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Flowers in a vase: a wetfelted abstract project

Flowers in a vase: a wetfelted abstract project

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Hello all!

First of all a recap of my recent activities to give you a background to my most recent piece.

I have been very taken with preparing and then attending my local Art Trail in the first 2 weeks of September: if you remember, my last post was about how I prepared a few new felted items for it, because I wanted to bring a mix of new and old things.

One of the Bourough of Ealing Art Trail banners on a railing at a local park.
It’s quite the event in our local community!

Here is what my stand was looking like at the beginning of the first day of the BEAT (Borough of Ealing Art Trail):

Kiki Peruzzi's stand at the Borough of Ealing Art Trail 2026 is a small table covered in a white cloth. Some scarves are hanging from a small rack on the left, and the items on the table are all small and brightly colored, with some small white framed artworks and other small items. There are small windows above the stand and the walls behind the stand are bare bricks and crumbling mortar.
My small corner. I actually did not bring a lot of items, as I could always get more from home if needed and I did not want to get a very crowded look.

 

A closer look to Kiki's stand at BEAT 2026. At the center of the image, there is the table with many different white framed artworks, two felted bowls holding small felted objects, and some coaster sets in plastic wraps. In the background there is a brick wall and in the upper part of the image there is a window letting bright light come through.
A closer look at the table. You may be able to spot some of the items I was working on the last time that I wrote a post.

 

The left hand side of Kiki's stand at BEAT 2026, with a closer glimpse to some colorful felted scarves, and some small artworks in mixed media and felt.
Here is a closer look at the left hand side.

I have to say, this event is the most fun one among the various exhibitions and events that I participate in with my local art group, the Ealing Art Group: we meet tons of people, and our families and friends are encouraged to pass through. We set up demonstrations of our art in the little yards in front of the hall (weather permitting), to pass the time and  to call passers-by inside (some of us tried also to improvise a little dance routine to catch the attention of people going by, but we felt that it was a bit too much in the end..). And we chat a lot among ourselves, as it is the only time in the year when we actually pass hours together in the same room (the other exhibitions are manned or womaned on a rota as a group, whereas each of us has to take care of their own stand in this one).

Kiki Peruzzi smiles while demonstrating wet felting outside of the Art Trail venue for her local art group. There is a white plastic table set in front of a brick wall decorated with colorful bunting. On the table there are some wool bags in white, teal, grey and pink. There are also a green sprinkler and a plastic container with some water, and on the right there is a small log on top of some white netting and bubble wrap. Kiki is holding some wool in her hands. She is wearing a white sleeveless top and dark blue short trousers.
I had an interesting time demonstrating wet felting while battling the wind and chatting to visitors: you can see it in my please-take-that-shoot-quickly-before-it-all-flies-away smile! I like to think that at least I caught many children’s hearts by giving away wisps of pink and green wool all during my demos!

This year we had a brilliant attendance on the first weekend, weirdly not matched by proportionally higher sales, and usual good attendance on the second weekend: we think that it was because other non-related events were going on in the area during the first weekend, so more people were out and about.

While I was in the middle of this, plenty of new ideas for felting and mixed media pieces were coming to my mind of course: I do not know about you, but that is what happens to me whenever I have no time and I can chat with other creative people and see what they make.

One of the ideas that I thought that I could start on without much fuss was a new wet felted piece about flowers. I need to explain that the artist exhibiting her watercolour pieces right in front of me in the room, and a good friend, is very fond of representational abstract artwork of bright flowers, and I was inspired to make a bright and colourful small piece. What I really set up to make in the end, though, was something quite different.

First of all, I considered that I had bought two canvases 65 x 90 cm (25.6 x 35.5 inches) that I had never used yet, so that a bigger artwork was in order. And, most of all, the base prefelt that I prepared for my artwork was in pewter, as I did not have enough wool of a brighter colour and also, to be totally candid, when I actually got to it, I did not feel like a brighter colour for my base.

So, you just have to take my word for it, my initial idea was of a jolly and quick little flowery piece, but good intentions did not last the first five minutes of actually setting up to make something for real, as it so often happens to me.

I put my chosen canvas on the working table to understand the approximate size of my base felt and started to lay the wool out, from the setting up of the edges to the filling of the area inside them with two layers of Merino wool. In hindsight I maybe should have gone for my usual 3 layers for the base, but as I was laying out the wool to cover the whole area I had started panicking that the project was too big for the time that I had, and so I was trying to cut times where I felt that I could. That resulted in a coverage that was not as good as I wanted for it, also because in the following steps I ended up deciding to not cover all the base with other colours so as to provide another layer on top of it, as I often do instead.

That is how I started:

There is an oval table covered in a white towel and bubble wrap. On it there is the outline in pewter wool of a big rectangle
The size for this new piece was almost at the limits of what I can make on my table when it is closed.
On an oval table covered in a white towel and bubble wrap there is a big rectangular shape almost completely covered in a first vertical layer of wool.
I tend to layout my base layers not very carefully, as it is supposed to just be a support base to the actual piece. This was my first layer.

