How to Stitch Pennies | Pennies In Bloom | Lisa Bongean | Primitive Gatherings

Hey everyone, it's Lisa from Primitive Gatherings, and today I get to teach you how to work with Pennies in Bloom. Now, Pennies in Bloom is a project that we are doing in our wool subscription box that comes out in January, March, May, all the odd months going till the end of the year. So there's six boxes with this project in it. So I just wanna give you some tips and tricks on how to get started and get going on this project. So I first wanna show off how beautiful the inspiration piece is. So here is the piece I found out in the wild, and it's pretty eclectic. It's got some weird colors, but together it's just so beautiful. And they did not put a backing on this, but we're gonna put a backing on ours, all right? So I just wanted to show you that inspiration piece that we are gonna recreate. Ours is just gonna be a smidge smaller than that one because those pennies are between a quarter and an eighth, a quarter and a half. So they're like one and three eighths. And I didn't have a die cut for that size. So we are gonna go with like one and a quarter inch circles on ours. And the best thing about this whole project is look, it comes all pre-cut for you. So it's gonna be super easy. You just get your fabrics and you're gonna get three different wools each month with the exception of one month you're gonna get four because we need 19 different fabrics. So divided by six equals three plus one we'll have an extra one. So the first box, January's came with this blue, the natural color, and then the gold. Those are the only three wools you got. Now, when you work with your wools, at first we can't make a lot of hexes. We only, I only want you to make one out of the first block or first set of fabrics, but then you can prep some other ones for future. And I give you all of that in your pattern. So right here, I say these gold ones, you're gonna stitch 12 with red flowers and green dots. And then I'll kind of show you how you can move forward, but yet you still can't put them together because you really wanna move the color around. And as you get more fabrics, it'll be easier to do that, but kind of wrap your head around that you are gonna get 40 circles. So we need 19 to complete this whole thing, but we need a front and a back. So that is 38 pieces of wool, but we'll give you two extra. Just in case you lose one or misplace one or weak miscount, we're gonna try to give you 40 each month, but you only need 38. So you're gonna have a couple of spares laying around if you do not lose them. And then you're gonna have a gold as the center, and then you're gonna have gold as a middle. So there's gold as a middle, and then you're gonna have gold as an outer. Now these are coming up. You can't make these yet because they've included a wool from another box, but you can kind of see how every fabric plays once in each spot, outer, inner, and center. So kind of wrap your head around that. And then what I've done with my wools that I've got is I've put them in a bag saying these are outers, these are centers, and then these are inners. So when I'm putting the blocks together, I can pair them up knowing this color has to be an outer and so forth. All right, so pretty simple, but yet it's a lot. All right, now, just so you know, we have a template in here, and yes, we gave you lots of templates because they get pretty worn out. And we had the blank page in there anyway, so we just gave you a ton of them. You might only use one. You might make your own template from this. Maybe you want one out of a template plastic or something like that. But we gave you plenty in case you didn't wanna use them over and over and over again, but that's why we did that. You don't need them all, all right? Okay, so on this one here, I wanna show you, this is one all stitched together. So I think this is my spot right there. So I kinda use the same color threads in the block. So I matched up threads for each one of the wools that's in this box. And then I gave you the next one so we can work ahead on some of those pennies that are not in this box. And I always keep a needle with each ball when I'm working. So that's why those are there like that. So once you get the pennies stitched, then we need to hook the pennies together. And I will demonstrate all of that here today. So do you see how I have this one all done except for one? I stitched the penny, I stitched that, but I need to stitch this one, but I'm gonna start from scratch on another one. So here is one I'm currently working on. So what I need to do to start is, and I'll go through all the tools that you need as we go. You need to cut out this little pentagon, five-sided template out of your pattern. And what you're gonna do is you're going to take your wool and lay it down on, this one I already have marked, but I'll just show you how to do it. You place your template in there. And then on light color wools, you can use your graphite. On dark color wools, we might have to use the liquid chalk pen that we use in our wool applique. So what I'm gonna do with this is I'm gonna put out the lead kind of long. And at each point, I'm just gonna twist it and make a little mark on each of the points. And then one in the middle, just like that. And like I said, you can barely see them, but they are there and I can see them pretty well. So make sure you got your prescription up to date. And here's another way to do it if you have a darker piece here. I'll do one on this cranberry here that I have. I'll show you how the light one works. And like I said, this is water liquid chalk. It's not dry chalk. So you're just gonna do a little mark on each of the points and then one in the middle. Now, because it's liquid, it takes a minute to dry. So I'm just gonna let that sit for a minute. And then when you use this pen, make sure you click the cover on tightly because it is liquid. All right, so