Poshta Presents - Huggable Hearts

Hello Friends!  We are back again today with another Poshta Presents project, featuring an adorable ensemble by the talented Kelly Raines! Read on to learn how Kelly created these cute decor pieces, perfect for Valentine's day!

Hello! Kelly here! I call this project huggable hearts. This idea popped into my head and I couldn’t quit thinking about it until I made it. It turned out cuter than I had envisioned and has me thinking about other Poshta Design dies I can use to create more huggable things! I started this project with the X and O from the Statement Alphabet in Red Currant felt and embellished them using sequins and beads from the Holly Hill Color Story. I layered a thin piece of cardboard between two layers of quilt batting inside the letters and used a dab of hot glue to hold the layers together which makes it easier to stitch. I prefer this layer combination because it gives the piece dimension and stability and doesn’t make it too thick to stand. I used three strands of floss for all of the stitching using DMC816 for the letters.

To get the X and O to stand up, I overlapped the letters slightly and used hot glue to hold them together. I created a pocket from matching felt and hot glued it in place where the X and O overlap. Then, I cut a small piece of flat jewelry wire, around 3 inches, and slipped the wire into the pocket. I bent the exposed wire into an L shape to create an easel. I prefer creating the felt pocket for the wire because it allows me to remove it to use for other projects and it is easier to store them flat.

Now for the hearts! I cut a layer of Paloma felt with the Basic Heart Die and the coordinating Scalloped Heart Details layer in Tundra. For the face details, I used the Kringle Crew: Mrs. Claus die to cut a thin layer of cardboard and used it as a stencil by marking the stitching holes with a fabric marker. I used DMC310 for the eyes, DMC892 for the mouth, and Worn Lipstick Distress Ink to create the rosy cheeks. I hot glued a thin piece of cardboard to the Tundra layer and then a layer of quilt batting. To create the arms, I hot glued a chenille stem across the heart and folded another chenille stem in half, twisted the folded end to make a spine and hot glued it vertically over the other stem for the legs and added another layer of batting. I stitched the layers together with the coordinating Paloma felt, DMC353 and positioned the chenille stems between stitching holes and stitched them in place. I embellished the scallops with sequins and beads and added a Ripe Raspberry bow using dies from the Fresh Flowers die set. I added the felt pocket on the back using the same technique for the letters. Lastly, I bent the ends of the chenille stems to create little hands and feet.

I created the other heart in the same fashion using Tundra felt for the scalloped layer, Glacier for the heart and coordinating floss DMC3813, and a Ripe Raspberry bow tie. A little tip, I placed the bow and bow tie on the hearts prior to stenciling and stitching to help with the placement of the eyes and mouth.

The banner was created with the Love Notes dies using Tundra for the envelope and the small heart from the Basic Hearts dies in Red Currant. I embellished the envelopes with small hearts, included in the Love Notes dies, using Ripe Raspberry felt. I didn’t have any magnets on hand, so I used small pieces of velcro for the envelope closure. Since the envelopes open and close they were easy to add to the crochet thread to create the banner plus it gives me the option to use them for other projects.

I have really enjoyed sharing my projects with you! I hope I have inspired you to see your
Poshta Design stitching dies in a new way and demonstrated the versatility of the Basic Heart and the Basic Heart Additions dies. Happy Stitching! ~ Kelly

Thank you so much, Kelly, for sharing your time and talent with us and inspiring us for throughout the month of January. Join us again next Thursday with along with our February guest to kick off another month of incredible projects! Thanks for stopping by!