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A Felt Landscape Class with Jan

A Felt Landscape Class with Jan

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I keep wanting to take this class with Jan, but it always seems to get scheduled when I have a class the next day or when I am at the Farmers Market. I finally got to sign up. My class was scheduled before Jan’s. Then I got the dates for the Christmas markets. The hat class was planned for the day after the last market. It would have to move. I would still be exhausted the day after the market. I don’t want to do that to the students or myself. So now I am taking Jan’s class on Saturday and teaching Felt hats on Sunday. I am sure it will be fine. I got all ready for my class early in the week, so all I have to do is load the car on Sunday morning.

To start, Jan emailed us some pictures so we could choose what we wanted to make. There was one I really liked, but thought it needed something else. So I had a chat with Jan about that. She does say you are the God of your picture. And she never does what everyone else is doing when she takes my classes. I went searching on the internet to see if I could find what I wanted to add. I did not have much luck. Google thinks it knows what I want to look at even when it doesn’t match what I put in the search. I found out later that I should try the in cogneto mode to get better results. Jan sent me a couple of pictures, and I found what I wanted.

I picked the one on the top right, but wanted to add a small shed. I know you were expecting one of the ones with sheep, weren’t you?

At the workshop, Jan had lots of her work to show us, to help us understand what we were doing.

 

 

Jan gave us lots of information about different ways to work. She explained all the needles she had given us to try out. You can see them stuck in the orange noodle. She included different versions of our pictures to help us pick out the wool we needed.

Then we had to pick our wool. She had a lot of wool. The bags covered 3 6-foot tables. There were also several books on the table for us to look at. I have no picture of the books. We were all wanting to get stabbing. I will ask Jan to look at the landscape book she has that I haven’t looked at before.

On to working. I chose to do a rough outline of where things were by holding the thin felt over the picture on a window. It was fun and absorbing, so I didn’t take as many pictures as I should have.

My friend Judy took this picture of me working.

This was my neighbour, she was working on a musk ox picture.

And here is a shot down the tables, of others busy stabbing away.

After adding the fog, I put in a little shack.

As we neared the end of the day, I went to add another layer of trees in front of the fog, but I couldn’t get them right at all. I think I was done with trees for the day. So I added the snow in the foreground. I may add the grass with stitching.

So now it is a few days later, and looking at the pictures, I can see the fog needs to fade out more. And maybe not cover all the trees. I will remove the tree trunks and fix the shack door.  Taking a picture really shows you what you can’t see looking at it live. I am not sure where I will go with the trees. I think I swapped the picture I wanted with a darker one. I may bring the fog down and add a few trees in the mid-ground, maybe with some snow on them.  We will see. I will take it to guild socials and continue.

Jan included a large instruction manual for us( 32 pages) in case we want to do another picture and forget everything we were told (completely possible, there was a lot to learn).

I think we all need to pester Jan to make this an online class or a book.  She has so much of it already done.

A Yarn and Fiber Artist’s Dilemma

A Yarn and Fiber Artist’s Dilemma

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I will be stepping away from scheduled blog posting in 2026. This has been a hard decision for me, as I so value the friends I have made through Felting and Fiber Studio. I was happy to hear I am welcome to submit articles, to be used when regular contributors need respite. My mother’s Alzheimer’s is in the final stage. She is on hospice care doing fine at the moment: but we don’t know the future, do we? I’m also helping my aunt, transition into assisted living care. Brian and I, of course aren’t getting any younger, either. We are using the information we’ve learned,  to start thinking of our own future. We are definitely looking at downsizing, our living quarters, so that means it’s time to do a purge: “death purge” is what many call it. I don’t like that particular terminology, but I agree with the gist of the concept. As baby boomers, we grew up saving everything, “in case we need it,” down the line. We held onto baggage, because our parents and grandparents, told stories of what happened during wars, or depressions. We raised our children, in times of plenty, and they don’t want any of it! As the dutiful family “storage unit,” I have some really nice fiber related items to find homes for. Example: I have a dainty antique wooden swift with finely turned spindles (UK early 1900’s) in perfect condition: made for ladies embroidering fine linens…what do I do with it? It’s easy to think about listing such items, on social media outlets, but there are so many things to research before hand. It all takes time, that seems at a premium these days. A never ending dilemma

Of course, Brian’s answer to everything these days: “burn it!”

