Crafty Colour Palette #3: Colour list

Pink: DMC 3689 / Anchor 49

Yellow: DMC 745 / Anchor 300

Blue: DMC 775 / Anchor 128

Lilac: DMC 211 / Anchor 342

Dark purple: DMC 3041 / Anchor 871

These colours would work so well for Easter projects, but you could use them for anything you like! I think they would be lovely for something for a nursery – maybe a name banner or hoop. I quite like it for something gender neutral in this sense, with the pink and blue together I think it would work quite nicely!

Hello! Hooray! for Hannah Handmakes

These are the hoops I designed for our little blog post swap If you saw my post earlier with Hannah’s amazing tutorial, you’ll know that I basically had two designs in my head and I couldn’t decide which one would work best! If I had to choose I’d probably pick the text only version because I’m so pleased with how that worked out.

You’ll find all the details (tutorials and templates) over at Hannah Handmakes! And you can find Hannah’s fabulous tutorial for this cross-stitched hoop here.

If you’re a beginner cross-stitcher (like me), Hannah takes us through the stitching process step-by-step. So it’s great for beginners, and a fun design for all levels too! We really hope that you enjoy these Easter projects – tag us @hellohoorayblog and @hannahhandmakes on Instagram Happy stitching!

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You will need

16 count, white Aida

Embroidery thread – DMC 224, 368, 827, 3042 and 3078. Or pastel pink, green, blue, purple and yellow in your choice of brand.

A size 26 tapestry/cross stitch needle

A pattern (available to download)

A 5 inch hoop or frame to hold your fabric while you’re stitching and to frame it.

Scissors

A pen or pencil

A comfy spot to sit and stitch (preferably with good light).

Optional extras

A needle minder

Pom pom trim (approx. 16 inches/41cm)

A bag or box to keep your supplies in

A warm drink and yummy snack.

Starting your hoop

You always start stitching in the centre of your fabric and you can find the centre by folding your fabric/aida in half, length ways and width ways. Where they meet is your centre square and you can find the centre of your pattern by following the arrows. Then pop your aida in the hoop, trying to keep it centre. Pull the aida as tight as you can get it; this will make it much easier to stitch on.

Snip your thread ready to use. A good rule to measure it is to pull it from your finger tips to your elbow. Or a handy hint; if you take the full skein and snip all the loops at the bottom end you should be left with strands of thread the perfect length!

For this pattern I recommend using the knotless loop method to start. Take 1 strand of the 6 on your length of thread and fold it in half. Thread your needle where the 2 ends meet, and you should have a loop at the bottom.

Come up the top left hole of the square you are starting on and leave the loop sticking out of the back. Then go diagonally across into the bottom right hole and put your needle in the loop at the back. Pull your thread gently and you should have made a knot. Then continue your stitching.

Making your “X”

Each square on your aida is one full X stitch from your pattern. As I said above, for your first stitch come up the top left hole of the square you are starting on, then go diagonally across into the bottom right square.

Next, come back up the top right hole and back down into the bottom left. Repeat this until you come to the end of the thread or colour you are using.

There are of course other ways to do this. Some people prefer to start from the right hole first and down into the bottom left. And some people do lots of half cross stitches one way and come back over them the other way. Go with whatever you find easiest; the important thing is to be consistent and do each stitch the same.

Tying off your thread

When you come to the end of your thread or you need to swap colours then you need to securely tie off your thread. To do this, you just simply take your needle and thread it under some of the stitches on the back of your hoop.

If you have quite a bit of thread left when you come to the end the you can snip it off and keep it to use again or “park it” (slip it through an unused part of your fabric such as the aida outside of the hoop) to use later.

Backing your hoop

For backing your hoop you can choose to add felt or not. I don’t always add felt to my hoop if I’m hanging it on the wall, but if you are displaying it somewhere else you may want to add it.

And you also need to decide if you are adding pom-pom trim as you will need to glue this on before backing. To glue it on, craft or PVA will work fine. Glue it on slowly and in stages, holding each part down for 10 seconds so it doesn’t move as you continue around the hoop. Then snip any excess off before gluing the last part down.

To measure your felt, take your inner hoop and draw around the outside of it and cut your felt circle out.

For backing you hoop you will need to use 2 strands of thread. Start by doing a running stitch around the edge of your fabric. This is simply a normal stitch going in and out of your fabric. When you have gone all the way around pull gently and your fabric should bunch together, then tie a knot to secure it.

Next, come up through the edge of the fabric next to your hoop and place your felt at the back. Your felt may have pencil lines on from when you cut it. If this is the case then place the side with the pencil lines down so they are hidden.

