Recently I became addicted to the idea of making handmade art for the walls and our front door in embroidery hoops. I scoured Pinterest and created the board Embroidery Hoop Art For All Year Long. I read somewhere that crafters call embroidery hoop art Hoopla, but now I can’t find that term anywhere. Does anyone know what the real crafter term is? For now hoopla sticks for me.
I hit Michael’s with my 50% off coupon and picked up a couple of embroidery hoops. My first project was this embroidery hoop snowman that we had on our front door at Christmas instead of a traditional wreath.
Next I wanted to do something for inside the house. I sat down in my studio, traced the circle of the embroidery hoop and started to sketch. It was one of those crisp, clear, winter days in Vancouver where you can see the mountains topped with snow, beautiful blue skies, and white, fluffy, wispy clouds. I imagined floating away into the sky. So this was what I sketched. Hee, hee. It took me a few attempts to perfect my clouds. 
I had a bit of aqua blue flannel left over from the back of the rag quilt that I made for The Turtle for Christmas so I decided to use that as the back ground fabric for my hoopla. I picked out a few different colors of felt for the balloons, seagull and cloud then cut them up. Next I used a couple of drops of hot glue to attach all of my pieces to the background so that I could then sew everything on with my sewing machine. The hot glue melted the white a bit as you can see on the cloud, but I actually really like the effect. I think it makes the cloud look wispy.
Next it was time to embroider the balloon strings. I have never embroidered before and I’m pretty awful at hand sewing, but it’s something I want to work on. I was reasonably impressed with the result. Next I sewed on the bow that connects the balloon strings (again with my sewing machine), finished the back and I was done!
It’s not my best work ever, but for my first hoopla I think it’s not too bad. I had so much fun making it that I’m already started on my next one. Here is a sneak peek! Do you think clouds are a theme? Maybe from living in Vancouver?
So tell me, do you know the real name crafters use for embroidery hoop art? Is it hoopla? Have you made any “hoopla” of your own? I think it’s a really fun way to decorate for different seasons.