Hoop-art Ornament tutorial from Little LuLu's nest....

The winner of the POPPY SEED FABRICS giveaway is:

 Emily said...

My best birthday was when my husband threw a party for me with all of our friends.

 It was the first time I'd had a real birthday party since I was a little girl!

December 9, 2011 8:46 AM

Congratulations!

Today we have Gentri from Little LuLu's Nest. Gentri and Megan are good friends, she should probably be writing this intro :) They met while their husbands were in medical school together. Gentri and her sister Brayli have a darling blog, and etsy shop. Their blog is full of fun tutorials, recipes and general crafting. They are super duper cute fun sisters!

Here are the Holiday Gift Tutorials past and upcoming:

November 7th: Amber from A Little Bit Biased Tutorial: Holiday Table Topper

November 14th: Quilt Story :) Tutorial: Winter Tree Table Runner

November 21st: Bev from Flamingo Toes Tutorial: Linen Jewelry Travel Bag

November 28th: Corey from Little Miss Shabby Tutorial: Hope Canvases

December 5th: Jeni from In Color Order Tutorial: Fabric Embellished Dish Towels

December 12th: Melissa from Happy Quilting Tutorial: Holiday Oven Mitt

December 14th: Gentri from Little Lulu's Nest

December 19th: Erin from Why Not Sew?

hello, I'm Gentri from Little LuLu's Nest

and I'm excited to be here

at Quiltstory

Megan and I met while our

husbands were busy studying 12+ hours a day...

and I am happy to say I've met Heather as well

at this year's quilt market

and they are both beautiful, fun, talented ladies!

I've come up with a fun, last-minute neighbor gift

that is so versatile, and can be

personalized any way you'd like

and best of all it's {cheap} and {easy}

hoop-art ornament

1. start with your embroidery hoop,

the smallest hoop you'll find is 3 in and that's perfect

for a little personalized ornament.

2.  cut out your background fabric and leave

some extra fabric around the edges for later on.

{i used a linen blend for 2 and a cotton pattern for 1)

3. next i "google imaged" the shapes i wanted to work with

and simply traced those onto paper

(or if you're awesome and can free-hand any drawing, that's easy too)

4. cut out your desired shape and pin to felt

and cut out your felt piece

5. simply glue the center of the shape onto

the fabric in the hoop

(fabric glue works wonderfully)

I chose to do 3 different ornaments

an apple for my son's teacher

a "T" for a family friend

and a star for a neighbor

this is the fun part,

the possibilities are endless

a "1" for a couple's first Christmas

or a baby's first Christmas

a date

2011

an initial

a snowflake

the word "JOY"

etc

etc

6. with cooridinating thread

hand-stitch the outside of the shape

7. lightly glue your leftover threads

out of the way of the edges, like the above picture

8. next, glue around the inside of the hoop

around the back and tuck in your fabric

9. cut out a small felt circle and glue to the back of your hoop

this way the thread's stay in place and it gives it a nice finishing touch

10. that's it.

you have a cute, personalized ornament

to gift to someone

...last, but not least

tie some twine, ribbon, thread or yarn

to the clasp at the top.

that way it can actually hang

like an ornament

I'm attaching my hoop ornaments

to little jolly treat bags

and spreading the joy of Christmas

thanks for hanging out today

and come stop by and say hello or check out my etsy shop

i'll be posting a gingerbread cookie recipe later this week

if you need a little treat for those bags :)

Happy Holidays,      

Gentri