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Daisy's Garden: The Daisies pattern
The Vine to hang the flowers on
Many of you who have purchased our "Daisy's Garden: The Daisies" pattern, ask how we made the 'vine' that they are attached to in our booth at Market. As you can see below, you can really make them look wild by carefully bending the wires in the flower petals! We used the wire at the center back of the flower to attach them to this vine to show them off!
At Market we have watched people all day long for 3 days as they look up and smile at the flowers on the vine! Almost every time someone walks by they look up, stop & smile just to see them! It's just the best thing! I bet you'll get the same response!
The vine is made by threading copper tubing through a tube of outdoor insulation covered by a fabric snake. Everything but the fabric cover will come from your local home improvement or hardware store.
COPPER TUBING
I used 1/4" copper tubing because it's flexible, but not too flexible - you don't want it to crimp and break after you do all the work to put it all together, but you need the loops to stay in place, too! It makes an expressive vine and stays put. What makes the vine interesting is all the curls and loops. You'd be surprised how much extra length you need to bend the vine this way, so be sure you get enough tubing for the finished length you want; we found it in 25' rolls and used one across our single booth, two for the double one we had later, just to give you an idea. You may need to cut your tubing - it will take a metal saw for this, or you can ask the salesman at the home improvement store to help you with that - or a very sweet husband!
OUTDOOR INSULATION
The 'vine' itself is made from the insulation that is commonly used to cover outside pipes in the winter - there is a hole through the middle of it to accommodate the pipes. I used the smallest size that would fit around the copper tubing, so there would not be too much "play". You can get this insulation with a slit down the side, but it's better to buy the tube without the slit because you'll have to wrap it with duct tape, otherwise, to hold it together. Determine how long you want your vine to be and buy enough sections of insulation for the length. NOTE: Allow extra and cut off what you don't need - some utility scissors will do (put the Ginghers completely out of sight!). Then use the duct tape and tape the lengths of insulation together. Thread the copper tubing through the middle.
FABRiC 'SNAKE' COVER
Then I made a "snake" (just a tube of fabric) to cover the insulation and scrunched it down over it as much as I could. You'll need more length if you like yours real scrunchy, like I did, or less if you like less scrunch, which gives a 'chunkier' look. I cut mine into 6 1/2" widths (this fit my diameter - yours could be different depending on the insulaton diameter - be sure to add enough ease). To get the right 'scrunchiness' and to be sure it fits well over the tube, try a 3' length a littIe wider than you measure the diameter + ease to see how it looks - then you'll know exactly how wide to cut your strips. I sewed the lengths into tubes, turned them (which goes very quickly) and began threading the fabric over the insulation and scrunching it down. You can do more or less of this, of course, depending on the scrunchy look you want and the amount of fabric you want to use. I picked a green fabric, but you could pick ANY color and it would be great! Maybe sale fabric would work well here. At the beginning and end of the length, use a pair of pliers to turn the 3" or 4" of the copper tubing back on itself, over the fabric, to keep the fabric from coming off the end. Then use a couple feet of the fabric "snake" on each end fo make a big knot to help cover the exposed tubing. Bend to your heart's delight! It's easy to attach the flowers with the wire in the middle of the center, then bend their petals to look as funky as the vine!
Pretty 'n Pink pattern alternative
If you use Christmas fabrics for this pattern - very pretty, by the way - you can use the following 2 snowflakes to applique in the scalloped border! Each snowflake is shown below. To download, just click the link above each one.
When you have the scalloped blocks ready to applique - this is BEFORE you trim them - center the snowflake and place within the finished measurements of the block. Trace the snowflake to your snowflake fabric. Cut out leaving a 1/8" turn under allowance; position and applique. If you're fusing, just trace to fusible web (these are symmettrical, so there is no 'right side'), fuse to BACKSIDE of fabric, cut out along drawn lines, remove web backing from wrong side, and carefully position and fuse to block. Now just satin stitch or buttonhole stitch around the edge!