After laying out the base and lightly wetting and soaping it, I started laying out the colours for the background from the darkest greens and greys to the lightest (light lime green, yellow and light greys and white):

On a table covered in a white towel and bubble wrap, there is a work in progress wet felted piece by Kiki Peruzzi. The piece at this stage is a big rectangle in wet pewter wool with a build up of background wisps of wool in dark and lighter green, dark and lighter grey, light yellow and white on it.
I tend to have light coming from the upper right hand in my pieces, it just works this way for me in most cases. It is also true that the table that I work on has light coming from the right naturally anyway, so maybe that is one reason.

I wanted a good contrasting area, so I went for pretty dark hues in my background, but that meant that the whole piece was already fast moving from a jolly uncomplicated colour riot to something more meditative and sober. I also realised that I wanted to not completely cover the pewter, as I was more and more reminded of my recent tondi pieces: it is just not possible to go completely away from your memories, I find.

I laid out my flowers in colours that were very bright and close to each other (two reds, a salmon, an orange and a yellow) and I added touches of darker shades to build their depth a bit, without going for realistic description. I wanted some white flowers to make the composition pop, and I went for some in white Merino wool with a center of natural yellow eri silk fiber, and some in white eri silk fiber with a few touches of bright blue mulberry silk fiber, for the shiny effect of silk that is reminiscent of oil paint shine.

I also realised that I needed some kind of vase or holding shape for my bunch of flowers, but I did not like the idea of a too solid shape when my flowers were just quick brush strokes of colours, so to speak. I went for just the outline of a vase in dark green, that could be variously interpreted and avoids weighting down the composition.

Here is what it looked like before the wetting, it seemed to me well full and with a background on the darker side, because the base in pewter was already wet at this point:

There is a work-in-progress wet felted piece on a table covered in a white towel and bubble wrap. The piece is rectangular and has a background in pewter, different hues of green and grey, with some yellow and white. The top layer has wisps of wool in bright reds, salmon pink, yellow, orange and white in different directions to expressively suggest flowers in a dark green vase. The upper layer of wool is not wet yet.
My composition before the wetting: the wool always looks more when it is still dry.

Then, I wetted and soaped the whole, and rubbed it gently under the netting. A bit of rubbing by sander followed, and I went on to the rolling very quickly. I do not need to roll it very much for my purposes, but I added a bit of additional rubbing against the bubblewrap in this case.

There is a rectangular wet felt piece that is almost all covered in bubble wrap for rubbing with a sander, on a table covered in white towel and bubble wrap.
Ready for a bit of sander rubbing.
A pewter work-in-progress felt piece is rolled into bubble wrap and rests on a table covered in a white towel and bubble wrap, ready for the rolling. On the table in the distance there is a glass half full of a clear yellow drink.
And here we go with the rolling, after some rehydration with an Italian favourite soda drink called Cedrata.

After drying it, that is what it looks like:

A wet felted artwork by Kiki Peruzzi is resting on a white canvas. The piece is rectangular, it has a pewter base layer and green and grey, yellow and white background. This abstract piece represents a vase of bright flowers in reds, salmon pink, yellow, orange and white.
This is before the ironing and to test the size of the finished felt on the canvas: it fits nicely as I wanted (I like my canvas to be seen all around the edges).

Because of the rubbing against the bubblewrap, it ended up with the piece developing a bit of movement around the edges, so that I had to iron it a bit to flatten it again after the drying.

I feel that it looks a lot less full than what I wanted, and I am pretty divided about it: do I work on it more or do I call it done? What I am thinking is that this piece would be closer to my idea if I added stitched fabrics in colours similar to the flowers to full up the areas in and around the flowers. I can not really explain well the idea that I have in mind, but I am thinking floating pieces of fabric here, very lightweight and not realistic. I also am very into textural pieces more than flat pieces, so I miss that textural element in this piece, though I understand that it is not what everybody looks for in an artwork, but I am really drawn to textures and 3D elements.

I have asked opinions about it to some of my artist friends during our breaks from the Art Trail work: mostly, they feel that the piece is fine as is, while some agree that I could work on it a bit more. I feel that they do not see in their mind what I could do with it and the right fabrics, because none of them are as familiar with textiles, but it may be that they genuinely do not feel that it will benefit from additions, with some of them mentioning the need to avoid overcrowding the composition.

So, what are my textile friends thinking about it? I can always try something and then unstitch it if I see that it is not going anywhere, but time is at a premium right now in my life, and I have so many UFOs in my pile already!

Let me know your thoughts on it, please.

In the meantime, I will take a bit of rest and relax:

There is a brown and orange Guinea pig sleeping snuggled in a soft cup in light blue and other bright colors, inside a cage with black grids and wood shavings on the bottom.
Repeat with our sweet Pumpkin: “Good nap, everyone!”

Kiki

http://www.kikistextileart.com

Instagram: kiki.textile.art

 

There’s a lurgy doing the rounds

There’s a lurgy doing the rounds

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There are some things you really should be warned about before attending a fibre retreat…

You might accidentally buy more wool that is of course “absolutely essential“.

And that you might catch a lurgy, in this instance, the sock knitting lurgy.

I caught the infection at the Auckland Creative Fibre retreat in June where Kylie was the source, spreading it to all who came near enough, enticing the weak with the beautiful stripy colours of her sock tubes. Who could resist?!! Not me apparently 😉

Kylie is, amongst other things, an engineer. This is perhaps why she is particularly well qualified to be called the Sock Engineer. Socks, after all, are basically engineering for your feet. There are calculations, shaping, structural integrity and an alarming number of opportunities for things to go wrong.

