This week I am making a small batch of soft canvas embroidery hoop art pieces. Each is unique in fabrics, colors and overall theme. They are fun little pieces of soft art drawing inspirations from collage and scrapbook pages for their design.
To make each piece, I first selected one of the various little embroidery hoops from my collection. The hoops mostly came from a yard sale several years ago, and are in all manner of shapes and sizes. Mostly they are the small 5 1/4 inch wooden hoops, but a few are metal or oval, and some are larger as well; a real mish-mash just perfect for having on hand for projects such as this.
Then I rummaged through my scrap bins for an assortment of those small scraps almost too small to really use, but too precious to throw away. Luckily, I seem to be unable to part with much and there were a wealth of pieces to choose from. Typically when I make a project, I first like to think of a color scheme or theme for the project based on one or two fabrics and work from there. This strategy helps limit the options making selection easier and the end result more cohesive in my opinion.
I also had an assortment of fabric tags from another craft project available to add little sentiments to each hoop further inspiring each theme. For a few of the hoops, I stamped my own sentiments using a mix of pre-made stamps or single letters to express a little inspirational thought.
After adhering the labels and allowing any ink to dry, I used small batting scraps and quilted each patchwork piece to add that lovely quilted fluff and depth of texture. Then it is simply adding the patchwork between the hoops and making everything as straight and tight as possible. The frame of the hoop adds that defining edge in such a sweet way! To finish the hoops, I hot glued another piece of fabric with the raw edges folded under for a clean finish to the back and added my little label tag. Little pieces of coordinating ribbon were either glued or tied onto the hoops for hanging.
All in all this was a sweet project to work on over the course of a few days. During the summer, I definitely have a lot less time for big projects and less motivation to start something large knowing it takes so much time to complete when I am busy enjoying summer with my family. A small patchwork project like these little hoops is not only a fun way to use some precious scraps, but also a satisfying way to spend an afternoon or weekend craft session.
I plan to take my little soft canvas hoop art pieces to a few upcoming sales I have at the end of the month. I will be at the Perry County Council of the Arts Arts & Drafts fundraiser event July 20th and the 2nd Annual Susquehanna Folk Festival July 27th and 28th. I will also be listing them in my shop if you are interested, links below.
I hope you enjoyed this look into how I made these soft canvas embroidery hoop art pieces. If you make a piece of your own inspired by my project, please leave a comment below or share a picture by tagging me on social media @laruedefleurs. I would love to see how you interpret the idea and how it worked for you! Happy crafting! xoxo, Janice
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