Applique hearts galore on a Valentine’s cushion!

Welcome back! Yesterday I showed you how to use the Brother ScanNCut SDX225 to cut a lot of heart shapes that will be used to make a Valentine-theme cushion. Now, let’s get started making the front of the cushion cover.

Brother ScanNCut SDX225 electronic cutting machine

Cut a paper heart that’s about 10″ x 11″ at its widest parts. Place it on the 16″ square of fabric for the front of the cushion. Trace around the heart shape using a removable fabric marking pen.

Trace around paper heart shape on background fabric

Arrange the cut hearts within the traced shape on your background fabric. At this stage, I like to take a picture of my arrangement so I can use it for reference in case the hearts get moved accidentally.

Arrange the hearts within the heart shape

Carefully remove the paper backing from each heart shape as you place it on the background fabric. When all the hearts are arranged as desired, press them in place with an iron, following the instructions for the fusible web product you’re using.

Now you’re ready for stitching! I’ll be using my Brother Innov-ís BQ3050 machine.

Brother BQ3050 machine

Layer the cushion front, a piece of thin batting and a backing fabric. This backing fabric won’t show when the cushion is finished. Pin or baste the layers together.

Put the dual feed or walking foot on your machine. I love the MuVit dual–feed foot for my Brother Innov-ís BQ3050 machine. It comes with five different feet, and I’ll be using the open toe foot so I can see exactly where to stitch on my heart shapes.

The MuVit Dual-Feed Foot comes with 5 different feet

Use the open toe foot on the MuVit Dual-Feed Foot for accurate stitching

Because I was stitching through a lot of fusible web, I used a Schmetz non-stick needle.

Stitch around the large, traced heart shape first. I used stitch 1-07 which gives a heavy, decorative line to really emphasize the heart outline.

Stitch around the drawn heart shape with a decorative stitch

Now stitch around the fused heart shapes. I used a straight stitch (length 2.0), but you can use a decorative stitch if you like. Stitch slowly and carefully around each shape.

Stitch on the edge of each heart shape

To fill in the background around the heart shape, I stitched ½” grid lines.

When you’ve finished stitching, trim the cushion front to the desired size. Mine is 14″ x 15″.

Stitch a grid design on the background

I hope you’ll come back tomorrow to see how to finish up this Valentine cushion made with fusible heart shapes that were cut on the Brother ScanNCut SDX225.

This is part 2 of 5 in this series

Go back to part 1: More creativity with the Brother ScanNCut SDX225

Go to part 3: Ready for Valentine’s now with this adorable quilted cushion

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