Everlasting Poppies

I had a little idea for a workshop theme to do with poppies for Autumn time and, once that idea had taken hold, I couldn't help myself and immediately got a hoop, fabrics, felt and threads to try and make my idea into an actual thing. In a big hoop, I drew around the centre pieces of my little craft hoops - which are presentation only, no good for stitching in - so I knew where my 'safe sew space' was for each flower. It's much less fiddly to work on several at once in a larger hoop. 

They are very similar to my brooches, with the woven wheel stitch being used for the poppy flowers - except this time I also stitched over the woven wheel in a contrast thread to create more obvious petal shapes. I went with black but I could have used the same red colours (there were two different reds mixed into the needle at the same time) just to pull the wheel in and create those petal shapes. 

Some of them are a little bit on the wonky side but that's ok for a first go! 

Before I got to the woven wheel bit I was having fun with leaves, experimenting with using felt and stitching into it for the leaf veins (being careful with my stitching towards the tips so that it would be pretty on the back as well where I knew it would go over the little hoop), I tried a couple with an organza but I think I should have cut that with a soldering iron, or fixed the edges in some way as it just frays when cut with scissors. 

Once I'd got the flowers and leaves on, I also added some long hairy black yarn that I found in a charity shop - either just couching it tucked underneath the flower, or twisting a little bit and stitching it inside the flower so it looks a bit like hairy stamens. The stamen ones were also given a haircut to make them shorter. Black beads were stitched into the flower centres as well which I really like. 

Green yarns or a crinkled green fabric from my stash were added to some for a little bit of extra interest, and french knots cover any gnarly or empty bits and that's it!

Once all of the designs are finished they get cut out of the big hoop and drawn up around the smaller craft hoop centres to make them nice and neat, then framed in the mini hoops and the back of the hoops glued on. You can buy the craft hoops online or in craft shops and they always come as a three piece set with central piece, frame and wooden backing but can be a variety of shapes and sizes. 

I had to be careful in this case to pull the leaves through so they didn't get trapped within the frame. 

I really like these, I think they're so sweet. I have since glued on butterfly brooch backs to them but you could also wear them as pendants or stick a magnet on the back to pop it on your fridge...or just pop it on a shelf!