His cynicism is predictable, given what he’s witnessed, as my Etsy shipping clerk for 8 years. He sees customer “requests” in messages. In an effort to deliver, and receive the coveted 5 stars, I spend a lot of time doing things, to “make the sale.” Often, after endless messaging back and forth; the person rarely makes the purchase…or worse, never responds back at all. I am getting better at setting limits, but as I’m sitting here typing my article, another request bit the dust…and proved his point again. Hide the matches!!

Last weekend, I agreed to participate in a holiday craft show. My friend of 60 years is very active with a Veteran’s organization. My participation allows us to see each other, and supports a good cause. Because, so many are struggling financially, I chose my offerings carefully. I decided each item needed to be; visually pleasing, useful, with a low price point. I geared them to be used as stocking stuffers, small gifts for teachers, friends or relatives…maybe a child’s gift to Mom. Brian watched me search Pinterest for small items that met my criteria, and used some supplies I already had. I chose to make the following:

Fabric Wristlet Key Fobs Little Hill Craft video,

Beadable Pens and Beadable Key Chains (Search on Amazon)

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Microwave (Baked) Potato Bags YouTube Potato Bag Sewing Tutorial

Potato print fabric, sewn as envelope pouch, for microwave baked potatoes.
Large size microwave baked potato bags. In order to avoid potential fire, all materials must be 100% cotton; thread, batting, and fabric.

If you are unfamiliar with these Microwave Baked Potato bags, you are missing out on the best way to bake potatoes. They yield soft fluffy baked potatoes in less than a quarter of the time. I purchased mine 15 years ago, while on vacation. It’s been well used, ever since. In addition to baked potatoes, you can steam corn on the cob, warm tortillas, and bread/rolls.

I also took Woolbuddy ™️ needle felted animal ornaments, I had in my shop. They retail for $15 and are worth every penny, but I reduced them to $12.50 each, or “buy 4 get 1 free” (33% off retail). To make certain my prices were fair, I took samples to Mom’s facility. I’ve made friends with other family members: I sold a few potato bags and wristlet’s right on the spot. They felt my prices were too reasonable, for the quality and craftsmanship. I reassessed my prices and realized my potato bags needed to be $14, despite Etsy prices of $11. The specialty fabric I used on the outside is brand new and fetches $15/yard or more. I chose to line the potato bags with a brown fabric, instead of the white muslin my bag has. You can imagine the staining from years of constant use. $12.50 was my initial price: only a bit above supply costs.

I wasn’t looking to make much, as we’ve participated in the show a few years ago. I agreed to share a table this time, and gear my offerings to those attending. I sold 4 potato bags ($14 each), 1 pen ($5), 1 key fob ($6) and some of the needle felted animal ornaments for a total of $137. Once the 1/2 table fee, a raffle donation, and food came out, we probably covered the cost of potato bag fabrics. The foot traffic was constant, and we had a steady stream of lookers at the table. People loved the items, pricing didn’t seem to be an issue: I sold as much as the crafters near me. I’m often asked why I don’t sell my things at craft shows! I’ve always felt the time involved in the making, is rarely valued by those purchasing. Maybe it’s the area we live in? Whatever the reason, I had a plan for any items remaining. We are gifting them Mom’s caregivers. I was very careful to keep the samples, away from caregivers view, and that was a very good thing!

Brian still has his thought’s, about those matches…when I whine “what am I going to do with all this yarn and fiber?” I know he would never think of doing such a thing, while I am alive…but if anything happens to me, you might want to make a quick call!!

Happy Holidays!

Poppy wreath at the Cenotaph
Remembrance and Looking Forward

Remembrance and Looking Forward

Comments 8 comments

As I write this winter is closing in and snow is falling.  However I wanted to start by sharing part of my November tradition.  In 2020 I made 2 poppy wreaths, one for my house and another for the local cenotaph.  Each November I put these out.  It is a small contribution to Remembrance.  But I feel it is important, especially with war and unrest bubbling around the world.

On Nov 8th I attended a Punch Needle workshop.  This was part of an event to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the invention of the Oxford Punch Needle. The workshop was at the Calabogie Lodge, about an hours drive from my house. When I walked into the lodge I was surprised to discover this massive stuffed polar bear in the lobby.  I had to take some photos.

