Embroidery hoop picture frame!

I think I'm BRILLIANT!!!

OK, so a few months ago, I saw someone doing something like this in their workroom. awesome, right?

So when I found this sewing fabric at the Urban Craft Center, I had to get a little, so I could do this

my sewing room entrance has a little turn, so you enter and see a bit of wall/the side of the closet... my loving husband put some nails up for me, and now I have this lovely entrance!

the lowest print is of pins, the big one is spools of thread, and the top is safety pins.

anyway, doing this made me think that I could maybe put some pictures on them...

so I made this:

I took some plastic (cut from the wrapping on D's new car booster seat, but it's just regular clear plastic, like sheets come in, or... well, lots of things, I know I'm always throwing stuff like this away, so I decided to use it this time...), and some scrap fabric that was big enough for the hoop... I ironed some interfacing on the fabric to give it a little more body...

I cut the pieces to be about 3/4" bigger than the pictures, so i'd have 1/4" seam allowance on 3 sides, plus a little wiggle room. I zigzagged the pieces down on 3 sides, slipped in the pictures, and then sat back.

hmm.

underwhelming.

not nearly as cool as I had imagined.

clearly, it needed MORE!

well, it IS an embroidery hoop, after all:

some lazy daisies (REALLY LAZY!), some stem stitch, some buttons, and about 2 hours of my time later:

isn't it AWESOME!?!?!?!?

it makes me happy every time I see it hanging in the hallway.

and I can switch in different pictures whenever I want!

I'm working on another one right now, but I don't have another big frame...

trying to resist driving 40 miles to where I bought this one... probably better to just go to Joanns tomorrow.