Blog Swap!! Felt Leaf Wall Hangings

I'm so pleased to play hostess to the incredibly crafty Mareth from Lime Riot!  I know you will love this beautiful and original project she is sharing with us today.
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Hello! I'm Mareth from Lime Riot and I'm so excited to be taking over Leslie's blog today!

Leslie and I have been friends on Craftster and the blogosphere for some time now. I have great admiration for her work and kind spirit so when we started chatting about a blog swap, I was honored (and nervous). I hope you all enjoy what I came up with! 

Inspired by the warm colors of the season, I created these felt leaf wall hangings. They come together quickly, make a unique decoration for fall and are really fun to stitch! Here's a tutorial for how I made them.

Step 1: Gather your supplies! 

- Scraps of felt (I like to use wool or wool blend felt but craft felt would work as well)
- Embroidery floss
- Dowel for hanging (I used pieces of drift wood for a natural look)
- Buttons or beads for embellishing
- Leaf template
- Fabric glue stick (optional) 

Step 2: Cut your felt

Use your leaf template to cut out as many leaf shapes as you'd like. Cut your background felt pieces in corresponding sizes. 

Step 3: Stitch and Embellish

This is the fun part! Use your imagination to stitch designs or sew bits and bobs to your leaves. Go outside and be inspired by all of the designs you'll find in nature.

When embellishing with felt, I use a fabric glue stick to hold the felt pieces firmly in place while I stitch.

Step 4: Attach Leaf to Background

Once you've decorated your leaf to your liking, attach it to your background fabric. Try various stitches such as back, running, whip or blanket to attach it. Use this as another opportunity to add more decoration to your design! I added another piece of felt backing to make a nice border around the entire design.

Step 5: Attach Loops for Hanging

When your leaf (or leaves) are all stitched up and ready to hang, your next step will be to attach loops to feed your hanging dowel through.

Cut a narrow piece of felt and measure around your dowel to get the length of the loop and cut the felt accordingly. To attach the loops, you can stitch them directly to the background felt or just glue them onto the back.

 














Step 6: Hang and Admire

You're done! Enjoy your new autumn decorations.

I really hope you all enjoy this tutorial and find it inspirational! If you like the design but don't want to make your own, try entering to win the felt leaves giveaway over on my blog.

Don't forget to check out the awesome project that Leslie is sharing on Lime Riot today. You'll notice that we both had (coincidentally) similar ideas for our projects! If you read our blogs, you'll know this isn't the first time we've been on the same crafty wavelength.  Here's a peek at Leslie's project:

Leslie, thank you so much for letting me crash your fantastic blog today!









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You are more than welcome, Mareth--come back any time!!