The workshop was put on by Christine Johnson, aka Free Form Fibres. The studio space upstairs was beautiful and so cosy.  There were punch needle projects at each station. We were given the opportunity to try punching with both regular and fine punch needles.

The first piece I worked on was this Christmas tree piece. I learned how to do the outlines.  Then to come back and fill in the background.  You apply the punch needle from the back of the canvas and it forms short loops on the front. The tails from where you start and stop each piece of yarn end up on the front of the piece and need to be trimmed off later. This photo shows the front of the piece.

Punch needle project with Christmas tree
Punch needle project with Christmas tree

Christine had some samples of her work on display.  They were so inspiring. It was also interesting to see that some of the pieces were 3D.  They were very cool. Christine has been working on a punch needle series PUNCHING WITH ATTITUDE. I love that she is using her art to express her feelings.

We rotated through a couple of projects during the workshop and I ended up at this frame with a freeform piece on it.  There really wasn’t much on the canvas when I sat down.  Mostly some neon lines wandering around the canvas.  I started by drawing in some hearts.  Then filling them in.  Then adding a blocky border in the middle of the canvas.  Next I filled in the background around the hearts. I played with filling in space using straight lines and with meandering stitches so that I could compare the results. I was hooked and purchased 2 punch needles to take home.

Christine ended up giving me the Freeform piece and some of the neon yarn to take home.  She also gifted me this awesome skein of Briggs and Little Atlantic (hand dyed colourway) and a nice bag with the colour wheel on it.

The next step down the rabbit hole was to buy supplies.  With some help from Christine and Robin (of Hooking Outside the Lines) some basic supplies were ordered.  I picked up a large frame, frame cover, fancy scissors, a kit, and some blank canvas.  The package arrived quickly. And putting the frame together was very straightforward.  The hardest part was holding the pieces steady without pricking myself on the gripper strips which have many very sharp needles.

After getting the frame together it was time to remount the freeform piece. The monks cloth is stretched on the gripper strips until a nice tension is achieved.  Then a cover is added to protect the user from the needles on the gripper strips.  At this point I was ready to restart, but I must admit that I was undecided about how to proceed.  So I took a break.  (It never hurts to consider your design choices.)

By the next day I had an idea.  I could rip out that lower neon line and move it down to make a larger box.  Luckily I had the spare yarn and so was able to do that. One of the neat things about punch needle work is that you can undo it easily. In the images below you can see the faint line where the original neon line was. This will disappear once I have filled in the piece with new yarn.

After making a larger box I could add the word LOVE below the hearts. I traced out the letter size on some paper, cut them out, then tried them on the canvas.  When I was happy with the size and placement, I flipped the letters over (remember working on the back means text must be mirror image) and traced the design onto the canvas with a Sharpie. Finally I was ready to select some yarn and start punching.  After punching the word Love my next choice is to decide what yarn to use for the background, and whether I’ll do one solid background behind all the letters, or blocks of background as was done with the hearts above. I am still undecided which way I will go.

So this is where the work is so far.  It was really fun to learn something new and experiment with a new way to use some of my yarn stash. I have also signed up for a number of classes at my guild in the first half of 2026 (Tapestry, Art Yarn, Short Draw to Long Draw – Drafting Woolen to Worsted, and Warp Painting). I look forward to sharing my punch needle piece and some of my other explorations with you next year.

Since this is my last blog post of 2025, I also wanted to say Happy Holidays!  I hope you have some terrific time visiting with family and friends and recharging your creative batteries for next year.

I also wanted to share that Christine will be teaching as part of In the Studio Online Workshop Week 2026 which runs from February 5-15, 2026.  Here is the blurb about the class:

Christine Johnson @christinejohnson1959 joins Workshop Week for the first time to teach us:
HOW to say WHAT we want to say. (These days, we all have something to say about our shared world.)

She builds on her punch needle series PUNCHING WITH ATTITUDE. This text-heavy class is for both hookers and punchers.

 

2025 OVWSG Sale

2025 OVWSG Sale

Comments 15 comments

You have probably heard both myself and Ann, chat about the 2025 OVWSG Sale and Exhibition. We continue to have the Guild sale at the Glebe community centre, which started life as a church, changed congregations then became a community centre. It has had some renovations over the years, and this year, there is scaffolding surrounding part of the outside of the building. Other than the challenge of parking, it is a beautiful site.