I don’t really consider myself to be a knitter, my knitting skills only extend as far as making 10 x 10cm swatches of handspun samples of the fibres I have for sale. Socks were firmly in the category of things other people make. They look complicated. There were tiny needles. There were mysterious heels. And then there were toes, which appeared to involve some sort of knitting magic that I had no intention of attempting.

Then along came Kylie (very ably assisted by Tracy and Cher).

The inoculation

At the retreat, Kylie taught us how to make the bits of a sock that had always seemed particularly mysterious to me — toes and especially the heels!

There was tea accompanied by some very nice home-baking.

There was laughter and some tongue-poking moments of intense concentration.

There was knitting and picking up dropped stitches.

There was more tea and of course, some wine (and possibly some gin but what happens at retreat stays at retreat 😉 ).

And gradually the whole thing started to make sense. Or was that just the alcohol tricking me into thinking it made sense?

The heel was no longer an incomprehensible bit of knitted origami, and the toe actually began to look like a toe rather than some sort of woolly lopsided geological formation.

Of course, once you realise you can make one sock, you immediately start thinking about making another one. A single sock would be lonely on its todd, wouldn’t it?

This is how the lurgy spreads.

By the end of the retreat, several of us were thoroughly infected. We had become sock knitters.

We were no longer to be trusted around sock yarn.

Sock yarn to be, on the latest addition to my flock of spinning wheels

And now I can’t stop

Since the retreat I’ve been dying sock yarn, spinning fibre to make socks, handing said yarn to Kylie who, like any good drug dealer, returns it knitted into gorgeous tubes, long enough to make a pair of knee-high socks. By the time you read this I will be travelling around South America with a small pile of yarn and sock tubes (and hopefully some new socks!) in tow. Fingers crossed the border control police don’t realise I have a stash of highly addictive substances in my bag…

Sock tubes from the Sock Engineer, demanding my attention…

The Great Cuff Problem

There is, however, one small problem.

I have not yet managed to find a cuff that I am really happy with.

I’ve been knitting 2 x 2 rib, which is lovely and stretchy while I’m knitting it. Unfortunately, when it comes to binding off, my cuff seems to develop a sudden and rather alarming case of commitment issues.

It simply refuses to stretch enough to get comfortably over my heel.

I tried the “loop over” between each stitch when binding off for sock number 2, which has helped, but I can’t help feeling there is a more professional looking bind off…

And this is where I am hoping that the collective wisdom of this beautiful community might come to my rescue!

How do you finish your sock cuffs?

Do you have a particular stretchy bind-off that you swear by? Do you use a different rib? Is there a magical technique that every sock knitter knows except me?

Please share your favourite methods in the comments — preferably before I knit another twelve pairs of socks with cuffs that won’t go over my heels!

In the meantime, I shall continue knitting socks.

There are worse addictions and this one is eminently more portable than wet felting.

Time for another glass of vino and a couple more rows…

Nunofelted background (multicolor) with appliqued flower showing close up of stitched texture on center.
Summer Symphony

Summer Symphony

Comments 14 comments

I finished another nunofelted landscape in preparation for selling that last set I sent to the gallery (one can always hope). I looked through the remainder of the nunofelt pieces I have left from Paula and decided to make another piece with the autumnul colored one. I had planned on making more trees but decided I wanted to create echinacea flowers instead.

Nunofelted background (multicolor) with photos of echinacea placed on top.

I found some photos online and printed a bunch off, then cut the flowers out so I could figure out the sizes needed and a good arrangement. It also helps to make the petals and centers more lifelike otherwise the flowers end up looking too much alike.

I had found yellow hand dyed cotton fabric and a bit browner fabric for the centers. I also got out several shades of green for leaves and stems.

Nunofelted background (multicolor) with cut fabric in yellow and yellow brown representing echinacea flowers.

Once the pieces of applique fabric were cut out, I tried some stems with fabric but they were a bit too thick. So I tried out green yarn and decided to use it instead. I could couch the yarn down and make the stems with more curves much more easily than out of fabric.

Nunofelted background (multicolor) with flowers and stems stitched in place , leaves pinned, ready to stitch.

On to stitching, here the flowers are all appliqued down with matching cotton machine thread. I have also couched the stems down with matching thread. The leaves are cut and pinned in place.

Nunofelted background (multicolor) with appliqued flowers, leaves and stems stitched in place.

Yay, all stitched down. A bit of texture on the centers is needed with a graduation of color and a bit of darkness to add depth.

I used four different colors of hand dyed wool thread so it would look a bit more “furry”. The centers were stitched with a random cross stitch and straight stitches.

Next up, I wanted to see if stitching lines in the petals would be a good addition. So I cut another sample petal or two and tried some different thread with stem stitch to see what it looked like. It just didn’t seem to add enough to the petals for the amount of work it would take.

Nunofelted landscape featuring echinacea flowers on multicolored background stitched to green "matte" fabric and laced to matte board.