now while that one's drying, I will stitch the lazy daisy in the center of this one. So this is what it needs to look like here. I didn't wanna sew one the wrong color, so I will just start. So I'm gonna do the petals of the lazy daisy flower in this colored thread. And all my thread colors are listed on my pattern. And we will have a thread kit for the whole project now. We just went through and picked out threads for everything. You're gonna wanna put a nice knot in there. And then you're only gonna pick up one of the pennies, not the bottom. So what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna come in the center and I'm gonna hold on to that tail because I don't wanna hit that knot again. So I kinda like move it off to the side a little bit. And I'm gonna insert my needle back into the center and come out to one of the dots. And I'm gonna make that little lazy daisy petal and then pull it through. And the reason why I do mark these is because they can get pretty wonky even with the template. And you'll see what I mean soon enough. If you kinda look at some of them closely, they're not all perfect, but we try to get them in the right spot. So I got one petal. I'll quickly do the remaining petals here out to the dot. Bring that around, pull it through. I had a pretty good rhythm going the other night when I was working on some of them. I probably didn't need this much thread. Now, why didn't I use fusible web? One is because we pre-cut these for you. So I didn't really think we needed them after I stitched one and you'll see why we don't need one, fusible web. And that holds the back onto the front of the penny. So see how I just work my way all the way around. And this is five weight thread. You want this thicker thread. You want it to look like six strands of embroidery floss. But six strands of floss is hard to work with. So see, I got a pretty decent five pointed flower there. Now I'm gonna go to the back and then I'm just gonna take a little bite out of the thread that's part of that, make a loop and go through once. And I just kind of do that, just a once little slip knot. And then I'm just gonna bury my tail in the other stitching and just clip it. So now I have that. Then I have to do a red center for a colonial knot. Now I'm using a 22 chenille needle for this five weight thread. This is what it looks like. They are our needles from Primitive Gatherings. It says 22 chenille needle. And then it says on that two, four wool applique. So you will know what it is for when you look at that package. Get my thread in there. Sometimes this thread is a little thick and it doesn't like to go in the way I normally get it in. There, I got it in. All right, and then put that little knot in there. And sometimes you don't have to do a knot in there. You can just like lay the thread there and do the knot. But I'm just so used to putting knots in. The hard part is when you stab back in to don't hit the knot. So I'm gonna lay this. I would be probably stitching on a pillow if I was doing this at home on my chair. And then I can stab into the pillow. But this is a colonial knot. So I'm going to hold on to my thread and my needle. And I'm gonna do two wraps around with this five weight thread, one, two. And then I'm gonna poke it back into the hole. And before I pull it through, I'm just gonna make sure that I have this really tight on the needle. So when you look at it, you can see that that knot is nice and firm around the needle. And then you pull it through and make sure you miss your knot that you put in and see how it just lands there in the middle. And then again, you can take one little loop and clip it. And now we're done with the flower. So now I have another flower done. And now I'm gonna stitch the outside of the penny. Okay. Now I only had one more to do on this one. So I'm gonna go back to that one. So pardon how I'm doing. Oh, now see how much lighter that chalk became? And now I can really see that on the red. So I know that one goes back in over there. Okay. So over here, I only have one more to stitch the outside to, and that's the same thread here. I'm going to not put a knot in it. I'm gonna take my flower piece and I'm just gonna lay this. Now you can put the tail inside or the tail can hang out a little bit and then put the other backing on that and just kind of hold onto it between your fingers like so. And it's just laying in there. Now I'm just gonna go in perpendicular. So I'm gonna go right through it. And then I'm gonna keep the thread behind the needle and pull up. So I'm kind of hanging onto that tail as I pull up. So see, now it can't go anywhere. And you just keep these two together and you just stitch little about eighth inch stitches around the outside edge. And this thick thread will cover that raw edges there of both of those wool pieces. Just keep it in your fingers and kind of always go perpendicular to the edge. So your stitches are straight, not laying sideways or slanted. You want them to come out perpendicular. Pretty easy, right? Now I'll quit saying stuff so we can speed this up and then I'll show you how to end. All right, so I am going to stick one more stitch right between the last stitch and the first stitch. I'll go in there and make one more stitch. And then I'm going to grab right that first stitch right under that top part. And I'm gonna make a little bit of a loop and then I'm gonna go through that loop and pull it tight. And then, so it's a little knot and I'm gonna go through the layers and bury the tail. And then now I can clip it right even. So there I'm stitched all the way around. And if you get a little bit of fuzz, you can always just trim off the wool if it gives it a little fray or it's coming out a little bit or it's not nice and smooth. But look at that, that all looks good. All right, so now when you have all the pennies, you lay them all out like so. And now you have to start sewing them together. So on