing the aqua units to the sides of the heart piece, and press open. Then, sew the Flying Geese hat on top! Press towards the hat piece.

You have yourself a very Heart-y Gnome block!

The block will measure 8.5″ x 9″, and it’s just so so cute! You can grab a paper copy of the tutorial HERE.

I mean, it’s cute on its own, but once you add some nice “hair” quilting (which is just wavy lines, not too hard!) it definitely pops as a beard.

After I finished the block, I pulled out our (very few) Valentine decorations. The kids are ready for a pink/red house… and I firmly believe every holiday needs blue, hence the aqua.

You Gnome I Love You Block Pattern

(For the full quilt version you can get You Gnome I Love You in the shop!)

I hope you find some inspiration with this block, and try it out yourself! Happy quilting 🙂