I decided it was finished. So I bought a piece of background fabric and stitched the nunofelt in place. The piece was finished as usual by lacing the green fabric around two pieces of matte board. It’s all ready to go to the framers when I have a few more pieces finished. I think my next project is to  make some smaller (5×7″) landscapes as I have sold a few of those from the gallery in Kalispell.

What have you been working on? We would love to see your projects, please upload them to our community page.

colourful wool fibres to lay on loose weave fabric to make nuno felt
Doris the hedgehog and an autumn table mat

Doris the hedgehog and an autumn table mat

Comments 18 comments

Lyn

The nights are drawing in and heralding autumn.  The leaves have started to fall and the plants are looking sad.
Gardeners will already be clearing away plant litter, but I urge them not to be too tidy – leave a little mess for our garden friends to shelter in or under.
We had a hedgehog hibernate under a mound of leaves in our garden and it inspired me write a ditty and felt a picture – it’s wet and needle felt with some hand stitching – 28x18cm (11”x7”).

DITTY FOR DORIS

I help you with your garden plants
I eat the slugs and snails and ants
So help me when it’s cold and bitter
Look closely when you rake the litter
Please check that I’m not in my bed
With fallen leaves around my head

Lyn

a hedgehog nestled under autumn leaves at the start of hibernation

Annie

I wanted a small but interesting textiles project to help me get back into the swing of making things again after a busy year has kept me from my fibres, and since autumn is my favourite season it seemed like a good subject!

I decided on a small table mat with an autumn leaves design.   I made a sample set of leaves but actually they might end up being the final ones.  I chopped up and arranged some small squares of open weave fabrics

loose weave fabrics for nuno felt

then flipped them over and laid corresponding colours of fibres over the fabrics so that I could felt it to prefelt and then cut my leaves from the prefelt.

colourful wool fibres to lay on loose weave fabric to make nuno felt

Leaves cut from the prefelt.

nuno felt cut into leaf shapes

Here’s a close up of three of the leaves.

Not sure what the next stage is but this is as far as I have got!

Felting in Arnesby & Yarn Bombing in Cosby

Felting in Arnesby & Yarn Bombing in Cosby

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A few weeks ago I travelled down to Arnesby in Leicestershire to take part in the Feltmakers Region 8 annual Summer School. The name is a bit misleading as this isn’t a “tutored” gathering but more of a two day Play Day doing whatever takes your fancy. It’s just great to have the luxury of two whole days of uninterrupted felting and for me this would be my first felting project since March so I was particularly keen to make the most of it.

I knew I wanted to make something to display at a Coastal themed exhibition I’m taking part in September but hadn’t exactly planned what that was going to look like. So I dug out my tin of shells and chose a spiral one, covered in barnacles, to take with me as inspiration.

My initial thought was to create a vessel with a tiny opening in the base to remove the resist through. After working out the size I wanted my vessel to be I drew and cut out my resist, elongating the bottom section of the shell to give this more emphasis and more height.

By the time I’d finished my first coffee I’d changed my mind about what I was doing and decided the shape I’d drawn would lend itself nicely to being a lidded vessel. Its just as well I hadn’t got any fibre laid down yet!

The main body of the shell got laid out first and put to one side while I made the nuno prefelt to cut the craters from which would represent the barnacles.

I did wonder if that narrow base was going to prove a bad idea and whether I had the weight distribution right but by that point I was too invested so just had carry on and hope I could make it work!

This could have gone so wrong so it was a big relief to see it standing!

The finished vessel stands approx 45cm tall and is 25cm at its widest point.

After our first day of felting the friend I was staying with offered to drive three of us to Cosby, a village close by that stages an enormous themed yarn bomb. This years theme was “Round the World in 80 Displays”. The event happens every two years and the exhibits are in place for three weeks so we were lucky to catch the final evening before the displays were taken down. I can’t begin to describe the scale of this project! I’ve a friend who’s heavily involved so I’ve known of it for several years but it’s the first time I’ve visited and it surpassed all expectations!

The two leading lights behind this mega yarn bomb are Mel Charnock and Natalie Smith. These fun loving creatives have a passion for colour, textiles, jumble sales and people plus experience of TV & film costume styling, community events, visual merchandising, teaching better mental health & crafts for adults, not to mention a brief stint sewing gussets knickers! All of which led them to founding Gather Create Grow CIC, a local not for profit community group focused on connection and bringing people together, reducing isolation and improving wellbeing with creative community projects.

From very young school children to the very senior residents in the village everyone is encouraged to get involved. Each display area had its own information board telling the viewer a little about who had made what. The exhibits are spread far and wide around Cosby but there is a map available if you want to ensure you see the lot! There was lots we didn’t get to see but I hope you can get a feel for the event with these photos…..

The evening was topped off with a cuddle from this very friendly, and thoughtfully placed, Polar Bear before we headed off to the local chippy.

If you are wondering what happens to the exhibits at the end of the show they are taken down, dismantled, washed, repaired and packed away ready to be reborn again in two years time. Some will re-emerge looking much as they did this year, but in a different setting, while others will have a complete makeover and become something new. If you happen to be in the Leicestershire area when the next Yarn Bomb is on I can recommend you make a detour to Cosby and experience this wonderful event close up for yourself, you wont be disappointed!

Clicking ‘Buy’ was so darn easy, now what to do?

Clicking ‘Buy’ was so darn easy, now what to do?