Now you do the blanket stitch. Put your needle in the felt about an inch away from the edge of the hoop.

Come out right next to where you first came out and make sure your needle is in front of the thread. Pull gently and you will have made your first stitch.

For your second stitch put your needle in about an inch away from your first and an inch away from the edge again. Come straight up by the edge of your fabric and again make sure the thread is behind your needle. Pull gently and you will have made your second stitch. Repeat until you reach the end.

Ta-dah!

Your Easter hoop is ready to display! Thank you so much for this brilliant tutorial, Hannah – there are some really helpful tips here (I had no idea about snipping a skein to get the right thread lengths!). You can follow Hannah on Instagram for more lovely stitchy goodness, or listen to her podcast via her website. If you’re feeling inspired to get cross-stitching, why not treat yourself to a kit? You can also find Hannah Handmakes on Etsy and Not On The High Street.

Hello! Hooray! for Hannah Handmakes

I said earlier that this was a blog post swap, and these are the hoops that I designed! I ended up with two because I had two ideas and I couldn’t decide which one would be best, so I made both. The colours that I have chosen are inspired by mini eggs, which are my favourite Easter treat! I love the colours and thought they would be a perfect colour palette. These colours have inspired my latest post for #craftycolourpalettes which will be live on my blog later today. You can find the templates and tutorial for both of these hoops over on the Hannah Handmakes blog – and they are super easy to stitch so you can make a last-minute Easter project. Yay!

We would LOVE to see your creations if you make our hoops – so do tag @hellohoorayblog or @hannahhandmakes if you share on social media

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Crafty Colour Palette #2: Colour list

Yellow: DMC 3078 / Anchor 292

Orange: DMC 3856 / Anchor 1010

Pink: DMC 3689 / Anchor 49

Purple: DMC 155 / Anchor 1030

Blue: DMC 3811 / Anchor 1060

Mint: DMC 966 / Anchor 206

These colours immediately made me think of the amazing wool felt colours from Cloud Craft. They are definitely the best colours in wool felt! So I got in touch with Nicole from Cloud Craft, and she very kindly sent me the felt for this project. I have such a large collection of embroidery thread that I had all the DMC thread that I needed! If you would like to purchase the thread or the felt in these colours, you can find the links in the project list below.

Crafty Colour Palette #2: Enamel pin holder

When I was thinking about what to make with these felt colours, I knew that I wanted to showcase each shade and I thought that a rainbow effect would be the best way to do this. I have recently started adding to my pin collection and thought it would be great to have something to keep them on. Ta-dah!

Materials

Templates (click here to download – prints on A3 paper)

7″ embroidery hoop

Needle and pins

Sharp fabric scissors

Paper scissors

A pencil

You will also need wool felt in the following colours (with matching thread in brackets):

Buttery (no matching thread needed for this layout, but matches DMC 3078)

Barbie (matches DMC 3858)

Ascot (matches DMC 3689)

Lavender posie (matches DMC 155)

Spearmint (matches DMC 3811)

Pistachio (matches DMC 966)

Step 1

Print out your templates and cut them out using your paper scissors. Lay out the template pieces next to your felt colours, so that you can work out which one goes with which colour.

Step 2

Carefully pin each pattern piece on the colour you want to use, and cut around them using your fabric scissors. Then layer each piece with about 1cm overlap on each side (I went from left to right putting the next piece on top each time). Pin in place. Don’t worry if it doesn’t make a perfect circle, we’ll sort that out shortly!

Step 3

When all the pieces are in place, check the positioning by putting the outer ring of the embroidery hoop over the top. Make sure you can see enough of the outer colours, and adjust the positioning if you need to.

Step 4

When you’re happy with the positioning, you can start to stitch! You only need one stitch for this, which is back stitch. Using the thread colour to match the felt (I started with apricot), thread your needle with 3 strands. Come up through the fabric and make a small stitch, a little way from the edge (see 1 and 2 in the photo below). Then bring your needle up one stitch length away from that (photo 3), before bringing the needle down through the felt at the point where your first stitch ended (photo 4).

Step 5

Repeat all the way along the line, following the line of the felt as a guide. Then do the same with the other colours, matching the thread colours each time.

Step 6

When all of the stitching is complete, turn the felt over so the wrong side is facing up. Put the outer ring of the hoop over it, and draw around the inside with a pencil. Use your fabric scissors to cut out the circle. You might cut some of the knots off at this point, but that’s ok!

