Sunflower Mini Hoop

It's sunflower season! And since I don't have any of those giant yellow flowers growing in my garden this year, I made this mini version to hang in my house. The hoop is just 3 1/4-inches in diameter, so the whole project took just minutes to stitch.

For the background fabric, I used a small-scale green floral print and mounted it securely in the hoop. To make the applique, I cut a 2 1/4-inch diameter sunflower from yellow wool-blend felt and a 7/8-inch diameter flower center from brown felt. I used bright yellow floss and running stitch to sew the sunflower to the center of the background fabric. Next, I sewed the brown circle to the center of the flower with brown floss and running stitch.

The petals of real sunflowers are pretty, but I think the texture of the seeds in the flower centers is beautiful too. To add some fun texture to my mini sunflower, I sewed tiny 1/4-inch brown buttons to the center with ecru floss. 

To finish my hoop, I trimmed the background fabric to about 1/2 inch from the edge of the hoop. I then basted around the circle about 1/8 inch from the edge, pulled the ends of the thread tight to gather the edges, and secured it with a knot. That was easy, wasn't it? It's going to look so cute hanging in my kitchen.