Comments 22 comments

Years ago, when the kids were small, I became a collector of recipe books. I didn’t particularly want to cook out of any of these, I simply loved reading the books and marvelling at the beauty of the process and the presentation of the meals.

More recently I have found that I have started collecting felting courses. I have been rather busy over the past few years – not sure where the time has gone – but last May, I decided that I had best do a stock take of the courses I have signed up for and not done. I discovered that I have at least 20 in my list. These courses either have indefinite access or I have been able to purchase and download the videos so there has never been an urgency in completing them. That said, I don’t want these to fall into the same category as the cookery books – lovely to look at but I wouldn’t like to do them.

Over the years, I have signed up for different Felting Camps offered by Corinna Nitschmann. Each year around April, Corinna invites a number of felting tutors to join her in her studio. The tutors record their respective workshops and then deliver the workshops on a specified date during the camp. Students can opt to work ‘live’ on the day, working with the pre-recorded videos with the tutor available to answer any questions they might have; they have access to these videos for a number of months, if they prefer to work at their own pace. Alternatively a student can pay a little extra and download the videos so that they are there indefinitely. This is the option I choose but I still enjoy being present during the live sessions as the sessions are always upbeat and great fun. Corinna herself is an amazing tutor and has a great sense of humour. There are lots of other activities taking place (besides the workshops) during the felting camp. Here is the link, if you would like to find out more about these https://cornitfelt.com/. I have 3 years of felting camp courses downloaded, that accounts for 15 courses. Then I purchased some courses that I found attractive from individual tutors and need to take. But for the summer months, I decided to focus on some of the felting camp courses. I thought I might share some of the results with you.

My first venture was called “Wet Felting Jewellery Basics” by Judit Haulik. It was part of the 2025 felting camp. This is a well paced course and the videos are divided nicely into sections so that it is possible to complete a task and walk away from it for a while. Students work with very small pieces of felt and Judit herself acknowledges that it can be a bit fiddly but, to be honest, I found that once I got into the groove, going small was not a challenge. I loved the repetitive nature of the design too and I can see possibilities for upsizing the process which Judit is teaching. My main learning on the course was how to integrate very fine chain into the overall design. I chose a very light chain for this process and I reckon that I will use a more robust one next time. That said I am very pleased that I rose to the challenge of the very fine chain as, after this, I feel the bigger size will be a dawdle. Here is the piece I made. I didn’t investigate further as I wanted to move on to another course. That said, I have ideas on where I can take my learning. I have done some quick sketches before they go out of my mind!

  • Full view of the necklace. Holes felted with sequinned material
  • Top section of the necklace with sequinned fabric in the centre
  • Base of the necklace with sequinned fabric showing in the hole

My next workshop came from the 2026 Felting Camp. It was one of the courses that originally attracted me to this year’s camp. The introduction to “Stool Covers” by Bea Nemeth was very joyous and depicted a variety of different shapes and sizes of stools which could be worked on. Bea also presented different possibilities for fibres which could be used in the design. We worked our design on prefelt and then if we wished we could adorn the stool cover with locks. Bea was fun and a little mischievous and at one stage headed to a dye pot with one of her samples. It was fun to see all this in real time at the session. As for the result ….. beautiful! I didn’t have a stool to work off so I headed out to our local Ikea. I made a variegated colour strong merino prefelt and I used my own geometric pattern for my design. I had some Bergschaf left over from making boots a number of years ago so I used this for the background. The resist was huge and I don’t know if you ever have that moment when you feel that a piece will never shrink down sufficiently (I had that on the stool) but it didn’t disappoint and, finally, with lots of patience, shaping and using tools it fit perfectly. I love the result and it acts as a reminder that patience works wonders when I am trying to fit to size.

  • full view of the stool – blue base is bergschaff
  • pattern on stool made with merino prefelt

Next up, it was a bit of a return to a comfort zone for me, fine art felt. I checked out Jorie Johnson’s ‘Fine Art “Small Works”’ Jorie studied textile design both in the USA,where she is originally from, and in Finland. She moved to Japan in 1987 and has been based there ever since. If you would like to find out more about Jorie you can visit her website at https://joirae.com/biography/. There was something very special about Jorie’s approach to the workshop – it kind of gave me permission to play with my design while being mindful of her teaching. While students had the freedom to use any style resist of their choosing, I decided to use the one Jorie presented, principally because it had some really challenging angles and shapes included. I also favoured roving over prefelt when I was laying out my background. I got a bit carried away with the design (Jorie recommended leaving more space between each element), but this was playtime and experimentation was the key for me here. Here is the result. Again, there was lots of learning on what can work and it is a great reference for future pieces.

  • sculpture with resist to show shrinkage (resist design by tutor)
  • front view of the sculpture
  • Nuno felted ‘window’
  • closeup of raised area and nuno felted pattern
  • closeup of textures and nuno
  • detail of some of the locks and textures
  • closeup of the linen section
  • Second side of the sculpture featuring a variety of textures

That’s all I have for now. I know there are 17 more courses to go, but at least I have made a start. If you like, I can keep you updated on my progress, but the danger is that I am likely to disappear down the odd rabbit hole (I can already see two opening up). Like Alice in Wonderland, there is a possibility that I might meet (or transform into) the Mad Hatter although I wouldn’t mind having some of White Rabbit’s energy (perhaps it would help me get through the classes quicker) because at the moment in this (what appears to be at time of writing) never ending heat wave, my character is more akin to the Dormouse, constantly ready to roll over for another sleep!

