Mollie flowers dancing in a hoop

I have a 5 year old niece who lives in Texas which

is over 2000 km away from me.

So you can probably guess that I don't see her very often.

But the last time I did I discovered that she loves

making things so I promised that I'd crochet her something.

So I decided to combine a 6 inch embroidery hoop

with crocheted flowers.

I thought that this would look nice

hanging on her wall.

The flowers themselves are from a wonderful

free pattern made by Brigitte Read

mollie flowers

The embroidery stitches in the centre
are simple french knots...
not difficult even for a beginner.

The only problem I had was how to make

the back look presentable.

I tried pleating it with the idea of

sewing them in place but

the centre part looked frayed and messy.

So I searched Pinterest to see how others 

have finished their hoops
and ended up using this one.

hoop tutorial

 I would suggest that you look over
her tutorial first to see what steps are involved.
She explains them in detail.

For my backing I picked a purple floral fabric.
I wanted to stick with a flower theme.

First I put my embroidery piece
and my piece of fabric wrong sides together.
I inserted them into the embroidery hoop
making sure everything
 was nice and tight.
As you can see in this pic of the back
I also trimmed the fabric material to about
3 inches just to make the next step easier.



 Next I folded the fabric layer
over the hoop and using a pen I marked
 where the fabric hit the base of the hoop.
Do this all the way around the hoop.
Then cut along this line.

 

Next put glue (I used Aleene's fast grab tacky glue)
 on the edges and inside wall of the hoop,
then carefully pressed the fabric onto the hoop.
I let it dry well for a couple of hours
before starting on the embroidery layer.



I repeated the same steps for the embroidery layer
Here is a pic of it ready to be cut.



And here is a pic of it cut and glued.
 I did end up putting on a little extra glue
for this final layer.



Not exactly perfect but good enough
for a first time and for something that
will be against the wall.
Any thoughts?

Craft Book Challenge (CBC)

I've joined the Craft Book Challenge.

In a nut shell....
Each month you make a project
from one of your craft books.
Doesn't have to be big project
and it's no big deal if you do miss a month.
It's a fun idea started by Liesl
(check it out by clicking the button in sidebar).

It's a great way to inspire everyone to take
those books off the shelf and make something.

When I crocheted my tea cosy

I needed some flowers

to embellish the top so

 I chose three different roses from

100 Flowers to Knit & Crochet

by Lesley Stanfield

This one is my favourite, it's called Ruffled  Rose.

Check out the back of it.
The last 2 rows naturally fold over to form
a really nice finish.

The red one is called Flared Rose,

the orange one is Centifolia Rose.
They are both made by crocheting a
long strip and then rolling it up.

I originally wanted to make
peppermint leaves since that is my
favourite tea but
I liked the look of roses better and
you can also make tea from rose hips.

A garland of crochet flowers for my chandelier

There is still a lot of snow on the ground
on this lovely Valentine's Day.
So I brought some spring into the house
in the form of crochet flowers.

Here is the free pattern
on Ravelry.
When I made it
it was only in German here

free German pattern.
It took me a while to figure
it out since google translate
doesn't include translation for
crochet stitches.
But it was a fun challenge.

You can make this garland as long

or as short as you like.

The flowers are made first and then

added as you make the vines and leaves.

It's the type of project you really

don't have to concentrate a lot on.