Felting and Fiber Studio

Annie

For my Q3 idea I thought that now I’m surrounded by the New Forest in my new home that the ever popular and endless material of the subject of trees would be fitting!

I plan to make many tree inspired pictures but here is my first felted tree canopy experiment, made from layers of scraps of open weave fabrics, prefelts, nepps, yarns and random things from the felting confetti box …  it was fun to make….just playing, adding layers, seeing what appeared!

It’s now sat in the pile of contemplation awaiting its fate.  Possibly the scissors or paint or stitch, who knows!

It’s approx 62 x 62cm.  It’s a bit thicker than I was initially thinking I might make, but I will make a lighter weight version too. I’ve got a list of ideas on the subject, and more brewing…

Here it is along with a couple of my inspiration photos.

     

I’ve started another piece, this time in a wide composition.  Already I have strayed from the canopy theme and moved to trunks, but I’ll be back!…..

Here it is in progress (still lots of work to do) plus some inspiration pics…

   

   

A huge joy of the New Forest are the free roaming animals namely the horses, ponies, pigs, cows, deer and the ever so cute donkeys!   Since tourists were interfering with the animals by petting them and feeding them new rules have finally come into place to ban touching or feeding them with a fine if you do.  You are allowed to photograph though as long as you don’t get in their way, quite rightly it’s their forest and right of way.  One day I might be adventurous enough to make a fluffy donkey picture, until then enjoy these photos, how cute!

     

Lyn

Sometime between the 11^th and 13^th centuries Southampton became a walled city. The walls, including 29 towers and 8 gates, stretched for one and a quarter miles.

13 of the towers and 6 gates are still standing, making them some of the most complete medieval town walls in the country.  ‘Walking the Walls’ tours are popular with visitors.

I made this representation by wet felt and stitching.

The main entrance to the old city, the Bargate, was built around 1180 and has served as a prison and a guildhall – it still stands today in the city centre.  Left to right: the north side of the Bargate, the south side of the Bargate and the stonework you can see if you walk through the Bargate – photo credits: Wikipedia.

        

There are many old buildings in the city.  Tudor House, in Blue Anchor Lane, was built between 1491 and 1518 and has been preserved as a museum.  St Michael’s Church was founded by Norman settlers circa 1070.  The church has been added to, bit by bit over the centuries, and it’s in regular use today.  Photo credit: Historic Southampton.

This monument to Sir Richard Lyster, once resident of Tudor House, is dated 1567 and is inside St Michaels Church.  Photo credit: Hampshire Field Club and Archaeological Society.

Southampton’s history can be traced back to Roman times, but today it’s a modern, sprawling city and home to approx 250,000 people. It’s the busiest cruise terminal and second largest container port in the UK.  Photo credit: Wave Radio News.

We hope you’ve liked our potted views of where we live  🙂

 

 

 

 

The members of this forum are scattered around the world and it would be fun to see a little about where we all live.

This challenge is to portray something that’s special about your home city/town/village – in whatever fibre medium you choose.

Unfortunately Annie and I couldn’t recall making anything that we can give as an example for this challenge! However, we did make this picture of a Finger Post, and had we been inhabitants of Lands End in Cornwall it would certainly fit the challenge!

There is also a ‘tree challenge’ running throughout this year.  It’s really simple – just find a tree that you like and depict it as it looks in this quarter – it can be realistic or representational.

Please share your make on The Felting and Fiber Forum / Studio Challenges and perhaps write a few words about it.

You can submit photos here: https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/community-photo-submissions/

A colourful hall table mat can add a wonderful splash of colour to a neutral scheme – and be somewhere to throw your keys and display flowers from the garden!

To make the paisley mat I first made a paper template …

… then I made four layers of blue merino wool to make the base of the mat.

I changed my mind about the centre of the paisley pattern so I re-worked the template.

Then I cut around every line on the template before placing it on the wetted down blue fibres.