Is there anyone out there in the same boat with lots of outstanding courses? Please tell me so that I know I am not alone.

Happy felting!

Hugs

Helene

a green felted/tapestry of the word Exchange
A Few More Oddments

A Few More Oddments

Comments 17 comments

I’m afraid that the series of heatwaves we’ve been (and still are) experiencing have had much the same effect on me as the Covid Lock Downs. I have pretty much lost my mojo again though not quite in the same way.  Every time the weather cools down a bit I have managed to think about and sometimes even start a project, only for it to be abandoned as soon as the next heatwave starts.  I now cannot see my work table for various piles of project “stuff” in various stages of progress.

Also I haven’t managed to do much about preparing for this post, so I’ve once again picked some topics from my list of things to write about which are in fact mainly “historic”.

Many moons ago back, in the 70s, when macramé was first in vogue and long before I became interested in spinning let alone before I found felting, I was obsessed with string and knots.

Amongst the patterns I came across was one for a lampshade. Do any of you remember the Marshall Cavendish series of monthly craft magazines “Golden Hands” covering several different crafts, which could be collected into 4 (I think – possibly 6) annual volumes?   I loved them and made lots of things from their patterns.

I did think that I found the macramé pattern I had followed for the lampshade in one of the Golden Hands Magazines, but Mr Google has been unable to find it, so it may have been in some other magazine – possibly “Women”, “Women’s Own” or “Women’s Realm” (that was in the days before they started emulating “Hello Magazine” and the like🤢).

As it was so long ago that I made the lampshade I can only show you what it looks like now.  It was made from dishcloth cotton and made directly on a lampshade frame.  I lined the shade with red satin type fabric and gave it to my mother for one of her birthdays.

During my “macramé period” I started to make small free standing sculptures using just clove hitches, rather than mixing knots like flat or square knots.  Then my niece became pregnant with her first child so I thought I’d have a go at making a macramé rattle for the baby.  As it would need to be washable, I chose to use nylon curtain/blind cord and one of the indoor balls (the plastic lightweight sort with lots of holes in) with a couple of brass bells inside for the inner body.  I did not have a pattern to follow (by then I preferred to make my own designs rather than copy someone else’s).

By changing the direction of some of the clove hitches I was able to give the rattle a face.  Here is the only picture I have of the rattle, which my husband took for me before I sent it off to my niece.

 

a black and white image of a baby's white macrame rattle showing the "face" worked into it. There is also a small bunch of daffodils and a cube box of tissues with some pulled out to frame the rattle
Unacknowledged macramé rattle

My niece had another child a few years later, but I’m afraid that, as I have had no confirmation of receipt of the rattle (even now, although I know it was received) let alone any thanks, I stopped sending even cards to her!

Around the same time as I made these pieces, I made a crochet cotton macramé Dorothy bag, using a stuffed oval ball shaped thingy as the base to work on.  I added pearl beads and lined the bag with pink fabric and used it as a sample for a wedding accessory (back in the days when a couple of friends and I were making crocheted wedding “favours” and sold quite a lot of them – that must have been getting on for 50 years ago), but I wasn’t asked to make another one and I didn’t sell the original.  I still have it somewhere.

a white macrame drawstring dorothy bag with pink satin inner bag on a dark red background
Dorothy Bag – big enough for a bride’s handkerchief

Back in 2012 I was doing bits of tapestry weaving and to be honest I was getting bored with it – it was taking too long and I wanted to get on to something more interesting.  I had decided to weave the word “Exchange” but I can’t remember why now.  It may be because I liked the monogram EX that I was using.  The “e” was in black and the “x” was in bright red.  The background was to be a strong green.  The rest of the word was to be in black, but in outline only.  I managed to complete the monogram before I decided to do something different, which was to felt the rest.  I felted green merino fibres over both sides of the cotton warps with the work still on the loom.  This made the “fabric” quite tough so that it kept its shape.  I then needle felted the “change” in lower case.  I did actually exhibit it at The Exchange when we had one of our several exhibitions in their Café/Gallery.  The bear with the felted tapestry in the featured image was made by a friend, who makes bears for adults, and bought for my birthday by my husband.

a green felted/tapestry of the word Exchange
My felted tapestry woven Exchange

I did think that I might get some people commenting on the coincidence with The Exchange’s name but no-one seemed to notice, or couldn’t be bothered!

Back in early 2022  I told you about a couple of door stops which I had made, one of which was named Yoda by my husband.

https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2022/04/18/we-need-a-new-door-stop/

During the making of Yoda I made what I now know to have been a construction error.  Because I was concerned that if he had been picked up by his head it might come off, I placed a strong loop made from the hem of a towel behind his head to be used as a handle.  This resulted in him becoming very tatty around the head.  Every time he was picked up by the handle it rubbed the back of his head and his ears and the fibres began to come away.  In addition his head was beginning to get droopy, as you can see from the way he is peering around the bathroom door.

felted doorstop cat peering around a door
Peeping Yoda looking the worse for wear

Thus he needed what my late brother in law used to call a “Warranty Job” (he used to make all sorts of parts for traction and railway engines for others as well as himself and now and then someone would ask him if he could effect some repairs).

