Conversation Hearts Surrounded by Love
I watched a video the other day from Lisa Capen Quilts on YouTube (you can learn anything on YouTube) and I fell in love with a wall hanging she was making themed around candy conversation hearts. First, I LOVE candy conversation hearts. I used to go through them in elementary school and make sure that any I passed out to my classmates for our Valentine’s Day party didn’t include one that said “cute” or “kiss me” to a boy who I didn’t want to get the wrong idea. C’mon!! We ALL did that. Admit it. 🙂
Lisa’s method was the traditional way to print or draw a picture of the design, use a light box to trace the design and words, cut out fabric backed with Heat-n-Bond, and then using a satin stitch on a domestic sewing machine, she appliqued the hearts onto a background. At one point in her video, she said it was “a little time consuming”. Ya THINK??
I really wanted to do this but have absolutely no desire whatsoever for all that work. Especially when I have a power tool, a.k.a my embroidery machine, to do it for me. And I have a very nifty piece of software called Simply Applique whose mission in life is to assist lazy embroiderers like myself. Here’s how I did it. Oh, and I’ve started a YouTube channel! I would love it if you would subscribe! I do not, and will not, monetize my channel so any products I talk about are my own personal opinion.
The hearts are an image I grabbed from Google Images which I printed and scanned into my Brother Scan-N-Cut. Once scanned, I uploaded it into the Brother Canvas Workspace to resize. Then I downloaded the image back to the Scan-n-Cut to cut out the hearts. The hearts were cut from fabric already backed by Heat-n-Bond. The background dimensions are 10″ x 26″ Kona white and then I needed a few extra inches all around the outside of Warm & White for the batting and I chose a dark pink solid for the backing and binding. The hearts are from a fat quarter bundle of solids from Free Spirit and the border is a mini-charm pack called Surrounded by Love from Moda. All the fabrics were from my stash.
The interior stipple is from a stencil I have and I used a Frixon marker to draw out the stipple design, because I’m lame and cannot do a freehand simple stipple. If I had been thinking ahead, I’d of stippled the background first on the embroidery machine because I have several stipple designs. Or even a background heart design would be cute. I just did a simple “X” on each border square.
Here’s the final product! I think it turned out absolutely adorable!! (If I do say so myself!) Now I have a cute wall hanging to remind hubs how I feel about him this coming Valentine’s Day. 🙂
super cute! I love that you use embroidery in your quilting projects — so do I 🙂
Really? I think that takes a whole different set of crossover skills. I’d love to to your work! Please email me some pics at beckyleethompson at outlook dot com
I love your wall hanging and I want to make one. I enjoy your videos and love that you are so “real”
Hi Lynda! Thank you so much for your kind words. Aren’t you sweet? Sometimes I think I’m too “real” but I have to be who I am. I’m so glad you commented. Enjoy your day! Best, Becky
Hi Becky. On a recent youtube video you talked about buying precuts that aren’t wrapped in plastic. I got a roll of shrink wrap at Michael’s Crafts, cut it to the size I wanted, and wrapped my precuts. You can use scotch tape then a heat gun to shrink it. I am careful to only shoot the heat on the front and edges. It will shrink the tape right off! Hope you are able to find shrink wrap in your area.
That’s a great idea!! I’m all over that! Thanks!
Hello, I see you are looking for a ironing board table. I love my 70”x20” ironing surface. I purchased a wooden work bench and wheels from harbor freight. I then covered with batting and ironing fabric. I also attached a power strip on the side. This has been wonderful. If I could figure out how to send you a photo I would. Happy sewing!
Dominique, can you email a photo to me at beckyleethompson@outlook.com ? Today I found an ironing table cover that I had planned on donating and thought, NO! I’ll cover my new ironing table in that! We have a Harbor Freight here and I can go get what you have.
Hi Becky, I am new to your Youtube channel and am now following your blog. I watched your Simply Applique video and you showed the ironing pad that you slipped under the hoop. Did you make it or purchase it? I’d like to have one for my applique work. Thanks. If you could email me at pamrohrkemper@sbcglobal.net…that would be great. Thanks again.
I made that ironing pad from the book Piece In the Hoop that came with a CD that I purchased on Amazon. Here’s a link. https://amzn.to/2G8rnD8