Embroidery Hoop Art

A few weeks ago, as I was reading a blog called Making it Lovely, there was a link to an absolutely adorable Venn diagram embroidery hoop clock. Of course, my first thought was how can I make this? I had big elaborate plans to make a Venn diagram with three circles, one for me, one for Bryan, and one for Seth, although mine was not going to be a clock. Instead it was going to be a piece of art for the newly painted hallway leading to our bathroom.
As my mom and I were doing some shopping during our recent trip to Jackson, we found a huge quilting hoop for $3.99 at their local Goodwill. I just knew it was fate. Along with a two dollar pair of shoes, I carried my hoop home in hopes of getting my project started as soon as possible. I scoured the scrap bins at Hancock Fabrics and Hobby Lobby and found all the fabric that I needed and also purchased some embroidery thread all for less than five bucks.

I cut my circles, ironed them, and glued them (like you would with applique) to the white background. I started stitching around my circles with the white thread. Things were going ok at first.
Then the fabric started shredding where I was stitching. So everywhere there was thread the fabric looked like it wasn't attached. I got this far...
and then called it quits. It just wasn't turning out the way that I had envisioned (which happens more often than not in many of my projects). I decided maybe I would just embroider something in the big hoop so I started looking for inspiration on Etsy. I couldn't find anything that looked simple enough for me to do, since I have never embroidered anything.
Just when I was about to give up all hope I stumbled upon a picture of a lot of hoops covered with fabric hanging as a collection (it's the 4th one down if you click on the link) on a wall. It looked kind of Pottery Barnish but super simple to do. I only had one hoop, but I wondered if there might be more at some of the thrift stores/consignment stores around here. Sure enough, after visiting three stores, I had 8 more for less than $5.00. I rummaged through my fabric including some of Bryan's old shirts (which I plan to make into a quilt) and I was able to fill all of my hoops. I came up with this...

I love changing things up and this is such an easy inexpensive way to do that. I can change a few pieces of fabric and have a whole new look. I also think I might keep looking for a few more hoops to add to the collection. So a failed project turned into something that I love even more. I love it when that happens!