I used very thin wool yarn to mark the lines on the template, working outwards from the circles and removing the paper as each line was finished.

I put down a fine circle of dry wool fibres then placed a circle of very open weave fabric on top of each one.

I filled in the tear-drop shape with merino wool, did some outlining with thin black wool yarn, then added some white cotton nepps.

I also placed white cotton nepps around the edge.  They are lovely but so hard to work with – a lot of patience is needed to persuade them to join with the wool fibres!

I rubbed, not rolled, this mat and after a while I decided that I didn’t like the edge so I trimmed it with a rotary cutter.  The edge healed during the last bit of agitating.

I rubbed mostly on the reverse side with the felt between two pieces of net and the bamboo providing gentle agitation on the underneath (as shown below).

Finished size is 70 x 33cm (27½” x 13”).

I find that my felt is not as smooth when I’ve rubbed it compared to when I roll it.  In retrospect I realise that I should have rolled the mat.

I’m happy to just agitate wool fibres by rubbing when the piece will be displayed as art work, but for anything else I think rolling produces a better finish.

 

Calling all fibre lovers – knitters, weavers, stitchers, crocheters and felters – challenge yourself to make a table runner or mat.

Here are a few that we’ve made in the past 😊

This starry felt mat not only protects the hall table but it looks good too …

…and it looks just as pretty on the reverse!

Here’s a cobweb felt (merino wool and silk top) table runner that we nicknamed ‘Miss Havisham’ …

… and a 3D felt decorative table runner ‘Spring Flowers in the Snow’.

This plant pot mat, in the style of Clarice Cliff, was made for a previous challenge.

In the first quarter challenge, it was suggested that you find a tree you like and depict it as it awakens in spring with buds/new leaves/blossom – it could be realistic or representational.

If you’d like to continue with the tree challenge, then please do so!  Depict your tree in its next season.

Please post your entries in Studio Challenges here:

https://feltandfiberstudio.proboards.com/board/18/studio-challenges

Or if you are unable to upload a photo, use this link to post your photo

https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/community-photo-submissions/

then please tell us about your make in Studio Challenges on The Felting and Fiber Forum.

I have an ‘Amelanchier Canadensis’ in my garden.  Every March its red/brown branches are covered in a mass of white, star-shaped flowers that slowly give way to bronze coloured leaves that gradually turn spring green.

I would love to show you a photo of it in full flower in my garden, but I don’t have one yet!  So on 20^th Feb I took this photo to show the red/brown branches with the promise of flowers next month.

So, how can I show this tree, in full flower, in felt for the First Quarter Challenge?

As usual, the thinking time of this project outweighed the doing time but I eventually settled on depicting part of a branch rather than the whole tree.

I planned to wet-felt a background, wet felt the flowers, then needle felt the whole thing together to (hopefully) achieve a 3D effect and I wanted the background to be a blurry representation of the garden behind the branch – as in the photo above.

So I put down three layers of bronze coloured Merino wool fibres (as a nod to the colour of the leaves to come) then topped them with a layer of ‘winter-into-spring garden colours’.  This is the dry layout.

After felting, and while it was drying, I sent a photo to my daughter, Annie, and asked if I had it wrong – did it look like a doormat?

She makes me laugh a lot, just look at her reply …

So here’s the dry background – the under layers of bronze came through much stronger than I thought they would, but I decided to go with it.

I wet-felted the flowers – some buds, some semi-open and three flowers fully out.

I then set to with the felting needle.  I formed the branches with red Merino wool fibres and attached the white flower shapes.  I used grey Merino wool fibres to detail the flowers and outline them, then green/red Merino wool fibres to make the bit where the branch joins the flower.

