a cute clothesline

So I recently participated in my first Instagram swap, Aussie Hoop Swap. The brief:

the swap is to create a hoop for your partner

no limit to how small or large your hoop can be

your hoop will need to be made with fabric and thread [no chalkboards or mdf]

it will need to be either patchwork, paper pieced, have a pocket element, embroidered element or be appliqued

I was informed my partner loves:

green or mustard  (any variation – grass green, mint greet, aqua etc)

Modern

Deer & Doe by Carolyn Friedlander, or any Cotton & Steel fabric

During countless of necessary hours of research on Pinterest and Instagram, I saw some wonderful pieces [not necessarily hoops] using the clothesline as a feature. I was instantly going with that idea. So my hoop began to evolve. The clothesline was to hold, a capelet, a little girls dress and her hat. She will have misplaced her slippers in the grass but most importantly she would have wandered off, ‘following her bliss‘.

I crocheted her capelet and her raffia hat. Added a drawstring and tassels to the capelet and a trim and organza ribbon flower to the hat.

I hand stitched the dress and added some French knot flowers and leaves on the front. And another ribbon trim to the edge of the hemline.

I embroidered the quote, freehand grass and secured her slippers and clothesline ‘rope’. I added elements of green in the quote, dress and  grass. I finally pegged the garments on the clothesline.

My hoop:

I decided to also make a mini hoop, a tissue holder, and a set of handmade envelopes and notecards. The envelopes were made upcycling calender pages and the notecards featured Japanese paper cut using my Fiskars hexagon punch. These little notecards are becoming my signature in swaps. The tissue holder was made with some fabric I purchased in Taiwan, it has the cutest little pigs on it. And finally the mini hoop. I stumled across this in my stash, it was from a very old publication. And it was for a duck but I could not find the pattern. So I designed my very first cross stitch design, matched the blue frame, added a green feature and silver to create my colour trio. And a ribbon to finish it off.

The back and my first label!

All the pretty parcels.

I loved participating in this swap. We shared progress sneak peaks through instagram and also being able to view your partners ‘photo feed’ you could gain an insight into their likes. Suffice to say I am hooked, currently working on a needle book swap – stay tuned.

Oh and this is the lovely hoop my partner made for me.

Amongst the hoop, an owl needle book, soap, fat quarters, an fabric origami brooch and washcloth [which my son claimed as a blankey for one of his teddies].