 

As with every year, it was a busy time leading up to the sale. You may have noticed I posted for myself and covered for Ann to give her a bit of a break.  Ann is not only baking for a local Farmers Market, a Fabulous felter and felting teacher, Guild Librarian, but also the coordinator for the sale, so she is very busy leading up to the sale and then really tired afterwards, but all her hard work was both worth it and appreciated.

You have seen lots of shopping opportunities lately, so this time I would like to show you a bit of the “behind the scenes”, some of the photos from the sale, then in the next post, finish by showing you the Exhibition.

Although Ann and the Guild sales team have been working since shortly after the last sale ended, the largest part of the volunteer teams get to work the week before the sale. On the Monday before the sale, we had gathered all the boxes and display grids in the studio ready to head to the sale on Friday. At 6 pm, we have the set up team at the Glebe, busy marking booth spaces and placing tables in booth spaces.   The Team with Pickup trucks, loaded everything and met us at the sale around 6:30 pm.

a pile of boxes and equipment to go to the sale wating at one end of the studio.1.1) The pile of stuff is ready to go, with the black grids just visible behind the folding tables.

the main hall at the glebe comunity center showing the moving of tables and the large dome ceeling1.2) Busy setting up the team, the room and dome is beautiful, but possibly had a leak

As soon as the tables were up, the vendors started bringing in their wares, with the help of the “assist-the-vendors-bring-stuff-in” team.  The Guild Co-Op booth, Guild info booth, Make and Take table, the Exhibition and the demo teams were also setting up. We didn’t get to start as early on Friday as previous years (since the room was used as an after school daycare until 6 pm), so it was extra busy!

various guild members working to set up event1.3) the various guild teams bringing in the guilds and vendor stuff (the blur of activity is Ann)

booths are being set up in the hall1.4) The booths popping up look like magic! (but it’s actually a lot of work)

I took a few (126) photos Friday night, to both document the guild activity and to create images we could post Friday night to entice shoppers on Saturday morning. (The postings seem to have worked, since Saturday morning was very busy with shoppers!) If you were curious, I took 873 photos in total over the weekend.

one of the images used to entice shoppers saterday. shows felted landscape of birches trees dislayed on birchbark 2.1) Molly Underhill’s Birch Trees

By this point, it had already been a busy week, and I was extremely tired. As I stood looking at Molly’s lovely trees, I wondered what needle she had used to attach the felt to the birch bark….. (Yes, I needed more sleep!)

another image used to intice shopping, wet fekted bag with canada goose2.2) Molly’s Canada goose bag and Glasses cases

another image used to intice shoppers showing handwoven scarves and cowles. the weaving uses complex weave structures and ikat like colour changes2.3) Inge Dam’s Weaving

Besides felt, there were also booths of weaving, handspun yarn and commercially spun and hand died yarns.

The guild booth had the door prizes. When you filled out a questionnaire (it was short), you got a sticker and were entered for the door prize. For those of us whose phones are luddites and don’t recognise QR codes, they had a tablet to fill out the questions.

2 photos both showing 2 wimon working at the guild table the top offering tablet to fill out servay. 3.1) info table with survey and QR Code (QR removed since the draw is over!)

Door prizes for filling out the servay, a green hand spun hand kit shall, hand woven through, red, Felted bird ornaments, a hand spun and knit hat3.2) The Door prizes

anyone who filled out the questionair got a sticker this shows some of the stickers they could pick from.3.3) Even if you don’t win a door prize, you still get to pick a sticker!

Once you have filled out the survey (this gives us info on where our shoppers are coming from, and a bit of what they were looking for) and picked your sticker, we can take a quick peek at the Guild Demo area.

a wide shot of the demo areia. Ann helping a new spinner with her drop spindle. also visiable in the back ground is a large tapestry /meral that is in the rental space.4.1) Ann helping a new spinner in the demo area

2 photos, one demoing on a table loom, one demoing spinning with the batt makeing station in the background 4.2) Weaving and spinning Demos

2 photos. felting into a canves bag, close up of felting into a canvis bag.4.3) Felting Demo (I am looking forward to seeing how this progresses)

The guild also had a “Make and Take” table, which had various small weaving, felting, and sometimes spinning projects to do and take home. This has been fun to see, with lots of younger new people, but also quite a few adults trying their hands too.

