Heart-y Ideas For Valentine's Day

Cross-stitch on monk's cloth

In one of our recent posts we promised to provide patterns and suggestions for Valentine projects. I'm concerned about the young elementary school children. Valentine's Day has gotten to be quite an occasion for many of them. The exchange of cards, making cards for their teachers, the cookies and other goodies, the feeling of a holiday afternoon. With the pandemic marching right along, we cannot really predict what the situation will be — whether children will be back in school or not, how many will be in quarantine at that time, etc.

 

I'm hoping that many parents, worn-out and worried as they are, will make an effort to make something a little special for those children, especially this year.  Help them express themselves with letters, pictures, decorations, etc., which they can share by cell phone, mobile device, or just taping them to the inside of a window facing the street. Help them fill and fasten off heart-shaped beanbags to toss onto or into marked spaces or open containers.  Make up words from the word "Valentine" and give simple prizes for the best list, longest word, etc.  Dress up a family pet and take pictures of it.

Sample Valentine's projects?

We mentioned that older children can often become interested if presented with a challenge. The ones we suggested were: making a spiral Valentine which moves, write and record a Valentine song, make a memory jar or a scrapbook for someone, turn "I Love You" into a wind chime. In the meantime, we have made some other challenges: write a Valentine cheer, make up a Valentine dance, invent a board game with Valentine features, put on a puppet show, serenade a shut-in, in person or by phone.

Bookmarks

One of the easiest things a child who can write the alphabet letters can make is a bookmark, The the letters can be written in pencil on a piece of plastic canvas and then be stitched over with needle and yarn. A little supervision is required. Once they get the idea, they soon learn to make patterns, with or without the initials or names.  The pictures below show a monogrammed bookmark and an open book with a bookmark in a patterned design.

Appliqued apples

These little apples with appliqued hearts, leaves, and little buttons show what can be done with simple applique. The two pieces you see are little ornaments that could be hung on a small Valentine tree or a spray of evergreen on a mirror or a door. Enlarged, they could be potholders, apron pockets or even pillows.

Don't forget that St. Patrick's Day comes soon after Valentine's Day, and hearts can play a part in that celebration as well. Actually the idea came from J.D.  After watching me move the heart shapes into different configurations, he made the connection with the 4-leaf clover.  It is always valuable to get another person's point of view. Here are the charts from both a 4-leaf clover and a shamrock.

Heart corner design

Small red hearts make nice borders. Put them at the top, the bottom, both, or all the way around. Or place larger hearts like this one in the four corners of the design. Rotate the pattern 90 degrees for each of the 3 remaining corners. These hearts can also be used as a line design.

Here are some projects that you may want to try. First is a crewel design with inter-locking hearts. You can see it here framed and in full color, but many other color schemes could be used.  The pattern is worked in crewel stitches. An outline pattern is included below, which then can be enlarged to the size you desire. Simply click on the caption to download the pattern.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Click here to download

Many cross-stitch patterns include the direction to back-stitch around certain completed stitch sections.  When you do the back-stitching, use a thinner thread or yarn than was used for the cross-stitches. Here is a step-by step diagram for such a project. The hearts in this case are meant to represent flowers, complete with stems and leaves. The red one is done completely with cross-stitches and no back-stitching.  The lavender one has back-stitching in the same colors as the flower parts.  The blue one is back-stitched in traditional black. A series of these flowers would make a cheerful trimming for a little girl's apron, pinafore, or dress, as well as to embroider on curtains or linens for her room.

Click here to download

Next is a cross-stitch pattern for a heart carrying the word "LOVE", which could be done the size of a pocket or a sachet, as well as it can be done the size of a pillow.  It can be worked in counted cross-stitch, or tent stitch (needlepoint).  An interesting style you might like to try is to use counted cross-stitch on checked gingham in either standard check or baby check. Once again, click on the caption to download.

A reader writes that she likes heart designs, but doesn't do much for Valentine's Day. She asks for other occasions to use them. I'm glad she asked. Some places where embroidered notices are appropriate include engagement, wedding, and birth announcements.  There are special anniversaries like Silver and Gold ones.  Different cultures also have "coming of age" ceremonies like bar and bat mitzvahs and quinceañeras. Some other occasions which might be appropriate are graduations and the receipt of special awards.

If you are going to be a bridesmaid or a maid or matron of honor, and the date is set and invitations have been sent, you should be able to complete an embroidered announcement in time. Check the wedding announcement to get a good idea of the couple's style.  The mothers of the bride and groom should like similar announcements. If this is a blended or atypical family, there might be additional people to consider. In that case, you may want to work with a group to get these made. Choose a popular sized frame — 8 in. x 10 in. is usually large enough. Select simple gold, silver or plain white frames that won't distract from the message.  Popular fabrics for this kind of embroidery include needlepoint canvas, monks' cloth, and Aida cloth.

The birth announcement may be a little smaller than the wedding announcement. You may want to embroider the details of the birth or christening in blue for a baby boy and pink for a baby girl or do the whole announcement in rainbow colors.

Of course, each of the needlework projects could be painted, or worked in mosaic or cut glass.  You are encouraged to use your imagination to think of new and original projects.  Happy Valentine's Day!

Stay safe and well,

 This post by Annake's Garden is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.