Step 7

Once trimmed, place the felt back in the hoop and tighten the screw to secure it. You can leave the back open to see the pretty colours! I thought about adding an extra circle of felt at the back to cover it up, but this makes it too thick to put the pins through. No-one can see the back anyway! You may notice that I’ve painted my hoop to add a bit of extra colour.

Ta-dah!

Your hoop is ready to display all of your lovely pins on! Or just leave it plain if you prefer – that’s the beauty of this project

The pins on my hoop are by the following makers: Sally Sunshine pin by Leslieanne Made It, Fuelled by Tea pin by Samantha Eynon and I Love Tea pin by Kate Garey.

Want one of these enamel pin holder hoops?

If you’re not a crafter but you’d like to get your hands on one of these, fear not! They are now available in my online shop, where you’ll also find a vegan friendly version too. Also, head over to @hellohoorayblog on Instagram for details of a giveaway coming this week! You could win this hoop! Give @cloud.craft a little follow while you’re there too as Nicole has a super inspiring feed!

If you want to get your hands on some pastel highlighters, you can find them here.

Thank you so much to Nicole at Cloud Craft for providing me with the felt for this project. All other materials and tools my own.

Post updated 11th November 2019.

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Crafty Colour Palette #1 had to be what originally inspired my new project. 

It was this lovely tray that I got from IKEA! Every time I looked at it, I just kept thinking how the colours went together so well.  This is quite a large selection with 8 colours, but you could select a few or use them all.

Crafty Colour Palette #1: Colour list

Pale pink: DMC 603 / Anchor 62

Fuchsia: DMC 601 / Anchor 57

Orange: DMC 970 / Anchor 316

Red: DMC 349 / Anchor 13

Yellow: DMC 444 / Anchor 290

Light green: DMC 704 / Anchor 256

Dark green: DMC 700 / Anchor 228

Blue: DMC 3843 / Anchor 1089

What could I make?

There are so many things you could make with a rainbow colour palette! I picked out a few ideas from my Pinterest board, Stitch.

Make some hoop art with some very neat satin stitch – simple but so effective! (Embroidery by Jane Denton. Source: The Jealous Curator)

Try out a Sashiko inspired stitch on a quilt like this one (Source: Me and My Sister Designs):

You could also customise your clothes! Use vintage-style stitches to create a unique garment or give something a new lease of life.

Customisation doesn’t have to be complicated though! Add some rainbow style with some simple stitching. This is a dress that we recently bought for Little One and it has simple stitching around the bottom in rainbow colours. You could stitch this on a sewing machine if you’re not confident at sewing by hand. Dress from Mothercare (photo my own).

Got any other ideas for projects inspired by this colour palette? Share them in the comments below or get in touch via Instagram @craftycolourpalettes! Don’t forget that I’m looking for contributions to Crafty Colour Palettes – email me clare@hellohooray.com with your ideas!

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Introducing Crafty Colour Palettes with @hellohoorayblog

Crafty Colour Palettes is the inspiration for your next craft project. On my blog and on Instagram, I’ll be curating colourful photos and creating colour palettes with embroidery thread for you to use for crafting! Every colour palette will come complete with a blog post and full details of the threads that you need. I’ve chosen to use embroidery thread for my project because there is such a vast array of colours, which gives lots of opportunity to create so many palettes. Not a stitcher? Don’t worry, I’m on the look out for other ways of suggesting colourful projects! I’m also looking for contributors too, so keep reading on if you want to know more…

Inspiration from everyday things

We are surrounded by colour, and inspiration can come from anywhere. The initial idea for this project came from a tray that I bought in IKEA! You’ll see that in my first Crafty Colour Palettes post. I think it’s lovely to be able to create something which your own curated selection of colours. I love to play around with colour. Something as simple as a bunch of daffodils in your favourite jug could be the inspiration for your next project!

How to find Crafty Colour Palettes

The full details for each colour palette will be on my blog, and I’ve created a separate page for you to be able to find them all in one place – just click here. If you’d like to follow on Instagram, search for @craftycolourpalettes. Or search for the #craftycolourpalettes hashtag. Alternatively, you can find a board on my Pinterest. There are lots of ways to get your colour fix!

Interested in getting involved?

I would LOVE to have some guest curators of Crafty Colour Palettes! I think this would give greater variation for your craft projects. If you are interested in being a guest curator, you can email me clare@hellohooray.com or get in touch via my contact page. Or get in touch via Instagram @craftycolourpalettes or @hellohoorayblog Don’t worry if you don’t have oodles of embroidery thread like me – I can create palettes with your photos very easily. Let me know your ideas!

I really hope that you like my new project! Look out for the first Crafty Colour Palette tomorrow…

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