2 photos, Make and take table both show people around the table making small projects 3 photos, Make and take table 2 show people of various ages, around the table making small projects the last picure has the signeage from the end of the table explaining the table.4.4-4.5) Make and take table, the team was busy most of the weekend!

Let’s look at the booth, time for some virtual shopping!!

this was posted in the hall showing a map of the booths and a list of the vendors in the booths. the information will be listed in the blog further on5.1) The Vendors list and Map, in case you get lost, we will meet at the end near the exhibition

Booths: 

Booth 1 is the Guild Co-Op booth, which gives members the opportunity to sell their work when they don’t have enough to have a whole booth.

a blanket stand, 2 hand woven blankets, and signs on the end explaining that these are hand woven on the 100" loom by 2 weavers at a time. on is a Queen and the other a large single blanket. unfortunatly there was no price listed 5.2) These are blankets woven on the Guild’s 100-inch loom. The proceeds will help fund the guild.

a groop of photos showing some of the itums for sale in the co op booth, mostly hand weaving i displaced. but yarn fiber felting needles and other tools were also for sale.5.3) A few of the items in the co-op booth

Booth 2 is Wendo Van Essen. She is a Needle Felter and has needle felted brooches, vegan taxidermy, needle felting kits, and pin cushions.

2 photos showing the felting and kits by Wendo5.4) Booth 2, Wendo’s Booth

2 photos showing Hand died fibr in combed top braids and colourful batts as well as died yarn. also of shoppers looking at the displayed fiber5.5) Booth 3, This is October Knits,  a NEW vendor, with hand dyed yarn and fibre.

You may have spotted His colourful braided fibre at a few other events.

3 photos, Mitten patterns, Fiber for sale and weaving tools5.6)  Booth 4, Judy Kavanagh and Don Haines

Spindles, heddles, shuttles, tapestry looms, fibre

3 photos, Handweaving from 3 excelent weavers, close up of some of the shalls 5.7) Booth 5, Studio Three Fibre Arts and Unwoven

Booth 5 is a group of weavers, Studio Three Fibre Arts and Unwoven (Jean Down, Roberta Murrant and Deb Templeton), handwoven clothing, accessories, table linens, and fibre art.

Photos showing spindles, support spindles, and chirstmas ornaments, 5.8) Booth 6, Top of the Whorl

Spindles, spindle bowls, spindle totes and fibre in a variety of formats.

3 photos, 2 of yarn one of kits5.9) Booth 7, Wööl, emporium de laine

Hand dyed yarns, books, and notions.

2 photos of wood working, there was also weaving but i didnt have a good shot of that.6.1) Booth 8, Luna

Wood yarn bowls, crochet sets and art yarn.

3 photos, Hand spun and died yarn woven and knit, hand spun yarn. shot of part of the booth with people shopping6.2) Booth 9, Fab Fibre Two (Jean Sharp and Bernadette Quade)

Handspun yarn, fibre, hand knitted and handwoven items

2 photos, CLose ups of hand weaving and sewn top.6.3) Booth 10, Handweaving by Janet Whittam

Handwoven garments and accessories, baskets, household linens, rugs

Inkle woven straps, key fobs, felted acorns, woven and sewn bags6.4) Booth 11, Strapped for Cash

Handwoven straps and bands, including guitar straps, bag straps, hat bands, key fobs, lanyards, and bracelets.

3 photos, Mohair blends and locks. one photo shows hand feeling a mohair and coriadale blended batt (it was extreemly soft)6.5) Booth 12, WindWeft (NEW this year)

Mohair locks and yarns in natural and hand-dyed colours, mohair/wool blends, handspun and mill-spun yarns, rovings, batts, and handmade wool dolls.

Complex weave patterns, in scarves and couls as well as 3 photos of handwoven jakets.6.6) Booth 13, Inge Dam’s Handwoven Textiles

Handwoven scarves and shawls

3 photos, Hand died useing natural dies Yarn and mitten knit ewith natural died yarn6.7) Booth 14, Wayside Weeds and Wool (Amanda Carrigan)          Handspun yarn, natural-dyed yarn, handknits, kits and patterns

3 photos, wet felted and needle felted play mats and vesels with little figures and fleted camp fire6.8) Booth 15, Farmer Brown’s

Felted and wool based children’s play materials. Adventure Playmats, Woodland Gnomes and Fairy Houses.

