Jumping thru hoops

 Recently I acquired a large box of assorted embroidery hoops.  I've had a lot of projects come to mind of things to do with them.  I finally had some time to do a few of them and thought I'd share them with you along with a free pattern!!!  The pattern will be at the end of this post....

I had this idea to crochet a bunny scene and put it in a hoop.  So I graphed out this simple bunny with the empty baskets for the background of my project.  I didn't write up a pattern for this idea so you are on your own there!! :)  

Then I hot glued a piece of felt to the back of the hoop to hide all the carried along ends.  This hoop is 10" 

After gluing I went around the outside with pinking shears to trim it all up. 

Then I centered a 12" box wreath form over the hoop that I had previously spray painted white.  I haven't been able to find them that aren't green.....

I just put a large dot of glue where the wire touched the hoop/crochet work.

I had previously made the crochet eggs and had them all prepared.  I put a piece of ribbon around the  middle of each one to hide where the halves of the eggs are joined together.  I then laid them on the wreath to see how I liked the color order then I hot glued each one of them onto the wreath.  After the glue cooled a bit I turned it over and put a little more hot glue on the back side of the eggs to secure them a bit more.

A couple of other ideas for the hoops are picture holders..... very easy no sew project!!  Any color combination will look great.  I just laid the fabric over the inside hoop and the shorter piece I folded the edge down an inch and ironed it and laid it where I wanted it on the background fabric to make a pocket then placed the outer hoop over and tightened it up and stretched the fabric out.  You can add any touches you want to your project I had this little doily in my stash I liked.  I put a couple of scrapbooking glue dots on the back of the pictures to hold them from sliding down in the pocket.  

They can also be used to place notes in or mail by the door.....

Very cute in a babies room, too!!!

Hoops are very versatile things to work with!!  I am going to try tying some doilies in them and also using them as backings for other wreaths as well.  When I was at the craft store I saw some beautiful Easter fabrics which would look great in the back of the egg wreath or just the wreath with the eggs itself would be very pretty.  

So as promised here is the pattern to make the eggs for the wreath or whatever you would like to do with your eggs......bowl fillers?.........the possibilities are endless!!!  I hope you enjoy the pattern!!  

Easter Egg Wreath

by Joyce Geisler

Skill level: Easy

Materials used: 1 ball each Aunt Lydia’s size 10 crochet thread in 5 different colors

Size 5/1.90 crochet hook

12” box wreath form spray painted white

10 - 2 5/16” x 3 1/16” Styrofoam egg forms to stretch the halves over

Thin ribbon to decorate eggs

Hot Glue

Permanent Fabric Glue

Heavy Fabric Stiffener

Plastic wrap

Stainless steel pins

Small wire brush

Special stitches: Beginning shell – (beg sh): [Ch 3, 2 dc in same sp, ch 2, 3 dc] in same sp

                        Shell – (sh): [3 dc, ch 2, 3 dc] in same space

                        2 treble join (2 tr join) – Yarn over twice on hook. Insert hook in chain space from previous round. Pull up a loop, [yarn over, pull thru two loops], twice (two loops remaining on hook) Yarn over twice on hook. Insert in next chain space from previous round. Pull up a loop, [yarn over, pull thru two loops], twice. (three loops remaining on hook). Yarn over; pull thru all loops on hook.

                       2 double crochet join - (2 dc join): Work like the 2 tr join only using double crochets. 

Pattern notes: Join end of each round with a sl st to top of beginning ch-3 unless otherwise

stated.

Eggs (make 10 eggs for wreath, 2 each color) Work two sides for each egg.

To begin:  Ch 6, join with a sl st to beg ch to form a ring.

Rnd 1: Ch 3, 2 dc in ring. [Ch 2, 3 dc in ring], 4 times. Ch 2, Join. (5 3 dc groups, 5 ch-2 sps)

Rnd 2: Sl st to ch 2 sp. Beg sh (see special stitches throughout) in ch 2 sp. (Sh (see special stitches throughout pattern) in next sp), 4 times. Join. (5 shells)

Rnd 3: Sl st to sh sp. Beg sh. [Ch 1, sh in next sh sp], 4 times. Ch 1, join. (5 sh, 5 ch-1 sps)

Rnd 4: Sl st to sh sp. Beg sh. [Ch 2, sc in next sp, ch 2, sh in next sh sp], 4 times. Ch 2, sc in next sp, ch 2, sl st to join. (5 sh, 10 ch-2’s, 5 sc)

Rnd 5 & 6: Sl st to sh sp, beg sh. [Ch 3, 2 tr join (see special stitches) over next 2 sps. Ch 3, sh in sh], 4 times. Ch 3, 2 tr join over next 2 sps, ch 3, join. (5 sh, 5 2 tr join, 6 ch-3 sps)

Rnd 7: Sl st to sh sp. Ch 1, sc in sh sp. [Ch 5, 2 dc join over next 2 sps. Ch 5, sc in next sh sp], 4 times. Fasten off. (5 sc, 5 2 dc join, 1- ch-5’s)

Cover each egg form in plastic wrap. Saturate each piece in stiffener and squeeze out some of the excess. Stretch each half over each end of the egg. Pin edges in place matching shell rows. When dry remove pieces from form and brush off any dried stiffener with small wire brush. Run a thin bead of fabric glue over each edge, press sections together matching up shells. Place around wreath form and hot glue in place.  Cut a piece of ribbon to go around the middle of the egg and glue in place with fabric glue.