Beautiful Liberty Fabric Valentine Cushions and Placemat

Dawn created these beautiful Liberty fabric valentine projects using Kitty Grace Tana Lawn in red and pink colourways. Three sewing patterns in one — a patchwork heart cushion, a trapunto-work cushion, and a quilted placemat from 2.5-inch squares of cotton fabric. These handmade gifts showcase Liberty’s charm in every stitch.

I asked Dawn about these pretty projects:

“I spotted the Kitty Grace fabric in red and pink colour ways while working in the studio and bought some straightaway to make some valentine projects. The patchwork heart cushion pattern was from Sadie Yeomans at Cornerhouse Crafts, and only needed 5 strips of fabric measuring 1 14 ” x 18″, so I raided my Liberty stash for suitable pinks and reds. The heart itself was mounted on some linen fabric – a plain background to help show off the pretty Liberty patterns. With Sadie’s expert instructions given in the pattern this was an easy make.”

Dawn has backed this gorgeous cushion with Kitty Grace fabric.

“The cream centre for the cushion below was made using a kit called “Heart Deco” from Sylvia Critcher and was my first attempt at Trapunto work. The pattern was intended as a pin cushion but I thought it would work well as the centre of a Valentine cushion. It was easy to do and the end result looks more complicated than it actually was! This was helped by the detailed instructions and materials provide in the kit. In essence, Trapunto work uses small running stitches to create a narrow channel (layering 2 pieces of fabric together) and then threading a wool thread through the channel to create the padded effect.”

Dawn has used the soft pink colour way of Kitty Grace for the envelope backing of this cushion.

“Having made the cushions I thought I’d use up the left over pieces of fabric to make a placemat which used 2.5” squares of Tana Lawn. I used some very light weight Vlieseline iron-on interfacing to iron on the squares and hold them in position whilst I machine stitched the rows together. This ensures all the corners match and is a really good method for sewing small pieces together. The heart shaped embroidery stitch on my sewing machine helped to quilt the layers together (topper, batting and backing fabric), and I used the ‘stitch in the ditch’ method to further quilt the placemat.”