Project Thursday: Hoop Art Wall Hanging

In anticipation of Spring (I know it's right around the corner), I made this sweet little wall hanging.

It requires only basic sewing skills and is a great way to use up fabric scraps.

The "frame" is an embroidery hoop.  I found some cute colored options, but in the end decided to use the traditional bamboo version.

I used a onsaburg fabric for the background because I like how the neutral color makes the bright accents pop, but any simple patterned fabric would work fine. 

Simply cut the fabric to size and place into the embroidery hoop.  Tighten the top screw to secure the fabric in place.  Don't worry about the excess around the edges - we will cut that off later.

For this particular design, I decided I wanted a grassy bottom and realized that needed to be sewn onto the background fabric before putting it into the hoop. 

No worries - it's easy to take apart.

I gathered an assortment of fabrics, buttons and embroidery thread to make the grass and flowers. 

The green strip of fabric was sewn to the bottom using contrasting green thread and a fairly large Running Stitch (I wanted the stitches to show).  I also pulled at the top edge of the fabric to "fray" the ends so it looked like blades of grass.

 

Once the grass was in place, I positioned the hoop and cinched it in place (see directions above).  Then I marked where each of the flowers would be positioned using a fabric marking pen.

The Large flower is made from a fabric Yoyo with a blue button center.  The Orange flower is a decorative button (tied with a blue bow) and the Pink flower is embroidered using a Lazy Daisy petal stitch and French Knot center.  

 

The stems are stitched with a running stitch using green embroidery thread.  A tiny felt leaf is stitched with lighter green thread. 

Lucky Me - my mum has a collection of nearly every color embroidery thread.

Once the  stitching was done, I cut the background fabric just slightly larger than the hoop.  

 

On the backside, the fabric is wrapped around and hot glued to the inside of the hoop.  

To cover up all the untidy threads that show on the backside, I cut a piece of white felt to fit inside the hoop and also glued that in place.

I glued the Yoyo and button flowers atop their embroidered stems.   

And added a polka dot ribbon to the top of the hoop.

 

The perfect little Hoop Art Wall Hanging.  Can't you just imagine a grouping of these stitched art pieces in all different sizes.  A sure-fire way to bring the feeling of Spring inside. 

Thanks for reading along...