 

To finish I added three fully opened flowers.  I tried to needle-felt some yellow and green nepps into the centres but it was very tricky and difficult, so they are only loosely held in place but as this piece is just for me I think that’s ok.  The finished piece measures 46 x 46cm (18″x18″)

Have you had a go at this quarter’s challenge?  If you missed the announcement, please see here First Quarter Challenge

Our best wishes to you all for a happy, creative new year!  And what better way to kick-start your creativity in 2023 than taking a challenge or two 🙂

The first challenge for this quarter is from a post by Caterina on the Felting and Fiber Forum after she had made some arm-warmers.

Quote: “Couldn’t we have a Quarter Challenge on felt things that are purpose made to address a need that we can’t find a way to address with store-bought stuff?
For instance, another thing that I would like to make is a sight-glasses holder with a belt, so that I can always have my other pair of glasses with me, but not dangling from my neck as I would have them with a store-bought glasses-holder, because I am forever banging them on some counter or getting them in a heated pan or dunking in the sink while I wash dishes with the normal necklace – type of holder. I keep saying that I need to make me one that will suit my life, but I have not gone round to it yet!” Unquote.

So could you make something, that you can’t buy in a shop, to make your life easier?

The second challenge is Jan’s idea and it will be carried through all four quarters of this year.

For this quarter’s challenge, find a tree that you like and depict it as it awakens in spring with buds/new leaves/blossom – it can be realistic or representational.

We would all like to see photos of challenge pieces and if you are unable to upload photos directly onto The Felting and Fiber Forum ‘studio challenges’ thread, then please use the link below.

https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/community-photo-submissions/

Lyn

For the fourth quarter challenge, the Robin is made from ‘stash’ only and is seasonal, and as sometimes happens, my original plan changed after I’d started the project!

I had decided to make a white Merino base, place open weave fabric on it in the shape of a robin, add some sparse Merino wool tops and more tiny pieces of fabric then finish off with a bit of needle felting to make the eye, beak and legs.

I chose some scraps of open weave fabrics …

… and wool in robin colours.

I started by re-using the white Merino wool that had formed the ‘snow’ for the snowmen Christmas card diorama (shown later in this post).  I’d gathered up all the bits of white Merino into a bag with the intention of running it through the carder but then the lazy part of my mind told me to not bother – so I did a very rough layout for the background of the Robin, using the messy white wool, and crossed my fingers.

I netted it over, wetted it and soaped it flat.

Then I cut the robin body shapes from the very open weave fabrics from my stash, then wetted them down onto the white background – I like using these fabrics as they stay flat in nuno felt.  Shown below is the layout before felting.

I tried several times to put a thin, messy layer of the ‘robin coloured’ wool fibres over the fabric so that it would still show through but enable me to add more fabric.  I was hoping to achieve a textured finish with very small scraps of fabric but I couldn’t make it work so I just made the nuno felt and decided on plan B – to embellish with “scribble” stitch.

When the nuno felt was rinsed and dried, I ironed interfacing to the back to make the felt easier to stitch into.

My snow-people family decided to ice a gingerbread house this year and I photographed the diorama for my Christmas cards.  Again, this fits the challenge as it’s made completely from ‘stash’ and is seasonal.

The snowmen are made from white Merino wool tops wet-felted into balls then stitched together.  Their noses are made from orange Merino wool, their arms from floristry wire and I had a great time knitting and sewing their hats and scarves.  Thanks to Annie for suggesting the holly in the hat – it was made from fabric and red Merino wool.

The gingerbread house was made from cardboard covered in silk fabric and the icing is hand-stitched yarn.  The icing bags are made from corners of a plastic bag and filled with Merino wool fibre.

The snow is a layer of white Merino wool tops and the sky is a grey board.

Should you make anything for this challenge, please post your entries on the Felting and Fiber Forum.

There are three challenges in the last quarter of this year.  Ann (frabjous fabrica) kindly thought up the first two and we added a third.

So pick one … or do all three!

1. Finish one or more UFO’s. Wouldn’t it be lovely to start the new year without unfinished projects clamouring for your attention.
2. Make something only from bits you already have in your stash.
3. Make something seasonal – perhaps to celebrate autumn and winter, or perhaps to celebrate an occasion such as Halloween, Guy Fawkes Night, Remembrance Day, Thanksgiving or Christmas.