6.9) Booth 16, Weave Me Be

Woven landscape tapestries.

7.1) Booth 17 & 20, Mapi Creations

Hand dyed fibre, Natural Fibre, Felted DIY kit, Felted Fabric, Art Yarn, Interactive Art Batt station

7.2) Booth 18, Maple Weaves

Handwoven wall tapestries and finished handwoven scarves

7.3) Booth 19, Felt by Molly

Felted goods

7.4) Booth 21, Carmen Deschênes, Lise Susin-Horth, Elisabeth Davy

Roving, locks, felted objects, handwovens

7.5) Booth 22, Makeloo Studio

Yarn certified 100% Canadian wool and hand dyed, also certified fibres

Oh my, that was a lot of show in not that big a hall! Maybe we should wander up to Bank Street and pop into a restaurant for lunch? We can meet back here afterwards and look at the Exhibition. If you are not parked in the city lot a block away, don’t forget to move your car when you drop off your purchases; it’s 3-hour street parking in most of the Glebe!

PS Sorry!!! i must not have saved properly, some of the photos were missing they loaded but did not attach, i must not have pushed save correctly!!! i hope this works now!!

An oval table is covered in small amounts of bright Merino wool in different colors
A few smaller projects

A few smaller projects

Comments 12 comments

Hello all!

I have been trying out a few smaller projects instead of bigger ones lately, also because I have a few work-in-progress things that I would like ideally and probably in another shiny life to bring to conclusion, so you could say that I am saving myself for them and very predictably not getting much done with them anyway, always hoping for the magic time and place, you know, for THE BIG PROJECT..so much so that I may have forgotten what they were all about in the first place, very likely!

Anyway, some of my little projects may be of inspiration for the approaching seasonal marathon..you know, I am referring to Christmas and the various little crafty things that we are always involved in when it comes to this dreaded and waited for period!

I have been experimenting with wetfelting locks onto Merino and with differential shrinkage in a few small pieces, four small decorative vessels and one pouch that I have not finished with a zip yet (because sewing, you know, I hate sewing):

Three small felted vessels in dark blue and bright locks are on a round wooden table with a card in front of each of them. A black laptop is in the background
Three of my small experiments with the same theme of dark blue Merino and bright locks going on. BFL tangerine locks for the left one, Teeswater locks for the other two.
A small bright pink felted vase with ridges close to the bottom and white rose fiber close to the lip, on a blue patterned cushion, with a wooden background
In this one I tried to have ridges close to the bottom by adding layers of wool: you can see them but they were a bit of a disappointment as wow factor, and I liked the vertical or slanted ridges that I managed on the other three vessels a lot better.
A small felted pouch with a blue background and bright pink decorative locks all over it on a wooden surface
This is the small pouch that I need to finish with a zip: I think I will maybe give it to my daughter who was briefly obsessed with my small vessel with the pink locks, so this pouch should be a success with her if I ever get around to finish it.

I was in kind of a low mood and I decided that I wanted to do something quick and bright, just to decorate my house and not worrying about it being ‘perfect’: I made myself a colourful wreath, not to celebrate any particular occasion but just because. Anyway, it can be used to welcome any sort of event, I am totally in favour of using it again and again giving it different meanings each time!

I mentioned that I did not want to bother overmuch about making it, so I basically put some Merino wool in different colours on bubblewrap all over the table, roughly flower shaped  and roughly leaf shaped clumps in no particular order, in four greens and four bright flower colours.

An oval table covered in a white towel and bubble wrap, with clumps of wool on it in yellow, red, pink, violet, and different greens.
A colourful project for sure.

Wetting and rubbing and rolling all together was done very quickly, and then I spent some time kneading and throwing and rubbing individual ‘flowers’ or ‘leaves’ or small groups of them. I then cut and shaped the flower petals a little if needed, but mostly kept them as they were.

An oval table with a white towel and bubble wrap on it, and clumps of colorful wool covered by wet netting
Sprinkling with water all together.

