How to Use a Stitched Hearts Print as a Quilt Background: Hush Hush 5 Stitched with Love
Every quilt needs a quiet fabric — one that fills space, rests the eye, and still rewards a closer look. Hush Hush 5 Stitched with Love Cotton from Riley Blake Designs is built for exactly that job. This 100% cotton quilting fabric is 43"/44" wide, sold by the yard, and part of the Hush Hush 5 collection by assorted designers for Riley Blake Designs. Its print features stitched hearts and needles — a small, sewing-themed motif that reads as texture from across the room and as a sweet hand-stitch detail up close. Riley Blake describes the collection as great for quilting, apparel and home decor.
What This Print Is Best For
Stitched with Love shines wherever you would normally reach for a plain background fabric but want a little more personality. In patchwork, it works beautifully as the background around brighter blocks: the hearts and needles pattern keeps large open areas from looking flat, while the small scale of the motif does not fight with the prints placed on top of it.
It is also a natural choice for sewing-themed projects. The needles in the print make it a thoughtful pick for a gift quilt for a fellow quilter, a wall hanging for a sewing room, or the lining and accents of a project bag. Because the motif is about making itself, even a simple project in this fabric carries a handmade message — it is, quite literally, stitched with love.
Cutting and Piecing Tips
- Cut it like a background: This print handles standard background cutting well — squares, rectangles, sashing strips and setting triangles all work, because the small motif does not need careful placement to look good.
- No fussy cutting required: Unlike a large scenic print, you do not need to center each heart. The repeating stitched design looks even and consistent wherever the rotary cutter falls, which keeps cutting fast and fabric waste low.
- Check direction in large pieces: Hearts and needles have an up and a down. In small patchwork pieces the direction is barely noticeable, but in wide borders, backing-sized cuts or a whole-cloth panel, take a moment to orient the fabric so the hearts sit upright.
- Press before you cut: As with any quilting cotton, a quick press of your yardage first gives you flatter fabric and more accurate cuts.
Color Pairing
A quiet, light-toned background print like this one is the easiest fabric in a quilt to pair. Let your feature prints do the talking and use Stitched with Love to hold them together. It sits comfortably beside soft pastels for a gentle, romantic quilt — a fitting match for the hearts in the design — and it also calms down bold, saturated prints by giving them clean space to breathe.
For a sewing-room palette, pair it with reds and pinks that echo the heart motif, or with classic spool-and-scissors themed prints from your stash. In a sampler quilt, using this one print as the background throughout is a simple way to make blocks from many different fabrics look like a single, planned quilt.
Project Ideas
- Sampler quilt background: Use it behind a set of varied blocks to unify different colors and styles in one cohesive top.
- Gift quilt for a maker: Combine it with heart blocks or simple patchwork for a quilt that celebrates sewing itself.
- Project and notions bags: Use yardage for the outside or lining of a sewing project bag — the needles in the print label it as a maker's bag at a glance.
- Home decor accents: Cushion covers, table runners and wall hangings all give the stitched detail a flat surface where it can be appreciated up close.
- Apparel touches: Riley Blake notes this collection suits apparel too — think linings, facings and small accents where a subtle print is welcome.
Care
Follow the care given for this fabric: machine wash cold and tumble dry low. Cold washing and low drying help the print and the cotton hold up through repeated laundering, which matters for background yardage that will be washed as often as the finished quilt itself.
Shop the Hush Hush 5 Stitched with Love Cotton 43"/44" Fabric Per Yard at Linda's Electric Quilters.
