I’d like to start this blog post with a little shout out to my Valentine’s Day sweetheart, Christian (who some of you lucky few may have seen cameoed in some of my other blog posts, such as Pottery Throwing at Stepney City Farm). I’m not normally one for mushiness but he puts up with a lot living with a professional crafter so credit where credit is due. Here’s what he has to deal with on a daily basis:

1. Every single nook and cranny in our flat is stuffed with fabric and deadly looking rag rug tools. The poor man can’t even look in the larder without fear of being crushed by falling fat quarters.
2. I’m one of those rag ruggers who uses just about every kind of fabric under the sun in my projects, including ones that fray like the devil. Poor Christian gets home from work, plonks himself down on the sofa then quickly realises his mistake when his suit is covered in strands of cotton…. oops!
3. When we’re both free on a Sunday, Christian and I generally watch a film at home. Well Christian watches the film and I rag rug while watching and therefore miss out on key plot points which he then has to fill me in on in the middle of the film. Whoops…
4. And finally, he has to put up with making random appearances in blog posts like this one

Either way, Christian is a saint for putting up with me and this Valentine’s Day blog post is dedicated to him.

So, Christian obviously has a somewhat love/hate relationship with rag rugging, which is why I could never present him with any of the below Valentine’s Day projects but maybe your partner in crime or a friend is a lover of the arts and would appreciate something handmade. Either way, here are a few Valentine’s Day rag rug ideas to inspire…

Loopy Rag Rug Heart: 

The templates and instructions for these gorgeous rag rug hearts can be found in my book “Rag Rugs, Pillows & More” (which you can get a signed copy of over on the Ragged Life Website here). They generally take around one hour to make and look best when rag rugged in number of different shades of a similar colour. Although the rag rug hearts below are done in quite traditional colours, I’ve even made a rag rug rainbow heart (see below), so they’re completely customisable for the recipient.

These rag rug hearts can be completely customised to any size and colour combination. They’re done in the loopy technique using a variety of different fabrics.

My favourite rag rug heart is this red and white design which looks incredibly bold against the teal wall.

The hearts can be made in different sizes too.

Shaggy Rag Rug Heart Wreaths:

If you love the idea of the hearts but prefer the shaggy technique of rag rugging then a great Valentine’s Day rag rug project is a rag rug heart wreath. They’re made in a similar way to our traditional Christmas wreaths but use a heart shaped template rather than a ring. Don’t worry if they look disheveled when you first finish the rag rugging. You should trim and shape them once they’re assembled for the best end result. Make sure to attach a hanging loop or D-ring on the back so they can put up in pride of place somewhere in the home.

Which of these rag rug heart wreaths is your favourite?

My favourite is central rag rug heart wreath with the red in – it’s a lot punchier than the other two designs.

After the rag rug heart was fully assembled, I trimmed it to make it look neater and less wild. Don’t be too precious about doing this – it’s surprising how much you’ll need to trim off to create the best shape.

Here you can see what the heart wreath looked like before it was assembled.

Rag Rug Bouquet:

This was the rag rug project that I most enjoyed making for this blog post. It was so fun experimenting with the different fabrics and colours to create flowers that mimicked real life flowers. Once we started, it was actually a little difficult to stop. Guess which rag rug flower below we thought looked like a hydrangea.

I had so much fun playing around with the different rag rug flowers to create different bouquets. Although I’ve included some living filler in this bouquet, I’m going to try to create some green rag rug fillers for next time.

Emmie braved the cold to model the bouquet outside – it would look so cute at a wedding or christening.

I used a variety of different fabrics to create a number of different textures. Velvet, silk and chiffon worked particularly well.

The rag rug bouquet is made up of a number of individual rag rug flowers like this one made of chiffon using the Rag Rug Spring Tool.

Comment below to let me know which is your favourite rag rug flower.

Rag Rug Letters:

These rag rug initials are a super cute craft idea for Valentine’s Day. Not only can choose the colours and patterns you like, but you can even use your own clothing to make them extra personalised. They’re completely unique and you’ll never see another letter like it. I’m currently rag rugging an ampersand to join the two together. Watch this space.

You can completely personalise the rag rug letters.

Top tip: make sure that your loops are at least one cm high when making this project or your letters won’t be plush enough. 

Rag Rug Heart Card:

I’ve been wondering for a while now whether there’s a way that rag rugging can be used on greetings cards and, although this attempt was a little rushed, I hope you can see the potential there is to take rag rugging to a micro level. What’s great is that you can make a small heart like this one in less than half an hour.

To make anything to go on a card, you have to make your loops incredibly short so that it doesn’t add too much weight which can topple the card.

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