this one, I started sewing them together. And then I'm gonna show you how I did that. All right, so see what wonky, like sometimes you get a wonky one, but you know what, they need love too. All right, not every flower is perfect. Okay, now I'm flipping this over so you can kind of see how I stitched this together, this little tacking stitches. And I tried two different things. So maybe you wanna try which one you like. But when you see this one, I used just the thread that I was stitching with. And this is pretty thick. And after I did this, I thought, well, you know, that doesn't have to be that thick. So what I did is I took some, you can kind of see it on here. It's a brighter green Aurifil thread. So I just picked my sewing weight thread and I doubled it and I stitched it with that just to see if it could not be so bulky in there. So whatever way you wanna do that, you can. Now I'll show you how to line up the pennies so you get them in the right spot. So you lay them out and then where they touch, you take your marking pen and you draw a line on each one. So that's how I lined them up when I stitched them together. So when you have them lined up, you put them together, right sides together. And then where those two lines are, that's where you're going to stitch. So now I'm gonna flip this over and I'm gonna start putting in, I'm going to flip all of the gold ones around and I will mark them. And then we will stitch a few, we'll stitch one or two together so you can see how I move. All right, I don't think we have to lay all of them out. But you see where these two touch here, I'm gonna do a little mark on each one. So that one and that one, right where they touch. So then these two touch here and then these two touch here. You see how that works? And we're just gonna give them a minute to dry while I get the thread. So because this is kind of gold, I'm gonna use this goldy brown here. And you can use whatever needle you're comfortable with. I'm just gonna stick with the same 22 chenille needle that I used for everything else here. But I'm gonna double it. So then I don't have to do as many stitches because I have two threads every time I take a stitch. If I can match these tails up. All right, so I got a nice chunky knot in there. So now I'm gonna take these two pennies, I'm just gonna slide those away and I'm gonna go put them right sides together like this. And then I'm gonna take my thread and needle and I'm gonna go between the layers. So I'm gonna insert, I'm not going to the other side, I'm in between and I'm gonna come out between the pennies, right on that white line. And that's okay, I have that knot there so that's gonna stop my thread. And then I'm just gonna go in like perpendicular, right close near the edge. So I'm getting wool and probably a little bit of thread there from the edges. So right now I just did one tack and I'm gonna go in and then on this one, I'm gonna make the loop but I'm gonna go through the loop once. So that's putting a knot in there so it can't slip or do anything. Now I think that would be good or I could do one more time. Let's just do one more, we don't want this to come apart. So one more time with the knot. Now, what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna look to see where the next one goes, which is right there, right there. So I'm gonna take my needle and I'm gonna slide over to here and do these two. I'm not gonna cut my thread, I'm gonna keep it in one piece. So I'm gonna slide my needle over to the next white mark, put them till they touch, my tail out of there. And then I'm gonna go in, matching them both up. There we go. I think the first one I always do and then the next one is when I put the little locking knot in it. And make sure your threads run together. Sometimes one will pull tighter than the other. All right, now one more. All right, so now I'm ready to travel to the next spot where they touch. So I'm just gonna go in here again, my tail out of there, to the edge. Right where they go together. Make sure it didn't go to the front. Match up those two. This will be the last one I do. So insert, go through. So whatever you wanna choose, if you wanna do some pearl cotton or if you wanna do two strands of sewing thread, whatever you wanna do will work. So now I'm just gonna go in the middle of that penny and just cut away. Tail there, so I'm gonna get rid of that. And I'm gonna get rid of this guy right here. So I've clipped all my tails now. So do you see how on the front, I don't know, maybe this way, you don't see any of that at all. So that really blends in really nice. Now if I had my steam iron on, once I get this all done, I can steam away all these markings because they go away with heat. But that's the way I attach them. So here is the one with all the big thick thread or here is one. I think I'm gonna use this method going forward with the finer thread and it is pretty strong. So, all right, so that you hook to the middle and then you hook these together. So that is how you're going to keep working ahead on all of the pennies that we have collected for you. So keep watching us on Stitch With Lisa Von Jean or if you wanna get into our Woolbox, now is a good time to do it. We do have some openings in there that you can work on this project. It is one of several projects that you will have going on in the subscription box. But we are so in love with this and we are finally doing it. I've had this project for a long time and just never dove in to do it. So I'm super excited that we're finally getting to do it. I just wanna make sure I didn't miss anything. But once you have these done, we'll start posting them and you can follow my color plan or you can go on your own as long as you know that you need an outer, a middle and a center for each one of the wools and that's how you're gonna use those. So I hope you enjoy stitching on Pennies With Bloom With Me all year long during 2026. Bye for now.