I am making a valentine wall hanging that uses hearts that are appliqued 1/4" from the edge - which are supposed to ravel. As I was basting, getting ready to FMQ, it occured to me that loops and swirls all over might interfere with the raveling of the appliques. Not a whole lot of space that's NOT a heart, so I'm just asking for your thoughts, or maybe somebody has had a similar situation?

Do not sew over the 1/4 from the seam and you will be fine for the unraveling

That will not leave me much fabric to quilt!! The base block is 9" and the largest heart that was appliqued is about 8-1/2" in diameter.

Couldn't you quilt inside the heart? That's what I would do. Maybe like an echo?

pull the material over and quilt behind the raw edge...?

I would quilt inside the heart

I didn't mention in my original post that there are 3 hearts decreasing in size that are stacked on each other. So, I'm thinking that quilting inside the largest heart will affect the raveling of the smaller 2 hearts.

How much difference is there in the size of the hearts? And how did you attach the smaller hearts? If sewn down you probably don't need any additional quilting. A picture would help us help you better.

All three hearts are stitched 1/4" from their raw edge, stacked on each other. The base block is about 9", the largest heart is about 8-1/2" diameter, then 6", the smallest is 4". No sashing joining blocks, either.

.