Felting and Fiber Studio

This year one of my brothers-in-law decreed we should not give gifts at Xmas.  Oh no! But I love Xmas.  It’s so fun to see if I have guessed right what everyone will like.

So this year I did 5×7 Xmas cards for our Oakville Xmas. That technically isn’t a present it’s a card. I had a plan.

OOPS, I took Mom shopping 2 weeks before Xmas and had 3 bags of groceries; one was just a bit heavier than the others. Ok, as soon as I lugged it into the house I knew it was too heavy. I lasted long enough to get everything into the fridge and realized I wasn’t doing anything else. I was much better after spending most of a week in bed being very uncomfortable, frustrated and all caught up on Xmas movies.  So I was a week behind on Xmas and sure I had a bit longer until it arrived. (Surprise! It’s still on the 25^th!) Drat!

My husband works for the post office so this year was going to be a very short visit. (The Post Office was open on Monday, Dec 24th.) The original plan was to drive for 5.5 hours arrive late on the 24^th or early on the 25^th drive back on the 26^th so he could work on the 27^th.  He had requested to have Monday off so we could leave earlier but we had to wait to see who else requested because it would go by seniority and there are a lot of more senior people working at his station. Thursday night he found out that he could have Monday off and we had a mad scramble to drop off Ottawa presents (before the freezing rain arrived) and gather everything for the trip.

Friday started out with freezing rain changing to rain. I had collected my portfolio a bag of various coloured fibre and a strip of the felted duvet that had been donated to the guild felters.  I think I told you about that a while ago. I finally got to use a bit of mine and it worked very well. So if you acquire a felted wool duvet do not despair take it apart and use it for a base to felt on!

The drive down started with light rain changing to vary heavy rain eventually stopping and changing to decorative wisps of snow north of Toronto but nothing stayed on the very green ground we found in Oakville. There was an amazing decorated Xmas tree and Glenn’s Parents to greet us.  so Green Xmas isn’t all bad.

So Saturday morning I pulled out my bag of fiber and sent Glenn to find a cereal box in the recycling bin in the basement.  I cut out part of one side and made a 5 x 7 window and sent the rest back to recycling. Then took over a corner of the dining room table. (My back still wasn’t very happy and decided that living room furniture was not to be tolerated but dining room chairs were fine – stupid back)

Hum, what would my in-laws like on their card? Well, we were definitely having a green Xmas and we hadn’t brought any snow with us (what little we had after the rain and freezing rain in Ottawa) ok, a snow scene it would be.

 

Again wisps of colour laid down this time in swirls of patterns to the sky, very van Gogh of me! I added bare trees (there is a golf course full of bare trees just across the street) then needed something to balance their weight.  The nephews had created a grisly snowman murder seen the last time they had visited but unfortunately no snow so no snowmen. Hum ok, a less grisly snowman with a scarf to blow in the wind.

Yes, l think that will work.

One down 2 to go!

Next Brian and Alex like birds and there are lots of birds usually here.  But this visit seemed to be all about squirrel wars and retrieving the squirrel-proof feeder from where the Raccoons had taken it across the backyard. I hear there is an opossum visiting but I didn’t see it.

Usually, there are lots of cardinals and blue jays, sparrows, chickadees, morning doves and never enough crows for me. Ok, cardinals it is.

A quick trip to the internet since my camera wasn’t as helpful as it usually is and I had chosen a bird.

Again background blended with wisps of colour then started adding the detail work. Checking the size with the 5×7 window and a lot of poking (but not my fingers!) and I had Xmas card number 2 done.

It was Xmas Eve afternoon by the time I started the last one.  Bob and Judy were not expected until about 4 pm Xmas day.  So I had to felt my fingers off since I knew we also had turkey dinner, Xmas breakfast and a lot of presents to open!

Hummm, now what might they like?  I had rectified the lack of snow and did one of the birds that we enjoy here.  Oh yes, the rabbits! We see them mostly in the spring and early summer but they’re very cute.  Bob would like them and make him think of his parents’ home.

So bunny it was. I didn’t have the photos I had taken of this spring’s bunny visitor but remembered what it looked like so off to the internet for photo reference. Much poking later I had a very painterly interpretation of an Oakville bunny.

You may have noticed I tried a different base to work on. It’s the foam from the dollar store that kids’ play mats are made of. Mine was about 7 inches square and had a puzzle piece in the centre of each square.  The puzzle part in the middle tends to want to pull out but I would suggest not using tape to hold it together since the stickiness would transfer to the needle and make a mess. I found holding down the center worked fine and it wasn’t as annoying as it sounds to work on. When the bigger ones reappear I will get more. I did work 3 layers thick so had no poke through even with the top surface deterioration. If you haven’t tried this as a base you may want to experiment.

All recipients seemed very pleased and surprised with their “Xmas cards” I had found frames at Dollarama with a white mat so they looked a lot more polished with the frame as presentation.

Now on to class notes for the 2 workshops I’m doing in January! I can see a lot more felting ahead in 2019! I hope you get a chance to try small format felting, it is relatively quick, doesn’t take much wool and it’s lots of fun!