 

Clumps of flat soaped and rubbed wool in different colors on an oval table covered in a white towel and bubble wrap
The soaping and rubbing step done: all clumps of wool are fairly squashed into formless shapes, but luckily I was not looking for accurate.
In the foreground a wooden rolling pin tool by World of Wool is on a few clumps of soaped wool on a table covered in a white towel and bubble wrap.
I got to use this carved rolling pin tool from World of Wool that I rarely use: this time it was the perfect one for the job of getting a bit more rolling in.
A mass of soaped pieces of prefelt in different bright colors is on a white bubble wrap covered surface, and a rolling pin tool mby World of Wool is in the left corner
I also got to kneading and doing some more energetic manipulation, clumping all the wool together to do it quicker. Actually that is a part that I really enjoy, I find it very therapeutic.
A red plastic tube with a bubble wrap full of darker shapes rolled onto it and fixed with elastic bands is on an oval table covered in a white towel
Some proper rolling of all the pieces together, also to cut on rolling time.
A lot of irregular pieces of bright colored felt are on a table covered in bubble wrap and a white towel, and there is also a wooden rolling pin tool by World of Wool
All nice and rinsed: as you can see, the final shapes were very irregular and not particularly flowerlike.
A clump of felted wool in different bright colors and irregular shapes on a bubble wrap over a white towel
They still look very colourful all clumped together when dry, though.

After washing and drying the lot, I prepared the supporting circular wreath using spare wire from cut flowers that I shaped into a circle. I wrapped a type of plaster tape that I had from the years when my daughter was doing Irish dancing (you know, dancers wrap it around their toes to avoid blisters, you buy it in pharmacy), so that the wool would take hold and also to keep the wire together (it was not a single piece, but pieces in the plural).

Then, I wrapped some core wool around it and needle felted it in place all around the wire, careful not to break needles on the wire. When I was happy with the shape and consistency, I covered the core wool with dark green Merino wool and neddle felted it in place.

An irregular circle of wire taped with a white plaster tape. The small blue box of plaster tape is at the center of the wire and both are on jeans clad legs.
That is how I prepared the wire for my wreath
An irregular circular shape in white core wool is resting on a needle felting blue pad and there is a needle stuck on the pad.
It is very clear where the core wool has been needle felted and where it is still only loosely wrapped around the wire and needs working on.
A circular shape of white core wool is held by a hand onto a green felting pad
The shape is more or less ready for being covered by the next layer
A hand is holding a forest green top of Merino wool to add to the white circular shape that is on the green felting pad.
Adding the forest green Merino and covering the core wool
A forest green ring in needle felted Merino wool is held on a green felting pad
Here is the finished ring.

At last, I was ready for the fun bit of needle felting all the flowers and leaves onto the wreath, alternating colours and making it look as full as possible. That last was tricky, because I maybe needed a bit more flowers and leaves, but I also strategically cut a few of the flowers to obtain smaller ones to fill in the wreath a bit better.

On a green felting pad there are some irregular triangles of violet felt put together to form flower shapes and small spare triangles, small scissors and a felting needle
I cut some of the felt to make it seem more like flower shaped and with the resulting bits I made some new smaller flowers by needle felting the irregular triangles together by their pointy ends.
A hand is holding a felting needle to a pink piece of felt and is poking it to attach it to a forest green circular shape, on a light green felting pad.
I needle felted all the flowers and leaves to the wreath, starting by the big flowers , then the leaves, and adding the smaller flowers and leaves to fill the gaps in the composition.

A loop with a spare ribbon and here it is:

A hand on the left is holding up a felted wreath in many bright colors, in front of a white wall.
Here I had not put the ribbon on it, yet, but there you go, it is done and you can see how it looks like.

I am thinking about making a Christmassy one and an Autumn-colours one with the same devil-may-care approach to accuracy, as it worked quite well for me and it is very relaxing not to actually care about details. Just to have some variety through seasons I may go pon with them, but I am keeping this one permanently on at the moment, regardless of seasons, just because.

Since I have finished the slow stitching blue spiral bowl, I had to find something else for my hands to make while stewarding at our last exhibition with my art group, so I started on this little friend, that will be eventually donated to a kid, either one of mines or someone else’s I haven’t decided:

A hand is holding an unfinished little felted monster with a blue body and red mouth and orange eye stalks and crest. The background is dark grey.
I am not very advanced, but I felted the two eye stalks and its crest on its head. It is complaining that it can not eat anyone yet as he has no teeth, apart from the fact that with no nose and no actual eyes on its eye stalks it would be hard to find preys..

