Flowers & Flutterbys Crochet Wreath

TA-DAH!  It's done.  AND...I love it!!!

Wanna make one?  Well here's how.  By the way, if you missed my preview of this wreath, see that POST HERE.

First, we'll start with the wreath itself.  Since this wreath is one of several in a series that I've designed, I used the same pattern for the wreath.  Click here for the wreath pattern.  For the Flowers & Flutterbys wreath I used 2 colors of yarn (Bamboo Ewe) for the stripes and a brighter green of the same yarn to stitch the two wreath sides together (the inner and outer join).  I used a size F hook to make the wreath dense and firm.

After making two sides of the wreath (identical), I joined the two sides at their inner ring.  I added the motifs to the front wreath side only.  I used the tails from the motifs to stitch them onto the front side.  The beauty of the two wreath sides is being able to just stuff all the ends between, not having to weave them in - thank heavens!

This wreath included 4 daffodils.  I didn't design the daffodil pattern.  I found it HERE.  I did a few things different.  ONE, I didn't use a pipe cleaner OR make a stem.  TWO, I added a separate flower middle.  The pattern for the daffodil middle is (make a magic ring, ch 2, work 8hdc into ring, tighten ring, join to first stich with sl st.  Finish off).

To keep the daffodils in a bit of a cup shape, I sat each one in a small glass dish, spritzed it well with a bottle of Stiffen Quik and put them in the microwave to firm up according to the directions on the bottle.  I did each one twice and they have held their cup-like shape.

There are also 11 Sweet Sevens (I designed a new pattern for the Sweet Seven Flower) you can find the photo tutorial for the sweet sevens HERE and also on my Ravelry site. 

Finally, I've designed a lovely new motif called Flutterby Butterfly!  I searched and searched for a butterfly pattern that looked just the way I envisioned but even with all the creations, none of them were what I was wanting.  So... after a long bit of trial and error, I designed my own.  I'm very happy with it.  I've made oodles of them now and they are quite easy.  I've prepared a step by step photo tutorial for the little sweeties and you can get the Flutterby Butterfly tutorial by clicking HERE.

There are FOUR Flutterbys on the F&F wreath.  All are made with cotlin dk.  Three of the four are made with an E sized hook and one was made with an F sized hook.

Once the motifs are made and stitched together, the outer ring of the wreath sides can be joined.

Usually, I just cut apart an old cereal box to form a cardboard ring and slip it between the two wreath layers but I had already emptied the recycle bin and it had rained and I didn't fancy a soggy brown board living inside the wreath.  So, I hunted around in my sewing room and found this stuff:

It's made to be insulation in window cracks and such.  I had purchased a bag of it at a hardware store going out of business figuring I'd do something crafty with it and now I have.

I also snagged a broken hanger which I re-shaped into somewhat of a circle and taped the insulation ring to the hanger circle. To assure that the inner ring of the wreath also held it's form, I made a smaller foam ring and simply stuck it between the layers after the inner ring sides had been joined.

As I joined the outer rings (I used sc and I go through BOTH loops of each wreath side - 4 loops - on every sc), I realized I could crochet up the hanger hook and cover the wire.  I did finish off and re-join my yarn after covering the hanger hook.

The new solution worked fine, but it was a bit of a hassle to create and I'm not sure I'd do it the exact same way again - however, this time, it is in - and done, and it worked, so alls well there.

If you haven't seen the other wreaths in my series, you can check them out here (and also on ravelry):

Autumn Wreath
Christmas Wreath and also HERE
Double Sided Winter/LOVE Wreath

For now, I am enjoying a pastel Flowers & Flutterbys wreath in time for all the spring colors outdoor to begin popping up and also in time to enjoy for Mother's Day!

Flutterby Butterfly - a crochet photo tutorial

Did you see my Flowers & Flutterbys Crochet Wreath?  Click HERE and HERE for that post.

Well, the Flutterby Butterfly was designed as a special motif just for that project, but it's so cute, I'm sure there are many places a crochet butterfly motif would be perfect.

So - here begins a step by step photo tutorial that you can follow to make your own Flutterbys!

Here's how it looks close up on the F&F wreath.

You can find THIS tutorial and others also on my ravelry design page.

Perfectly Pastel: Crochet Wreath Coming Soon...

I've been inspired by these:

Pastel flowers and whites!  Soft, whisper colors.  Not typical for me - I usually like brights and browns and big, big color.  But lately I've found inspiration from the palest of spring flowers.

I was also inspired by this:

A sweet little teal towel that my mom sent me as a gift.  It's so pretty and white and full of soft lovely herbs.  I haven't been able to bring myself to use it for drying off the dishes.  It's just been hanging in the kitchen looking lovely.  And see that little butterfly in the upper left hand corner - well that little guy was the inspiration for a whole new pattern (coming soon too)!

With all this inspiration, I headed off to audition the yarn stash for a part in a new wreath -

And I gathered a soft palette of dks and worsteds, mostly cottons.

I added a few of these (CLICK HERE FOR FREE PATTERN).

And after a few weeks of pattern making, designing, hooking, stitching, and weaving in the ends, they are all coming together for their big debut.

The wreath is done and all the patterns are up - tutorials made etc...   Go HERE to see the final wreath post. Go HERE to see the butterfly tutorial.

