Poppies

I was approached a few weeks ago to see if I could help to make some decorations for an event at work.  I'm currently working for the National Trust for Scotland at Pitmedden Garden, a beautiful 17th century property in Aberdeenshire.

On August 15th 2017 it was 100 years since Major James Keith returned to his home, and beloved garden at Pitmedden, after serving in the First World War.  This extraordinary gentleman was later to bequeath his home, garden and extensive estates to the National Trust for Scotland.  In the 1950's, the recreated Great Garden at Pitmedden was opened to the public and it has been enjoyed by many, many visitors ever since.

It was agreed that poppies would make a fitting decoration for the tearoom where an afternoon tea for invited guests would mark the centenary.  Turning to the internet for inspiration, I found this tutorial from Woman's Weekly which showed how to make a wreath from knitted and crocheted poppies.  I then set about making my flowers and firstly followed this pattern to crochet these poppies with the button centres.

For those who like a video tutorial, blogger Sarah-Jayne of the craft and lifestyle blog www.bellacoco.co.uk provides clear instructions here to crochet these small poppies with their handmade centre and leaf.

I also enlisted the help of two friends.  Carol is the highly skilled baker at the Pitmedden Garden tearoom and receives many compliments for her scones, cakes and tray-bakes.  She also knitted the poppies below on the right, whilst those on the left were created by Sabina - a friend from my regular Wednesday morning knitting group.

Their productivity helped me crack on and complete these poppies.

Sewing the poppies onto the rattan wreathes, sourced from Hobbycraft, was much easier than I thought.

I added a hanging loop so the wreathes could be displayed on the wall if desired.

So here are the finished wreathes, smallest first...

The middle sized one...

 And the big one...

I'm really proud of our collaborative achievement!