As is my wont it was some time before I finally got round to doing Yoda’s warranty job.

I hadn’t been happy with the shape of his head, it was a bit flat at the back.  For this reason as well as his tatty appearance I removed his head as well as the handle.  I moved the handle to the middle of his back so that it would balance him when he was picked up and it didn’t rub against any part of his head or body.

Next I moved on to his head.  I didn’t have any more fibres of the right colour to match his body so had to blend some to match.  Then I started to cut away the rubbed fibres from his head and add more of the new.  I rounded out the back of his head a bit more and thickened up his ears.  I still had some of the correct pinky-grey fibres which I had used for his face so I tidied up his face too.

I decided to add yellow slightly opened eyes just to show that he was really awake.  This is him now.

felted doorstop smiling with slit eyes sitting beside the door
Finished Warranty Job – Yoda back at his post

That’s the lot for this post, hopefully by the time my next one is due I will have got my mojo back again and have something new to show you.  In the mean time here’s a real smiley cat.  I do wonder what’s going through his mind – any ideas?

head and torso of dark grey and white cat with closed eyes and smiley mouth
This is my Boy (originally named Radius by his previous owners). He really is a smiley cat.

A Mini Quilt

A Mini Quilt

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A friend persuaded me to enter a mini quilt into a local quilters group exhibition to be held towards the end August.

The requirement is for a mini quilt, A4 paper (UK) size, portrait or landscape, depicting a house or a home.

Three layers, and any technique, with a hanging sleeve and a label giving make details..

I have made some quilts before, but just for family, utility, or to use up some fabric bits and pieces, so no reason why I should not do a mini quilt, she said! I hasten to add that I have no prior experience of entering a quilt competition.

I decided that ‘the old woman who lived in a shoe’ would be my topic. I found a vector free picture of a house shoe online and used that as inspiration.

Some time ago I had made some patchwork squares with 1.5 inch squares of fabric (yes 1.5 inch squares). I thought that this would be fun, but it very quickly became a chore. I used some lightweight fusible interfacing, and ironed all the little squares on and then stitched the seams using the sewing machine. These little squares of fabric had been in a box for some time, and this was a good way of making a larger piece of fabric. I think they were all little sample packs; some were patterned, and some were solid colours.

I cut the shoe house shape, and the tree shapes from these patchwork squares. The roof and the tree trunks are from other scrap pieces. Then I appliquéd these pieces to the background; I used the sewing machine for this, and a little glue to stabilise the pieces while I stitched them. This is a raw edge appliqué, rather than a turned edge process. I added a few shapes to indicate windows, smoke from the chimney, and a door. Then I added some batting, a backing, minimal echo quilting, and bound it with some spare bias binding.

I was quite happy with the finished piece, and posted it to the contact for the little exhibition.

I have been to Orkney main island with my family for a holiday. We went there in 1994, and ’93, and we stayed on one of the smaller islands at that time. I really looked forward to going back. Mainland Orkney has changed quite a lot since then; there were lots of tourists and many visitors from cruise ships, and all the popular neolithic sites were very busy. But, I enjoyed our visit very much, and we visited many sites off the tourist trail. This copy from a gravestone in St Magnus cathedral reminded me that women are special, there were many more, but I loved this one – short and to the point.

I saw a wonderful tapestry in St Magnus cathedral, that was gifted by Norway to the people of Orkney, and presented by the King of Norway to the late Queen Elizabeth, in 1987, on the 850th anniversary of the foundation of St Magnus’ Cathedral. The tapestry is so beautiful, and my photo does not do it justice. The cathedral is a wonderful building.

Putting text into textiles

Putting text into textiles

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In March I attended a workshop, with the above title, given by a visiting tutor Jo Yeates (see – instagram@made52).

01
01a Examples of Jo’s teaching samples

01b

The idea was to hand-stitch a layered fabric collage featuring text which could be stitched, stencilled, stamped, written typed etc. To this we could add stitching, lace, buttons and ephemera to embellish. It could be a favourite word, a person’s name, a special place or a short phrase.

As you will have read many times before, I am incapable of going to a workshop ‘blind’.  So having done my research, I decided that for me, who never uses text in her textile work, the perfect word would be ‘FAMILY’. My reasoning….I’ve always wanted to set up a dedicated wall of significant memorable photos and in the near future I will have that opportunity.

What came out of my thinking was that you have a family tree related to ancestry and heritage – yes, I want to include a couple of historical photos on my wall.  Additionally, to me, family means the grounded roots and the growth of branches finding their own way….or am I being too philosophical here 🤔

 

With this in mind, I finessed my research online to explore the various ways one could write the word, that would spark my imagination – thank you to the originators of the text examples I studied and show below.

02 Text samples

Once we got going at the workshop, I fiddled with how I would undertake my writing.

 

Once we got going at the workshop, I fiddled with how I would undertake my writing.
03 Experimenting with my writing

Decades ago, I embroidered an initial letter on a piece of fabric by couching some piping cord down and then ‘wrapping’ a variety of beads around the cord. It was very effective. Although I recently found it, I forgot to photograph it and it has once again disappeared into the depths….so I will leave it to your imagination.