Double Crochet Wreath Instructions - LOVE!

Did you see all the instructions for the WINTER side of my double duty wreath?  I announced the wreath in this post HERE.

This post will discuss the other side of the double duty wreath - namely the LOVE side.

In the mid-Atlantic US, Valentine's Day collides with winter.  If you live in a part of the world where Valentine's Day is not wintery - you can of course make ONLY a LOVE wreath - or combine a wreath for an appropriate season on the other side of your love wreath design.

OR...maybe you want to design a St. Patrick's Day wreath - and make it double duty with your LOVE wreath.  The possibilities are endless.

There are two downsides to double duty.  One is that because the motifs on the back of the double wreath have some depth to them, the wreath doesn't hang as flatly against a hanging surface as single wreaths.  Two, because there are twice as many motifs on the wreath, it is in general heavier than a one-sided wreath and the the wreath pulls a bit where the hanging loop is situated.  A bit of wire reinforcement could correct this problem, or using something firmer inside the wreath (rather than recycled cardboard) may make the wreath pull less at its hanging point.  Anyway - live and learn, it was an experiment and I'm still happy with it.  I have been flipping from one side of the wreath to the other as I please and as I feel the need to enjoy each separate side!

The love side of the wreath includes three different heart patterns.  Visit my Crochet Heart Pinterest board for more!  Some lovely roses with leaves and a few strawberries.

Things I might change about this wreath if I were to create it over again - I would have a 3rd shade of grey instead of pink in the wreath base - making the colors of the motifs pop a bit more.  I would sew the big red heart at the bottom a little more close to the strawberries.  I would have made THREE strawberries at the bottom.  One big one in the center with 2 smaller ones flanking it.  Again, I'm always re-thinking my design.

Things I LOVE about this wreath - the four little hearts with the ruffly edges and the letters L-O-V-E stitched onto them.  AND... the fabulously easy and fun and fast to create patterns I discovered while making the wreath.  Hearts and flowers were awesome.

Let's get started.  How about start with the flowers, roses to be exact.

May Roses FREE pattern from Lucy at Attic24

There are a total of 4 of them on my LOVE wreath.  I also used the pattern for her little leaves.  Each rose on my wreath has 2 little leaves as well.  I used I Love this Cotton my Hobby Lobby and also CotLin dk by Knit Picks to make the roses.  I think I used a C or D crochet hook.

Strawberries.  I used two strawberry patterns.

This red pattern is slightly longer and thinner than the pink strawberry.  On both strawberry patterns I added little white specks with a needle and yarn.  I also found the green tops of the strawberry patterns to be written a bit confusingly and I kind of fudged them, but they turned out okay - in fact, I may have switched the tops from one strawberry to the next.

Strawberry Pattern #1 is here.
Strawberry Pattern #2 is missing - I must have incorrectly typed the link into my wreath notes and I cannot find the reference.  If you recognize the pattern for the pink strawberry applique, please let me know and I'll be sure to correctly credit it!  Make TWO or THREE strawberries using the pattern link I provided or search out your own crochet strawberry applique and add it to your wreath.

Both patterns were FREE!  Thank you so much for the kind pattern providers for sharing!

Next up - solid color heart.  I liked all the heart patterns I used.  This one, tho. it uses a magic circle, doesn't fully close it's gap because so many stitches are performed inside the magic circle.  However I still like the look and shape of this heart and have included two of this motif near the bottom of my wreath - one in a bright pink and another in red.  One yarn was a light worsted and the other was a worsted.  I believe I used an E crochet hook for both.  This heart was originally in a post on the Skip to My Lou blog and was used in a heart garland.  The link is below the photo of the heart.

The link to this heart pattern is here.

A little outlined heart is next.  It's slightly smaller than the previous heart and is "outlined" in a second color of yarn.

The link for this outlined heart pattern is found here.

The final heart pattern I used was a real favorite.  I altered it a bit and will explain below.

Here is the white heart with purple ruffle.  The heart is from the pattern thought the ruffle and stitching are my alterations.

I started with this heart pattern.   Honestly, I love the pattern just as it is written but needed something a bit smaller and more ruffly for how I had envisioned this heart.  So, instead of the row of double crochet that the pattern shows as the final outside edge of the heart, I added a new color (anywhere on the heart, I joined along the side) and did a chain 1 (counts as single crochet), then ch 1 and sc in the next stitch. *ch 2, sc in next stitch, repeat from * around to starting point of join.

To add the letters to the heart, I chose a 6-strand embroidery floss and used a darning needle.  I stitched using a backstitch and just free-formed it to make the letters I needed.  I tried to keep the total size of the letters consistent in width and height on each heart.

As with all my other wreaths in this series, I darned in most of the motif tails, leaving only a few long and used those to attach the motif to the wreath base.  I also used a matching embroidery floss to tack down the motif in integral places so that it would lay on the wreath the way I imagined.

Take a look at my other wreath posts to see how I cut the cardboard donut to go in between the wreaths and attach the two wreath sides together with single crochet and add a crochet hanging loop.

That's all - I hope you enjoyed the double sided WINTER / LOVE wreath.  Consider sharing photos of your crochet wreath creations on my Facebook Page HERE.