Clay Pot Pansy Tutorial Part 2

Let’s continue on and finish this Pansy Candle Mat.
I’ll answer some of the questions that have been asked after I show the finish.
So, for the first part of the tutorial, I showed how I attach the clay pot and the leaves. The pansy blossoms and stems are next.

Gosh, I hope you can see those little blossoms well enough in the picture.
I’ve said this before but I really like to try to create a 3d look of flowers and leaves so in this case again, I’ve attached the little yellow blossom petals only at the bottoms. I’ve used lots of little whip stitches so that they will hold tightly in place.
It’s important to mention at this point how important it is to use just the right kind of wool for these flowers and leaves. If I had use wool that was too thick, the flowers would lay flat and lifeless. If I use wool that is too thin, the flowers would look beautiful but stitching those little edges would cause lots of fraying which would then cause the little stitches to not hold the petals on tightly. I always make sure that my wool is a good, tight weave that felts tightly so that fraying isn’t an issue.
To test to see if your wool will work, just snip a small piece off, whip stitch it onto another piece of wool, leaving some of it unstiched. If it frays as you’re stitching, the wool won’t work for this project. Now pull on the unstitched area. If , when pulling the little snippit of wool, it pulls away from the stitching … then that wool will not work for this project.
Now I’ll cover up my stitches by stitching on … daggonnit … what the heck are those little green leafy things called that I’m attaching?
It’s early and I’m rushed for time because I have a meeting in an hour and I’m not even dressed and ready yet, so for now, until my brain unfreezes OR until some helpful soul gives me a glue, they will be called “little green leaf thingies that go under the blossoms”.
So using tiny little stitches, I tacked those thingies on, leaving the tips unstitched and loose, which again, creates a 3d look.

Using my handy dandy chalk pencil, I lightly drew in the lines for the stems. Even though they are just short straight stems, I find that actually drawing the line in before stitching helps to keep my stitching absolutely straight. (the chalk pencil that I use will be talked about right after this)
I stem stitched along the lines to create the pansy stems. I’ve found that using really tiny stitches when stem stitching makes a really detailed looking stem so I always take the time to do tiny. It’s just my own personal preference though. Longer stem stitches might be the look that you prefer.

I stem stitched the pansy stem too.
And now, this candle mat is just about finished. All that is needed is the backing.
Unfortunately, my camera battery died so I can’t take a picture right now of the finished mat.
I can happily show the picture of the first one that I made though …

This one will be sold on Ebay, hopefully next week. The Clay Pot Pansy that I just showed in the tutorial will be used for the pattern front picture and as a sample. There are slight differences between the two, but I’ll mention those differences once I’m ready to Ebay list it.
Ok, that’s it for the tutorial, You can see that it’s relatively easy to make as long as you have the pattern and the right wools.
I’m still aiming to have the pattern ready to sell on Friday, but realistically, it’s looking more like it will be Monday.
The US census job is taking up quite a bit of time, but it will settle down into a regular 7 1/2 hour wook day, hopefully by next week.
Part of my job as assistant is going out in the field with the new census enumerators and evaluating their interviews to make sure they are doing everything correctly. We were so fortunate to have excellent training so the evaluations are going very well, it’s just trying to fit everyone into timeslots so that my free time in between evaluations isn’t wasted. My day started at 8:30 am yesterday and I didn’t finish until 8pm last night. I hope today will be a little better.
Ok, now to quickly answer some questions ….
*The handy dandy chalk pencil that I use is really nice in that it has replaceable chalk sticks included. It comes with a pencil sharpener so that the chalk sticks may be shapened as needed. I bought this one at Joann fabrics a few years ago. Look in the quilting notions section of the store and you should be able to find a good assortment of chalk pencils. I try to stick with just white chalk though. I’ve found that colors, especially yellow, is sometimes difficult to remove from my wool. White chalk always brushes off easily.
* I’ve been asked about the backgrounds that I use for all of my candle mat patterns. In all cases, my patterns contain my own original background scalloped shapes. I don’t EVER use someone elses background shapes for anything … that is definite copyright infringement …. to actually take a pattern created by someone else and use it for my own pattern and then claim it to be my own “creation”
I draw out each background design completely on my own just as every element of my patterns are from my own drawings. (My hubby can attest to that because he’s had to help me with the math figuring with angles and arches and diameters … But yes, I created every element of all my patterns, thus making them my creations. :)

Gosh, I’m totally out of time! Gotta run!
Happy Day everyone!