BUTTERFLY HOOP

I know that embroidery hoop projects abound in the craft blog world.  When my sweet neighbor stopped by and gave me 3 of them one day last fall, I had no idea what I would do with them.  Then my great blog friend gave me the spark I needed to make get off of my butt and use one.

Mel, from Mellywood's Mansion has done a couple of hoop projects that were just awesome.   She sews....I don't like to sew.  When I saw her make this one, I looked at it a long time and actually even considered getting out my sewing machine.

Quilt Organizer

Isn't that awesome?  I mean really, it's cute, clever and functional.  Like I said, I don't like to sew, but, she gave me an idea.  I found this cute clothes pin bag at Goodwill for 50 cents.  I don't even have a clothesline, but I loved the fabric and the colors.

This clothespin bag was handmade, double-sided and very well sewn.  I took out my implements of destruction and began to take it apart, saving every inch of that pretty fabric that I could.

Then I took out my 3 hoops and tried to figure out which one the fabric would fit in.  I settled on an awesome oval hoop.  But it was brown.  Not only was it brown, but upon further inspection and much to my surprise, it wasn't even wooden.  The outer part was rubber and just stretched over the inner plastic piece.  Whatever.  I was going to spray paint it with white primer anyway.

 

Once it was dry, I layered my two pieces of fabric and inserted it in the hoop. 

After trimming off all of the excess fabric, it looked pretty good.  Plain, but good.

"Needs embellishment" is the battle cry of every crafter and this project certainly need a little.  I used one of the clothespin bag tie straps and made a ribbon.   Still needs more embellishment.  I decided to go with some fluttery winged butterflies.  

I love these things and I saved them from some some previous crafts, because I cannot throw anything away.  You can get the tutorial for making them HERE.  I attached them with some glue dots, which will peel right off when I'm tired of this look.  In the mean time...it's a little spot of summer right on my shelf in my kitchen!

Thank you Mel for the awesome inspiration!  You're awesome girl! 

  
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