Made It: Fabric Crafts Fast And Slow

Hello! Sometimes I'll do a craft that takes a long time, sometimes I'll do one that's very quick. Both kinds of projects are satisfying in their own way.

An example of a slow project is this: 

I've written about making these scrap fabric wreaths before, here.However, this time I wanted a wreath to cover a large expanse of newly-painted family room wall, so of course I needed a bigger wire wreath form than the 12" ones I'd found at thrift stores. 

No larger wreath forms surfaced secondhand, so I was forced to buy a brand new version. Still, with a coupon I only paid a little over five dollars for a wreath form about 30" in diameter. 

Naturally, it took a lot of time to cut up the strips needed to fill in such a large wreath form, but at least I had plenty of fabric scraps ready! I keep generating these from working on a very slow, ongoing quilting project (which I'll show off if when I get it done.) This wreath project used a LOT of scraps, but the actual tying wasn't as tedious as I'd thought it'd be. Being much bigger than the 12" wreath forms I'd used before, there was more room to tie the strips on, so that helped. 

I was pleased with how the wreath turned out; such a fun way to use a variety of fabrics bits and pieces:

(close-up of some of the fabrics)

It looked fine on the family room wall, but after awhile I wanted something to hang up in the middle of the wreath. Found a nice Waverly fabric remnant at the thrift store, which I coupled with a 10" white plastic embroidery hoop that was also a thrift store find. 

All I did was put the fabric in the hoop, cut the fabric a bit larger all around, then glued that excess to the back of the hoop. Very fast! 

Hung it up "inside" the wreath:

Hmm, looks like I could have centered it better, but it'll be easy to move since I hung the hoop up with a removable sticky thing. 

Close-up of the print:

May have been a fast craft, but I still like how it turned out. Of course, I could have turned it into a slow craft by sewing on buttons, adding embroidery or other embellishments. And I could still do this sometime if I want. 

Fast, slow - there's not right or wrong in doing craft projects. The main thing is to enjoy the process - and the finished results!