Hydrangea Penny Rug/Candle Mat

   

I have three dear friends who share my passion for  crafting.   We try to get

together on a regular basis to create.  At one of our sessions,  Tanya

introduced us to the art of Penny Rugs.   We made the cutest Easter penny

rug designed  by Barbie Jo Paquin, and I was hooked.  I have made several

of my own designs since.  The Hydrangea Penny is my latest effort.  I am

including the directions in case you want to give it a try.

To make this you will need :

1/2 yard of black wool felt

1/2 yard of green wool felt

1/8 yard, or 1/2 of  a fat quarter of tye dyed blue wool felt, and matching thread

embroidery  floss:  green to match or slightly  contrast the green felt and black

you will also need blue seed beads that match the blue felt

Freezer paper

Poster board- at least 2 pieces

Click here for printable pattern pieces. penny rug hydrangea pattern

Prior to starting, you will want to decide on the texture of your wool felt.  You can leave as you bought it, or you can felt it so that it has a bumpier/textured  look to it.  You can see the difference if you click on the tab at the top of this page labeled ” FELTING WOOL FELT”.  You will also find directions for” felting” as well.

I gave you the pattern for the leaves, flowers, a small circle that will help give the hydrangea depth, and a Template for the scalloped edging around out side of middle and bottom layers of the rug.  You will need  to cut out 12 leaves, 72 flowers, and 4  of the ‘pillow” circles.    You will need to make a circle  pattern with a 14 inch diameter (out of the poster board).  I used tye dyed blue wool felt for the flowers, cutting about 1/2 of them  from the darker section of felt and 1/2 from the lighter section.  This gave the finished  hydrangeas their variegated color.  To cut out the flowers, leaves and small pillow circles start by taking the freezer paper, place it shiney side down on the wool felt and secure by pressing it into  place with an iron.  Trace the pattern pieces  onto the appropriate color of wool felt, and cut out.

.

Freezer paper ironed to wool felt  and

flowers traced on to it.

Prep for the flowers, by cutting them out, then

snipping them  to create petals as above

shape the petals by trimming off the corners.

to form flower

stitch around inside, but don’t knot off.

then pull thread  tight, cinching bottom  of flower.

secure by stitching across bottom several times.

!

your flowers should look like this.

Repeat 71 more times!

Next lay out the leaves as shown onto the large14

inch circle cut from the black felt..

An easy way to determine

placement is to fold the circle in half, pinning each

end of the fold, bring these two pins together and

pin the ends of the new  perpendicular diameter. These

pins  will be the center of the flowers,  arrange the

leaves around this mark.

blanket stitch  around the leaves using green floss.

To give the hydrangea depth   take a cotton ball

and cut it in half

place it in the center of the  leaves and cover with

the small black circle

secure by stitching around out side using blanket stitch

and black floss.

This will give height to the hydrangea.

.

place the flowers around the edge of the black circle you just

applied. I arranged them, with darker flowers on one side

and lighter ones on the other.

That will give you the variegated look.

It should take about 10 to cover the outside edge.

.

Attach the flowers  with a single stitch  brought up from

the bottom, going through the flower, then through a

bead and back down through the flower.  Once you have

10 attached around the edge of the circle, fill in the middle.

it should take about 7 more.   Repeat this for all four hydrangeas.

Next use your 14 inch circle pattern and scallop template

to create a  pattern for the green layer  of the penny rug.

trace pattern onto green felt, cut out, and place under

rug as shown.  Attach using blanket stitch with

black floss.

repeat to create pattern for bottom layer of rug,

trace onto black felt and cut out.

place under green layer as shown, and attach using

blanket stitch with green floss.  Finish edge with

black floss and blanket stitch.

I hope you enjoyed the tutorial, and give this pattern

a try.  If you do, let me know how you make out. I would

love to hear from you!

Related articles

• Hydrangea (fuzzynacho.wordpress.com)