Sweet Bee Buzzings: Crocheted Flower Wreath

Sunday, April 27, 2014

Crocheted Flower Wreath

Ever since I made oodles of flowers to hang on these branches, I have been on a small-scale project crochet kick. My sewing machine has had no appeal to me of late, but my crochet hooks sure have had some. I think I've hooked up more flowers in the last few weeks than I have ever grown successfully. When my mom was putting up her Easter decorations a few weeks ago she realized she didn't have a wreath for the front door for spring/summer. I told her I'd remedy that situation for her. After several nights of reading through books and following along online, I had a nice little assortment of crocheted flowers.

My original plan was for sunflowers and daisies, but that wasn't enough color so I picked up some orange and added some hot pink that I had on hand to pump up the color.

I made roses, marigolds, sunflowers, daisies, and a zinnia, along with bunches of leaves. Well...I'm calling them that. I didn't like the daisy pattern I found, so I made another in daisy colors and am calling that a daisy. There's a puffy orange one that didn't have a name, but it reminds me of a zinnia. The one that took me the longest was the sunflower--the center and the petals were done separately and then sewn together, with the center part taking almost as long as the flower.

I used a brown flecked yarn for the center--it reminds me a little of seeds. It's quite bobbly in there. The petals took forever, but they have this nifty curl to them so they're not all floppy.

I had bought a grapevine wreath as the styrofoam ones were too too small, and the ones made of what looks like straw or hay were a little too reminiscent of fall. It wasn't until I had everything sewn together and laid out that I realized that my plan A of hot glue was not going to work. So I wove a length of the brown yarn through the back of each flower, and then tied them (carefully but snugly) to the wreath.

These kinds of wreaths are fairly fragile and tend to have pieces break off as the wood gets drier. I didn't want the wreath to be in a shambles and the flowers still be fine, so this ended up being a good temporary method--I can rescue the flowers if the wreath gets too bad looking just by snipping the yarn. The wreath only cost a few dollars post coupon, so it wouldn't upset me greatly if it made it only through this summer.

For the bow I had bought a length of green burlap to go with my rustic sunflower look, which I had matched to the leaf yarn. The thickness and stiffness of burlap made the bow quite easy to get into shape, and there was just the right amount for a just-right sized bow.

My mother likes things simple and not overly full, so there are only ten flowers to this wreath. I had made an even dozen, but my sister vetoed two of them (they were my least favorites too--I did not choose the colors wisely) when we were playing with the arrangement. So, are you ready to see the whole thing?

The roses came from an old Mollie Makes issue, and the marigolds and daisies came from this book, but the sunflower I made using this tutorial, and the 'zinnia' I made using this one. The leaves were courtesy of Attic 24. The yarn is all Red Heart worsted weight acrylic. I've already got ideas for the green, orange and yellow for fall, and white always comes in handy so my plentiful leftovers will be put to good use. The pink was stashed so I was pleased to finally move it on out.

These are some of my favorite kinds of projects to make. Kind of quick, but not instant, and looking mighty cute and perfect for display. You might think this would have fulfilled my need to crochet flowers, but you'd be wrong. More on that to come.

Linking up here:

Sundays: Sunday Showcase, Think Pink Sunday, Submarine Sunday