Here are some of our ‘blasts from the past’.

FINISHED UFO: Annie laid out the wool fibres for this piece in June 2019 but only got around to felting it in April 2021!

MADE ONLY FROM STASH: A felted winter hat and a stitched Rudolph picture.

SEASONAL: Felted winter scene with hand and free motion stitching.

Felted ‘Christmas Podding’ with free motion stitching.

   

We’re looking forward to seeing what you make for this challenge and there is now an easy way to post your photos: https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/community-photo-submissions/

Lyn

My ‘floral challenge’ is an homage to this piece of Annie’s free motion embroidery – black thread on white handmade felt.

I started with four layers of white merino wool fibres, wetted and soaped, to make the background.

Then I sifted through my scraps box to find some colourful pre-felt leftovers.

I cut out some flower shapes from the pre-felt, then placed them onto the wet, white wool fibres.  I misted the pre-felt down with soapy water then I outlined the flower …

… and added a stem with thin, black yarn.

I made the rest of the flowers in the same way.

I tried to mimic the pointy grass in Annie’s version, but the yarn wasn’t having any of it!  It stubbornly refused to do ‘pointy’. You have to choose your battles wisely so I surrendered and just used cut pieces of yarn.

I didn’t roll this picture.  I gently agitated the front with scrunched up bubble wrap to set the pre-felt and yarn in place, then I rubbed it, mostly from the back.

White merino fibres always look so dull when wet but they do dry to a warm, delicate off-white.

The picture turned out as a smooth piece of felt, but to make it even smoother, I ironed it when it was dry.

The finished picture (below) is approximately 53 x 25cm (21”x10”)

I couldn’t stop there with the floral challenge so I found a ‘youtube’ crochet tutorial ‘Ditsy Daisy Bunting’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Jevq6zGLEo

My bunting flags aren’t as neat and triangular as Catherine’s but I had fun making them!

This would be a great make for yarn bombers wouldn’t it?

If you make something for the floral challenge, there is now an easy way to post your photos onto the Felting and Fiber Forum: https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/community-photo-submissions/

Calling all felters, spinners, weavers, knitters, crocheters, sewists and any other fibre crafters!

This challenge has a floral theme and the aim is to have some fun making something inspired by flowers, grasses, seed-pods, seeds or leaves etc – realistic or imaginary.  You can make just a sample or a finished piece, and it can be for artistic or practical purposes.

We’ve dug back through our photos for a few of our ‘floral’ efforts depicted in various fibre mediums:

Needle felted corsage with beads – brooch back stitched to reverse.

Holly leaves stitched and cut from pieces of colourful handmade felt.

Leaves cut from handmade silk paper then felted into merino fibres.

Art Yarn reminiscent of the colours and textures of a summer flower border.

Free motion embroidery – black thread on calico – inspired by photo of plants in the canteen at work.

Free Motion Embroidery – black thread and acrylic paint on calico – inspired by rudbeckia in the garden.

Flowers cut from a piece of fabric and enhanced with stitching to make a greeting card.

Handmade felt rudbeckia and hydrangea enhanced with acrylic paint to make a table centre – inspired by a hydrangea growing up through rudbeckia.

3D felted spring flowers, pushing up through snow, handmade felt table runner.

Felt and free motion stitching of dogwood stems and rudbeckia seed heads.

Handmade felt appliqued with free motion stitching to fabric.

Handmade felt appliqued with free motion stitching onto handmade felt.

Rose – crocheted with embroidery silks then sewn onto a bag.

Handmade felt flowers with free motion and hand stitching to make a card topper.

Wet and needle felted imaginary flowers.

Free motion stitching – black thread on handmade felt.

We are looking forward to seeing what you make for the floral challenge and there is now an easy way to post your photos:

https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/community-photo-submissions/