Red and White Side By Side

 Each year I design a piece for Valentine's Day, usually the standard red and white with hearts. Sometimes I throw in a cupid, just for good measure.  A couple of weeks ago I started casting my mind around for what I would stitch this year.  On January 10, I saw this post from Charlie Angus on Face Book; it looked very much like a Valentine to me. In case that link doesn't work, here is the entire URL:

 https://www.facebook.com/charlieangus.the.resistance/posts/pfbid02UQpULVag6kLBeHNDhupWy3Ja2aBnRjkoJ7GbRtaXjr1y29pr6Lw6KgQAgoavrvnfl

I wanted the only obvious colours in my Valentine to be red and white so decided the background should be monochromatic.  I knew immediately I had a scrap in my stash that would be perfect for the background...but didn't realize how perfect until I hauled it out;  the selvedge revealed it was made by Stof of Denmark.  

The print was news clips from around the world and the text is in French.

I needed to tie together the elements of red and white and hearts so I made them into heart-shaped balloons:

The balloons are tiny and stitching took care.  The hardest was all those points on the maple leaf, as it measures less than 1-3/4" tall.

The flags are raw edge applique, and they were trapuntoed with an extra layer of batting so they would pop out on the background. 

For the main batting, I used a thin layer of Hobbs Thermore, which is lovely for a wall hanging.  The quilting is nothing fancy, as I didn't want it to show.  

Once the piece was quilted, a white cord was couched using white Aurifil 50 weight thread for the strings.

  I had just enough left of the black/grey used in the silhouette to make the binding.  The backing is a red and white stripe.

I photographed it this morning on a fresh bed of snow, a perfect backdrop for our countries.  I particularly like this photo as even though the white balance is off, it gives a blue cast to the snow in parts, making it look like a cloudy sky.

And that's my Valentine for 2026.