Sheesh!  I know it's been a while.  I haven't felt too inspired to write about my work the past week.  But this morning I made these mini embroidery hoop ornaments and I am in love with how fun they were to make and FINALLY I was interested in doing a blog post!

I have been thinking and thinking about these hoops that I found at a thrift store.  I love all thes cute creations people are making with embroidery hoops (examples are this, this, this, and this!)  

I used scraps and I tried not to think too much about coordinating fabrics.  I have discovered that I like my fabric combinations better when i just go with my gut quickly.  It is interesting what you come up with when you trust your instincts (of course I like some better than others!).  I played around a little with some different bird shapes and then finally decided on this one.

I added wonder under to the bird shapes.  That was the first thing I did and then composed the branch and background next.  I used all cotton fusible interfacing to make the background fabric more sturdy.  The branch fabric is just a simple brown, without interfacing, that I free motion sewed on.  I wanted to get that sketched look and I knew the edges to fray a little for extra texture.  I backed the hoop with thick brown craft paper that I glue gunned on.

I am anxious to try this with my bigger hoops.  Maybe a triangular tree that is kinda reminiscent of Christmas but also wintery?  It's really a fun little canvas to work on if you are looking for something different to do with your sewing machine!

Email me if you have more questions about how to make one yourself.  The cool thing about this project though is that there is no right or wrong way to do it!  These will go in my booth at the Handmade arcade in a few weeks!