“Violets In My Garden” Candle Mat -->Let’s make it today!

This is my newest design.  I’m calling it “Violets In My Garden”

I should have the pattern ready to sell by early next week, so keep watch.

I made this one with white wool and a green background and I also tried one with a black background …

This one didn’t get a green background on it.  Without the green background the leaves really stand out

I couldn’t tell you which colors I like the best.  They both turned out so pretty. 

I made this two ways just to show all of you how it’s so easy to make one design look completely different just by changing up the colors or adding a background. 

The violet flowers shown on the two mats are a dark pink and a purple.  I think two shades of purples would be pretty, or purple yellow flowers would be really nice too.  Actually, a big mix of all different colors would be gorgeous.  

So think outside the box when deciding the colors to use for any of your candle mat creations.  Just because the pattern picture shows certain colors, doesn’t mean that you have to use those colors!  Make it your own by being different!

So, I’m going to go through some of the steps to make this. 

Everyone should know by now that even though I’m showing how to make this, I would really appreciate it if you would purchase the pattern.  If you make this without buying the pattern, it’s considered stealing, so keep that in mind. 

Ok? Ok.

The most time consuming part of this is the cutting part.  There are lots of little leaves and flowers to cut.  If you have one of those nifty diecutters that will cut those flowers, by all means use it!  It will save much pain on your fingers!

I don’t mind the cutting, actually.  I usually cut as I need them so that helps with the finger pain.  And I like the way hand-cut flowers look rather than the die cut flowers.  But that’s my own personal preference.

So to start, I cut out my background scallop shape.

Using a ruler and a chalk pencil, I marked off the individual sections.

I only use white chalk.  I’ve tried colored chalk and have found it to be very difficult to remove from the wool. 

Here, I’ve quickly basted across the mat so that each scalloped section is clearly defined.  The basting stitches will be pulled out once the top is completed.

It’s worth the extra five minutes that it takes to do this. It makes it so much easier to stitch those leaves and flowers in their own space without overlapping into the scalloped space beside them. 

I’ve centered the top leaves and will pin them in place.  Now the bottom leaves will be pinned in place and I’m ready to stitch them down. 

With a backstitch, I stitched the veins down the centers of each of the leaves.   I’ve used really thick coat weight wool for the white background so this makes those leaves really stand out.  Regular weight wool will still make the leaves pop out like this, just not as much.

That’s all that needs done with the leaves.  Do this eight times around the mat and the leaves are done. The violets are stitched in place with french knots.  As long as you’re using good felted wool for this, the wool won’t unravel so there’s no need to stitch the edges down.  Be sure to test your wool before stitching to make sure that your wool is felted enough to use for this.

Simply cut some of the wool and pull on it.  If it pulls apart, don’t use it for the flowers.

The flowers are all stitched in place and it looks really pretty with just the three flowers in each grouping so if you’re making this and like this look, you can call it finished at this point, but I like the details of the little flower buds.  So the flower buds are added in simply by tacking it down with a whip stitch. 

I stem stitched the lines in to make the flower stems and it’s almost finished!

It’s at this point that I have to decide whether to attach a background to this or not. 

I love the look of it the way it’s shown here because the leaves are the real highlight of the mat. 

Adding the background makes the leaves blend in more with the flowers which make give the flowers a little more emphasis.

You will have to decide which way you like it better!

I think that perhaps a dark pink or matching violet purple background would show up nicely too.  I choose green though simply because it would match most customers decor better.

Here’s one that I made several years ago with a purple background …

It sure is pretty, isn’t it?  

 

Happy Day everyone!