If you are looking for a sweet, quick, and FREE Valentine accent for your home,
or for a gift, head on over to Creative Machine Embroidery Magazine
Do hurry, though.
The free download expires February 28, 2018.
The instructions are in the January/February 2018 issue.
The design will fit in a 5 x 7 hoop,
but I wanted to stitch out two coasters at a time,
so I chose to use the 8 x 8 hoop on my Baby Lock Alliance.
I used embroidery software to copy and paste a second coaster.
As you can see in the above photo, I did have to turn each design
slightly to fit both of them inside the hoop.
Because I pretty much “squished” two coasters into this hoop,
I cut the batting and main fabric piece at 5 x 7 inches,
which is smaller than indicated in the instructions;
but they still covered the placement line.
Once the front of the heart is stitched out,
two 4 x 7 inch fabric pieces are placed face down on top of
the stitched out heart (I used low tack tape to hold them in place).
The outline of the heart will then stitch them in place,
you will remove the entire design from the hoop,
trim around the heart, and turn it right side out.
The instructions suggest using pinking shears
to trim around the heart, and I highly recommend doing just that.
They add the perfect ‘clip’ marks so your heart turns easily with nice, smooth edges.
There is one misprint in the instructions:
The third bullet point under PREPARE on page 21 of the magazine
instructs you to fold the short edge of one 4 x 7 rectangle toward the wrong side –
in actuality, you should fold the long (7″) edge of the 4 x 7 rectangle
toward the wrong side and press.
I recommend using a press cloth over the embroidery.
Some embroidery threads could melt or discolor under direct contact with the iron.
A beautiful stemmed glass (purchased for $4.50 at a local vintage shop)
and a lovely Valentine coaster make my morning cranberry juice that much sweeter!
With much l💙ve, thank you for reading my blog.
A Notion to Sew 
