Dear Little Renn

We are very glad to see you're back, Little Renn. We know you've been busy, but we've missed you.

You know how much Grandma CoCo loves a challenge. When she saw your pretty stuffed hearts, she was smitten. When she saw that you'd asked for suggestions about how to create the perfect 'V' at the top of the stuffed heart, she was intrigued.

Very early this morning, she got us up and forced us to stitch stuffed hearts. She was sure it was just a matter of clipping. Unfortunately, she was wrong. Well then, she thought, if not clipping, then pressing would be the answer.

Our first effort (where it's so, so, so painfully obvious to anybody (with a brain and a pinch of foresight) that the ribbon's not going to be on the outside of the stuffed heart and therefore not functional in the least....but, hey! It was early. She hadn't even had her coffee yet):

Massive failure!

Attempt number 2 (where at least she got the ribbon to stick out of the finished stuffed heart . . . albeit not in a pretty way):

Abject failure

OK. That's what you were talking about. Right, Little Renn? That point at the top of the heart where the ribbon sticks out is all smooshy and not sharply pointed at all.

Hmmmm......

Well, let's try for a nice heart shape without the complication of that stooopid ribbon ("Easy, now, Grandma CoCo! Calm down.") :

We pressed the seam allowance back from the seam before cutting it out AND we clipped the V deeply . . . right up to within a thread of the seam line . . . the way you'd clip an appliqué shape.

There. That's not bad. But how to get that shape with the hanging ribbon in place? Well, you know, Grandma CoCo's not above cheating. She snipped a thread or 2 and slipped the ends of the ribbon inside (where they belong) and then hand-stitched the heart closed. It was just a few stitches after all.

Then she stuffed it and closed the opening. Ta-Da!!

There, Little Renn, what do you think? Cheryl thinks the V is very hard to notice. She thinks the extra work isn't really worth the effort. And she definitely thinks the toddlers at the Valentine's party will be too busy to notice anyway. If there are any other stitchers out there who have ideas or helpful hints, please leave a comment. (But you might want to try it out in fabric before you opine, because we're here to tell ya, it's harder than it looks.)