Free Hearts of Fall Heart Quilt Pattern - Autumn Maple Leaf Quilt

By Jan Bay

This free heart quilt pattern features my Hearts of Fall Quilt, a 46 x 54-inch autumn quilt with pieced maple leaves, faceted patchwork hearts and four mirrored chains. Four maple leaf blocks anchor the corners while the hearts point inward toward a framed maple leaf medallion because I just love fall, don't you?   The chains and hearts are surrounded by a cream color field and an autumn leaf border.

Quilting Template Plastic Sheets

Free Heart Quilt Pattern Size and Design

The finished Hearts of Fall quilt measures 46 x 54 inches. I like that size for this design because it gives the maple leaves and hearts enough room to show without turning the quilt into a huge project. The center stays open and light, while the darker autumn fabrics do the work around it.

The main cream field finishes at 38 x 46 inches. Around that is a 1-inch finished olive inner border, followed by a 3-inch finished autumn-print border on all four sides. Keep those outer borders the same width. Don't make the top or bottom wider just to gain length because that changes the proportions of the whole quilt.

The design is built around nine pieced motif blocks: five maple leaf cores and four heart cores. Four of the leaves sit in the corners, while the fifth becomes the center medallion. The four hearts turn inward toward that center leaf, and four stepped chains visually connect the corners to the middle.

The leaf and heart cores each finish at 6 inches square. The corner leaves are framed to finish at 7 inches, while the center leaf gets a wider olive frame and finishes at 8 inches. That little change in scale is enough to make the middle read as the focal point without using a completely different block.

This isn't a beginner's first quilt. The chains and field go together with straightforward machine piecing, but the maple leaves and hearts use point-to-point template piecing with inset seams. If you've already made pieced blocks and you're comfortable stopping a seam at a marked junction, it's very manageable. Just don't rush those points.

Fabric and Supplies for the Hearts of Fall Quilt

The colors are what make this quilt feel like fall, but you don't need a giant stack of fabrics. I'd use several small-scale autumn prints within each color family rather than one fabric everywhere. The patchwork looks much richer that way.

• Cream: 2 1/2 yards for the field, frames, motif backgrounds and chain backgrounds
• Rust or dark autumn prints: 2 fat quarters
• Pumpkin: 1 fat quarter
• Gold: 1 fat quarter
• Olive print: 1 fat quarter
• Brown: 1 fat quarter for facets, stems and chain squares
• Olive border fabric: 1/2 yard
• Autumn-print outer border: 1 yard
• Binding: 1/2 yard
• Backing: 3 3/4 yards if your usable fabric width is about 40 inches
• Batting: at least 54 x 62 inches

You'll also need a rotary cutter, ruler, fine marking pencil, pins, matching thread, an iron and either template plastic or sturdy cardstock for the full-size pattern pieces. A walking foot is useful when you get to the quilting.

The fat-quarter amounts assume approximately 18 x 20 inches of usable fabric. If you're using a directional print or something with a motif you want to place carefully, give yourself a little extra. I'd rather have a few inches left over than discover the prettiest leaf print only works upside down.

This pattern uses a 1/4-inch quilt seam allowance for the conventional piecing. The American Quilter's Society explains quilt seam allowances and the same dot-to-dot method used for set-in seams in its Quiltmaking Essentials guide.

Piece the Autumn Maple Leaf Blocks

There are five maple leaf cores in this quilt, and all five use the same 6-inch finished geometry. Four become the corner leaves and one goes in the center medallion.

Each leaf is made from the numbered leaf pieces L1 through L12 plus the separate brown stem piece S. L11 and L12 are simply labels for the two existing green wedges in the approved leaf design. They are not extra pieces added to the shape.

Make three normal leaf sets for the upper-left corner, lower-right corner and center medallion. Make two mirrored sets for the upper-right and lower-left corners. Don't redraw the pieces to make the mirror. Reverse the complete templates so the seam allowance and junction marks reverse with them.

For the master leaf, join L1 to L2, then add L3. Add L5 followed by L4. Work the existing green wedge labeled L11 into place, then add L7 and L9. Join the separate brown stem at the base. Add the second green wedge labeled L12, followed by L6, L8 and L10.

The important part is stopping at the marked dots whenever several pieces meet. Don't stitch straight through an inset junction just because the seam line looks continuous. Stop, secure the seam, reposition the next piece and begin again from the marked point.

Once the colored leaf and stem are assembled, add the four cream background templates LC1 through LC4 around the shape. The finished stitching outline must measure exactly 6 inches square; the raw block should measure 6 1/2 inches square.

Frame the four corner leaves with 1/2-inch finished cream borders so each corner block finishes at 7 inches. The fifth leaf gets a 1-inch finished olive frame and becomes the 8-inch center medallion.

Make the Four Faceted Patchwork Heart Blocks

The hearts are pieced rather than appliqued, and that matters to the look of this quilt. Each one is built from several autumn fabrics so it reads as patchwork instead of a flat solid heart.

