By Guest Blogger Pam Haughn
I love to give handmade gifts and since I started rug hooking 10 years ago, it is often a hooked piece. One of my favorite gifts to give are pillows...and if I can make them so I don't have to hook the background...that is even better. I had a wedding reception to go to last weekend, so I decided to hook and proddy some sunflower pillows.
To start my project I picked Verel as my background fabric. This is a very dense, even weave backing sometimes referred to as divider cloth. Some people don't like to use it as it is very hard to hook in, but I discovered if you use a very big shafted hook, and poke down to make a big hole, it hooks very well. An alternative to using verel would be to use the lovely colored burlap and linen at Encompassing Designs. The “pattern” I use for the sunflowers is simply 3 circles. One bigger slightly above the other two smaller ones on either side. These are the centers of the sunflowers. Remember with hooked pieces where there is no background hooked, you need to start with smaller images as you hook on the lines instead of inside them. I used a black and white check for my centers, but a rich dark brown would be nice too.
Once the centers are hooked, I started cutting out petals. I use a template that I found in “Prodded Hooking for a Three-Dimensional Effect” by Gene Shephard, which has excellent instructions and wonderful pictures. I use the template for Black Eyed Susans. For these pillows I used wool dyed by Shane of ED, call Dijon. It was the perfect colour. For 2 pillows I used ¼ yd of wool. My petals don't all turn out the same, I cut two at a time and after several they start to look a little odd..but what flower in nature has perfect petals??
When I have enough petals cut, I use a smooth edged mini pliers to “proddy” the flower petals. I poke the pliers through a hole to pull one side of the petal through. When it has been pulled through to the middle of the petal piece, I move up a few holes and poke the pliers down and pull up the other side of the petal. There is a “proddy tool” which I have borrowed and used once, but I am cheap and I have this tool which works for me! I keep adding petals until the flower looks full. From the back, you can see a small piece of wool that joins the petals. I made a mistake and put my circles too close, which always makes a challenge when I proddy the smaller flowers, but I like the layered affect it creates when they are all prodded.
When all three flowers are hooked and prodded, I use a chain stitch for the stems. This could easily be hooked instead. I then made leaves using the petal template and used the same method as the flower petals to add a leaf to each stem.
I steam the back and front a little (no deep pressing as you want the petals to stick off).
Last step is sewing. I used 14” pillow forms so I cut the fabric down to 18' square. I used verel as the backing as well, and I used two pieces with finished edges that overlapped to make the 18”. I sewed around 5/8”, turned the pillow right side out, pressed the edges, then sewed around again a generous 1” which brings the inside to 14” and creates an edge around the pillow.
To start my project I picked Verel as my background fabric. This is a very dense, even weave backing sometimes referred to as divider cloth. Some people don't like to use it as it is very hard to hook in, but I discovered if you use a very big shafted hook, and poke down to make a big hole, it hooks very well. An alternative to using verel would be to use the lovely colored burlap and linen at Encompassing Designs. The “pattern” I use for the sunflowers is simply 3 circles. One bigger slightly above the other two smaller ones on either side. These are the centers of the sunflowers. Remember with hooked pieces where there is no background hooked, you need to start with smaller images as you hook on the lines instead of inside them. I used a black and white check for my centers, but a rich dark brown would be nice too.
Once the centers are hooked, I started cutting out petals. I use a template that I found in “Prodded Hooking for a Three-Dimensional Effect” by Gene Shephard, which has excellent instructions and wonderful pictures. I use the template for Black Eyed Susans. For these pillows I used wool dyed by Shane of ED, call Dijon. It was the perfect colour. For 2 pillows I used ¼ yd of wool. My petals don't all turn out the same, I cut two at a time and after several they start to look a little odd..but what flower in nature has perfect petals??
When I have enough petals cut, I use a smooth edged mini pliers to “proddy” the flower petals. I poke the pliers through a hole to pull one side of the petal through. When it has been pulled through to the middle of the petal piece, I move up a few holes and poke the pliers down and pull up the other side of the petal. There is a “proddy tool” which I have borrowed and used once, but I am cheap and I have this tool which works for me! I keep adding petals until the flower looks full. From the back, you can see a small piece of wool that joins the petals. I made a mistake and put my circles too close, which always makes a challenge when I proddy the smaller flowers, but I like the layered affect it creates when they are all prodded.
When all three flowers are hooked and prodded, I use a chain stitch for the stems. This could easily be hooked instead. I then made leaves using the petal template and used the same method as the flower petals to add a leaf to each stem.
I steam the back and front a little (no deep pressing as you want the petals to stick off).
Last step is sewing. I used 14” pillow forms so I cut the fabric down to 18' square. I used verel as the backing as well, and I used two pieces with finished edges that overlapped to make the 18”. I sewed around 5/8”, turned the pillow right side out, pressed the edges, then sewed around again a generous 1” which brings the inside to 14” and creates an edge around the pillow.
| 
|
| 
|
Pam used our Dijon spot dyed wool for the flower petals.
http://www.encompassingdesigns.com/dyed-spots.html
We have a special on right now for the verel in both a light blue and a light beige. http://www.encompassingdesigns.com/backings.html
http://www.encompassingdesigns.com/dyed-spots.html
We have a special on right now for the verel in both a light blue and a light beige. http://www.encompassingdesigns.com/backings.html
RSS Feed
