FQ Pack Challenge Hoop

Every now and then I try to give myself a little challenge. Usually it's completing a hoop that's been hanging around from a workshop as no one wanted to take on the colour range I'd suggested within it, but this time it was to only use fabrics from one fat quarter that I picked up in a supermarket. 

A car nap session (for Toddler F, not for me) seemed like a good time to start this and I grabbed some essentials whilst Reece waited in the car, then settled down to see what I could make from the fabrics in the bundle. 

It was quite a spring-y floral fresh sort of a collection of prints but there was a difference in the types of pattern used. The creamy/yellow background ditsy print I thought stood out a bit as there is no other use of that background colour anywhere in the pack - it didn't quite look like it fitted in properly. 

I liked the stripes and the yellow flowers though. 

I played around with how I was going to layer them a little bit, then cut them up, tacked them down and popped them back into the hoop to give a window into this little world. One of the fabrics I didn't end up using, mostly because I didn't think it would fit in the 10cm hoop - too many fabrics for one small space. If I'd used a bigger hoop then I would have tried harder to get all five fat quarter fabrics in. 

I filmed some of the process and you can find that on my Instagram/Facebook pages, but I basically got most of the bottom layer covered in seed stitch and started a few areas of the top fabric before the Toddler woke up so that wasn't bad going. 

It made for a very nice bus project for the week. There wasn't a lot to it really, the chunky trimming I've used is the webbing that was tying the fabrics together, kind of rolled and then couched down. The bottom layer I have covered in seed stitches to blend into the fabric, added some little detached chain stitches into the yellow flower motifs and filled in the stems and leaves with straight stitches. A little blue bead was added in to the flower centres because I happened to have that colour in my bag at the time. 

Extra french knots were added between the flowers to break up the white space and bring some of the colours from the top layer down to balance it out. 

The daisy fabric was edged with a baby cream ric rac that I also had in my bag, and I've gone over the diagonals of the trimming in two different colours, working one way in green and the other way in yellow for a little extra pizazz! 

The stripe fabric has a single strand row of back stitch along each stripe and I've then also blurred the fabric edges a bit more by making rows of french knot tapers started from the top of the bottom fabric, working up over the stripes to break them up. Fly stitches have been added to be the green foliage accompanying these tapers. 

I've used a creamy yellow for the flowers, which match the warm yellow of the fabric above (the one I mentioned that sort of stuck out as an oddity). I think it has helped to blend that fabric back in to the landscape so it's worked really well. 

I've worked simple rows of running stitch on the yellow layer, and edged with french knots. 

The tree layer above has several different stitches going on. I've matched the colours in the print (sort of) and then worked detached chain stitches, fly stitches, straight stitches and stem stitches where the pattern called for it. It has been edged with white bullion knots and finished with tiny tiny little cross stitch kisses at the top. 

All in all, an excellent challenge. The only irritating part is that the fabrics have quite an open weave so you can see any patterns underneath but I suppose that it helps to blend them together even more in a way. 

The stitch run down for this little piece is; bullion knots, straight stitch, stem stitch, fly stitch, detached chain stitch, couching, french knots, running stitch, back stitch, seed stitch and beading.