I thought about this construction for my ‘F’ but decided that it would be too deep especially as a certain Scandinavian store no longer sells the small, shallow (2.5 deep internally) Ribba frames that we have all loved for so long. the deeper ones yes, but not the shallower ones….😭   Instead I need to find a ‘forgiving’ ordinary frame!

Again, for the beading I had found some inspiring work online, sadly the author was not given – thank you to whomever you are.

An aside….Each time I gather research work for any workshop I file it. Over the years I have gained quite a bulging file to which I refer time and again to trigger inspiration. I’m sure I’m not alone.

04 Beading inspiration

Using a piece of our old sofa cover fabric (it keeps coming in useful!) and knowing the size I wanted the finished piece to be (the square of paper) I aligned the fabric pattern to suit my word and started adding the collage pieces before writing.

05 Aligning the pattern to suit collage placement and my word

06 Collage pieces added ready to stitch in place and word written

07 Stitching commenced

Stitching completed and the beading commenced it was all too soon the end of the workshop and time for the show and tell. There were many beautiful items produced (below is just a flavour) and I hope they all find a good home.

08-12 Work produced by some other members of my textile group

I had started the beading at the workshop, and you can see how it will, hopefully, look when matted. But, by the time I got home, I wasn’t totally happy, so I unpicked it and eventually started again with a better mix of beads.

13 At the end of the workshop within a paper mount

14 With the beading changed

I learned that my chosen word is unsurprisingly a popular choice generally (I was the only one in our group) although using it to announce a storyboard of photos seemed unique. There will be fun to come!

The piece is now potentially complete and awaiting stretching (my method using a sewing machine and mountboard), however I am prevaricating for two reasons – 1. I need to locate a suitable 23 x 23cm (9 x 9in) shallow box frame and 2. I think I need to emphasize the ‘amily’ a little more so that it can be seen from a about 1.5m away….

15 Unframed due to indecision

….do let me know your thoughts.

Door stop installed
New door stop

New door stop

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Our cottage now has a robotic vacuum, which means we no longer spend half our visit sucking up dead bugs. Technology wins again. Of course, the little machine has a habit of wedging itself into the most improbable places. The bathroom has been a repeat trouble spot, so we started propping the door shut with a brick whenever we leave. That worked—until the brick and the robot teamed up to scuff the door. My husband’s solution was to wrap the brick in duct tape, giving our makeshift doorstop a slightly more “gentle” finish.

Having finally identified the problem, I decided we needed a doorstop with a bit more padding. So I brought home a fresh brick to turn into our upgraded, cottage‑friendly version. I dug out my punch‑needle supplies and got to work. Step one was making a template: using the brick itself, I traced the top and each of the sides so I’d have the exact dimensions to cover it properly.

Next, I had to settle on a design. I ended up sketching a grid and decided to fill it with random blocks of colour. With that plan in mind, I dug through my yarn stash and pulled out a skein of Lion Brand Respun. Since the yarn shifts colours, I wound it into separate balls, snipping each shade apart as I went. That left me with tidy little piles of red, orange, yellow, green, and blue to work with. I also grabbed a ball of black yarn that was roughly the same thickness to round out the palette.

With my design sorted out, it was time to test my new frame—a rotating model from The Needleworks Shop  that I snagged back in November from a Facebook destash group. Once the Monk’s cloth was mounted, I could finally start punching. Since we’re looking at the back side of the work, the texture isn’t visible yet, but the layout is. I filled in the black squares first, then began adding the colours at random. My goal was simply to spread everything out evenly and avoid having two neighbouring squares in the same shade.

With the punching finished, I took the piece off the frame and flipped it over. The front was a wild tangle of yarn tails—messy enough that it was hard to see the actual design underneath. It was time to start trimming everything down and reveal how the pattern really turned out.

With the punching done, I set the piece aside for the night. I was pretty pleased with myself—drawing the design, winding the yarn, and punching the whole thing in a single evening felt like a solid win. The next day, I pulled out my brick and tested how the cover fit. That first attempt at folding it over the brick was surprisingly encouraging; everything seemed to line up just the way I’d hoped.

Wrapped around the brick to test fit
Wrapped around the brick to test fit

I dug out my sewing supplies and started stitching up the corners. Sewing around a brick turned out to be a bit awkward, but with some patience I managed to get all four corners secured. I used black thread so it would blend in with the punched design and disappear into the background.

With the corners finished, it was time to tackle the bottom. As you can see from the photos, sewing the corners left quite a bit of excess Monk’s cloth to deal with. I experimented with a few different folding options until I found one that looked tidy. Then I trimmed away the extra fabric so I wouldn’t end up with a big lump on the underside of the doorstop. Using white thread, I stitched the flaps down. The sewing isn’t especially neat, but it’s solid and functional—and that’s good enough for me.

A few days later, I brought the finished doorstop up to the cottage and swapped it in for the old duct‑taped brick. Here it is in its new home, doing its job and looking far more cheerful than its predecessor. I’m genuinely pleased with how it turned out, and I’ll probably make another one at some point. Small projects like this are such a fun way to experiment and build confidence in my skills.

Door stop installed
Door stop installed