Make four identical 6-inch finished heart cores. The colored pieces are H1 through H8 plus H10 and H11. There is no H9 piece. H6 and H7 continue all the way to the same bottom point, and H10 and H11 are the two outer-lobe facets.

Start by joining H1 and H2, then add H10 along the outer lobe. Add H3 at the upper center seam, followed by H4 and H11. Join H5 below H1 and then add H6. On the opposite side, add H8 below H4 and then H7. H6 and H7 close against one another down the center and meet at the bottom point.

Match the common center carefully. That's the spot where a small sewing error becomes very visible once the heart is finished.

Add cream pieces HC1 through HC5 around the heart, working one outline edge at a time. The completed core should measure 6 inches between finished stitching lines and 6 1/2 inches across the raw outer edges.

Orientation is simple once the blocks are finished: the top heart points down, the bottom heart points up, the left heart points right and the right heart points left. All four points aim toward the center maple leaf.

I wouldn't add another border around these hearts. The open cream around them is part of what keeps the quilt from getting too busy.

Build the Four Mirrored Chain Panels

The chains look simple, but their spacing is what holds the whole layout together. Each finished chain panel measures 7 x 11 inches and contains exactly eleven 1-inch finished colored squares.

The first row of every chain panel is all cream. That blank row keeps a clean break between the maple leaf stem and the chain, so the chain doesn't look like a second stem growing out of the leaf.

For all four chains together, cut forty-four colored squares at 1 1/2 inches square:

• 12 olive squares
• 8 rust squares
• 8 gold squares
• 8 pumpkin squares
• 8 brown squares

Build the upper-left panel first and treat it as the master. Each row is 1 1/2 inches high before assembly. The colored squares step gradually across the panel, and the final row ends with two colored squares together near the center medallion.

Once the upper-left chain is correct, don't independently design the other three. Mirror the master left-to-right for the upper-right chain. Rotate the upper-left panel 180 degrees for the lower-right chain, and rotate the mirrored upper-right panel 180 degrees for the lower-left.

That gives all four arms the same number of squares, the same step rhythm and the same visual weight. Keep it exact. One extra square on only one arm will show.

The stem is never part of the chain panel, and you don't need a connector square between the final chain square and the center. The chain ends where the engineered panel ends.

Assemble the Hearts of Fall Quilt Top

The easiest way to keep this layout square is to assemble the cream field in seven horizontal bands rather than trying to float every block into one huge background.

1. Band 1: 1-inch finished cream margin across the full width.
2. Band 2: upper-left leaf block, cream center section and upper-right leaf block. Finished height: 7 inches.
3. Band 3: cream outer section, upper-left chain, top heart unit, upper-right chain and cream outer section. Finished height: 11 inches.
4. Band 4: left heart wing, 8-inch center medallion and right heart wing. Finished height: 8 inches.
5. Band 5: the 180-degree counterpart of Band 3 with the lower chains and bottom heart. Finished height: 11 inches.
6. Band 6: the 180-degree counterpart of Band 2 with the two lower corner leaves. Finished height: 7 inches.
7. Band 7: 1-inch finished cream margin across the full width.

Before joining the bands, each one should measure 38 1/2 inches wide unfinished. Match the center of each band first, then match the ends and pin the rest. Don't stretch a shorter band to make it fit. If something is off, find the seam that's eating the measurement.

Once all seven bands are joined, the cream field should measure 38 1/2 x 46 1/2 inches unfinished.

Add the olive inner border next. Sew the 1 1/2 x 46 1/2-inch strips to the sides, then add the 1 1/2 x 40 1/2-inch strips to the top and bottom. The quilt top should now measure 40 1/2 x 48 1/2 inches unfinished.

Finish with the autumn-print border. Add the 3 1/2 x 48 1/2-inch side strips first, followed by the 3 1/2 x 46 1/2-inch top and bottom strips. The raw quilt top should measure 46 1/2 x 54 1/2 inches, giving you a finished quilt size of 46 x 54 inches.

Both side borders and both end borders finish at exactly 3 inches. Keep them equal.

Download the Free Hearts of Fall Heart Quilt Pattern

The printable PDF includes the full cutting charts, leaf and heart construction maps, chain-panel layout, field assembly diagram, full-size placement maps and individual templates with 1/4-inch seam allowances already included.

Download the Free Hearts of Fall Heart Quilt Pattern PDF

Print the template pages at Actual Size / 100%. Turn off options such as Fit, Shrink or Scale to Page. Measure the 1-inch test square on the template pages before cutting fabric. If that square doesn't measure exactly 1 inch, don't cut yet.

The solid inner template lines are stitching lines. The dashed outer lines are cutting lines and already include the 1/4-inch allowance, so don't add another seam allowance around them.

The dimensions and template geometry in this pattern have been digitally audited, but the pattern has not been physically test-sewn. If you're using fabric you don't want to risk, make one leaf core and one heart core first. Those two blocks contain the inset seams and give you a good check of the template scale, seam handling and pressing before you cut all nine motif sets.

Once those two sample blocks finish at 6 1/2 inches square unfinished, you're ready to cut the remaining sets and build the quilt.