DIY Embroidery Hoop Wall Hanging for Valentine's Day

I kinda go wild during all the holidays. My house is very neutral, and I like it that way. I like the calm serenity that the neutral environment provides, but during any holiday I kinda get little nuts. This very pink, very vibrant DIY embroidery hoop wall hanging is one such example.

I guess when I get the opportunity to add temporary colour I do go overboard. It’s nice to be able to add that punch of colour seasonally. It’s like a non-committal colour addition that I can change on a whim.

I mean you would never know it by looking at my house pictures, but I do love colours. I love them ALL is the problem, it’s hard to commit to just one, so when I get a chance to add a swash of pink (or red, or yellow, or even black) for a few weeks, I am all over it.

Maybe a little too “all over it” … or so says the husband.

You don’t need a Cricut for this project – but…

This DIY embroidery hoop wall hanging is super easy to make; but I am not going to lie, it was not a fast project. I spent a great deal of time hand cutting out my hearts. This is why, if you look closely, some of my hearts look like a four-year-old cut them out with a dull pair of scissors.

No offense meant to any four-year-olds reading this blog post.

This was the project that convinced me I needed a Cricut or a Silhouette.

Having a Cricut would have saved so much time and would have made my mini hearts much more uniform. Hand cutting out 100+ tiny hearts by hand gave me lots and lots of time to convince myself to go fetch one.

Soon… soon.

For those of you already lucky enough to have a Silhouette or a Cricut, leave me a comment to let me know which one you have and if it’s a thumbs up or thumbs down. I’m quite torn between the two.

Supplies and Materials

I made my DIY embroidery hoop heart BIG. The embroidery hoop that I used was 23 inches. You can make this any size you want, but the smaller you go, the smaller you will need to cut your hearts to keep the proportions correct.

I can tell you that the hearts I cut were a bit of a challenge. I could not pin the pattern I created to my fabric because it left a mark (likely due to the fusing) so I had to cut them by hand while pressing the small heart pattern to the fabric with my thumb.

I’m not sure I would be able to cut them any smaller without losing my mind. Your mileage here may vary.

I had a few pieces of leftover fabric from my Moda pink ombre pack, but you don’t even remotely need that much fabric.

I will link what I used, but honestly, this is a great project to raid and use up your scrap fabric. Find a few colours that work together and you will be good to go.

Oh, and that Moda fat quarter pack was a great buy for Valentine’s Day craft projects. I’ve already made a few projects like these cute Valentine’s Day treat bags, and there are a few more projects I have planned for the next few weeks.

~This post may contain affiliate links. If you click one and make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no additional cost to you.

I only ever recommend what tools or materials I use for my projects. I also test all my projects before publishing and if something doesn’t work, I don’t share it! ~

Materials

Fabric scraps in various colors ( I used this 12 Fat Quarters Moda Fabrics pack)
Quilting Hoops, 23-Inch
25 x 25 inch piece of sheer fabric – I used a curtain destined for the bin
Iron-On fabric fusing
Large sheets of craft paper ( you can tape some paper together to make your heart pattern)
Glue sticks

Tools required

Sharp scissors
Iron
Hot glue gun

Step 1

Pop your sheer fabric into your embroidery hoop. Gently tug on the fabric until you cannot see any puckers or bends. Tighten the screw to hold the fabric in place.

Once your fabric is fastened inside your hoop you will need to make a pattern from your craft paper.

Remember when you were a kid and you folded paper to make hearts? That’s what we’re doing here. I made a few of them before I was happy with the size and shape of my heart. Just cut your kraft paper until you create a pattern that fits well inside of your hoop, leaving a bit of white space on the sides bottom and top.

Step 2

Use your new heart pattern to cut out a matching piece of double sided fusing.

Lay your fusing heart on a towel or old sheet on an ironing board or table. I use the old towel to protect my ironing board. Sometimes fusing doesn’t do what I want it to do and I end up picking glue off my ironing board – not what we want, so save yourself the trouble and put down something to protect the surface.

Cut your scraps of fabric in 2-inch strips and lay them over your heart pattern. Fiddle with them a bit to get them to sit against each other. A tiny bit of overlap is perfectly fine. Make sure you cannot see any of the fusings below peeking out, or you will get that on your iron.

I kept moving my pieces around until I got the colour pattern I wanted. I also cut a few pieces so that I could add a touch more light pink to the top and the burgundy pieces to the bottom.

The fusing in this project is used to prevent the tiny cut-out hearts from fraying.

Step 3

Your fusing will have specific instructions on how high you need to set your iron and for how long to press the fabric to the fusing. My fusing required a medium-hot setting and 6-second passes across the fabric.

If you find you have a few pieces not fused, you can go back over with the iron again without problems.

Step 4

Once your fusing is cooled you can start cutting out your mini hearts.

I started with a small heart pattern (I made mine 3/4 inch wide to start) and pinned it to my fused fabric. This was a mistake the pins left marks behind. You can see those pin holes in the light pink hearts in the photo below.

BOO.

So I had to hold the heart pattern against the fused fabric and just cut around them, thus why some of my hearts are a bit wonky. Doesn’t matter, the last few steps of this project clean those hearts up and you don’t even notice, so I would not advise going for perfection here if you are cutting these out by hand.

My mini heart pattern was just under 3/4 inches wide.

Use up as much of the fabric as you can, keep the heart pattern as close to the edge of the last cut to maximize your fabric.

Once you have your hearts cut out it’s time to lay them out.

Use your big heart pattern, and place it under your embroidery hoop. Since the fabric is sheer it makes it very easy to see the pattern below.

Keep adding your hearts until you have a pattern that you like.

DIY embroidery hoop heart wall hanging with mini ombre hearts

Step 5

Now the fun part starts!

Remove the backing from the first heart and give it a fold down the center.

If your heart is a bit wonky (like mine are), you can use a pair of sharp pair scissors to even them out.

Step 6

Add a small line of hot glue down the fold.

Step 7

Gently press each glued heart to your fabric. Be sure to follow your layout!

Step 8

Once all your hearts are glued you can pinch or press down to get the hearts to sit how you want them.

A pretty bow would be a nice addition. I wanted to add a bow, but the ribbon I ordered did not at all match any of the colours in my DIY embroidery hoop wall hanging. That’s the problem with ordering craft supplies online, the colours rarely, if ever, are what I expect!

A pretty DIY embroidery hoop project for Valentine’s Day.

This is a very easy project, although a tiny bit time-consuming. If you have some of the materials laying around it becomes a cheap project too. The most expensive part really is the hoop.

This DIY embroidery hoop heart wall hanging would make a cute door wreath (especially with a big bow), or even as a decorative accent over a candy bar at a wedding. The nice thing about this project is you can always remove the fabric and heart from the embroidery hoop to store for next Valentine’s day and reuse the hoop for another project.

DIY Embroidery Hoop Wall Hanging for Valentine’s Day