Needle felted in Merino wool, because of the bright colours.

Being aware that creativity needs creativity to spark and flourish (and it was also Leonor’s suggestion to keep your creative juices running, if I am not mistaken), I have also tried my hand a bit at other small projects in different mediums: that is what I have painted yesterday, with an eye to having a few interesting and original Christmas cards ready for when my daughter will come asking me for cards for each of her teacher on the day before the beginning of Christmas holidays (totally not something that we experienced last year, eh, on the evening before, after dinner and everything, when I was thinking only of my bed…):

On a red plastic sheet there are a bigger and a smaller paper sheets covered in small painted squares. The tiny squares are abstracts in different colors
Maybe I can cut them out and make cards with them? I used acrylics, pigment ink pens and oil pastels for the left one, and the same but watercolour instead of oil pastels for the right one. You probably can not tell by this photo, but there are tiny details in ink pen in each square.

I am not sure that all are that good, but there is something satisfying in having a bunch of tiny paintings done in the time that one (at least, me) will take to just think about a bigger painting, and now I can pick and choose if I want.

In the meantime, my felt slippers that I had bought about 1 year ago were just getting full of holes, my toes poking out through them, to the point that I was considering throwing them away: it just seemed such a shame, as the sole is still almost new and they are very comfy and they were a bit on the expensive side when I bought them.

Here is a ‘before’ pic:

A pair of red and grey felt slippers with big holes at their points on a wooden floor
Well worn out, with big gaping holes at the toes

So what I did in half an hour on a slow afternoon was just getting me some wool and needle felting it in place over the holes, attaching it to the ragged edges of the gaps, trying to include into it all the bits of old felted cover that I could still use.

I used a piece of packaging foam as felting pad to use right inside the slipper:

A hand in the foreground is pushing a chunky bit of foam into a red slipper. There is a light brown carpet and wooden flooring in the background
A chunky piece of packing foam can be handy if you stall the husband enough that he does not throw it away immediately
A loosely needle felted roughly round piece of red and grey wool is held in one hand close to the hole in a red and grey slipper
I prepared some loosely prefelted bits to felt into the existing felt of the slippers, by mixing red Merino wool top with some grey carded wool of unknown origin that I got gifted.
A red and grey felted slipper with a mostly grey addition of prefelt to the upper, nicely rounded
It is clear that I just did not plan the colours in advance, just trying different things on one slipper and on the other, if mixing colours on the prefelt to add or felting in first one colour and then adding the next.
One hand is holding a red and grey slipper while another hand is poking it with a felting needle. In the background a grey sofa with felting supplies on it.
It was mostly quite easy to needle felt them, apart when poking close to the sole, when I was afraid I would break a needle, but luckily it did not happen.

The effect was quite good for such a quick fix, even though I had not bothered about actually getting to the same exact colour of the original felted bits: my husband was pretty amazed at the result, that I could repair my slippers so perfectly.

Here are the finished repairs:

A person with white socks and pink trousers who is mostly out of frame is wearing red slippers. in the background a wooden floor and a light brown carpet.
Well, they are uneven and all, but I l felt that I could go on with my life. (I used my daughter to model this ‘after’ pic, as she was eager to try the as-new slippers)

Unfortunately, as you can guess, my quick fix did not stand the test of everyday wear and tear for more than a month or so, so at the moment I am almost at square one. BUT not exactly, as I now know that I can easily fix them, and I have understood that I should have wetfelted them after needle felting the bits in place: it just was not actually felted firmly enough, because I did not have the patience to work on it properly, so my needle felting was only a basic prefelt, almost, and obviously not enough to make it sturdy. So, when I will have to do it again (quite soon), I will be slightly more patient and actually wet felt them, and hopefully my felt will still bond to the original felted bits. One of the reasons that I had decided not to go on wet felting them the first time was that I was unsure if the new bits were going to fall apart and just not bond with the unknown wool of the original bits: I will just to have to try and see.

I suppose one option could be completely redoing the upper bit with a new one, so the issue of bonding unknown wool with mine would not come up, but the sole is tough rubber and I am not sure if I am able to sew it on, plus you know how I hate sewing.

How would you suggest tackling the issue of repairing those slippers?

And on this repair dilemma, I wish you all a good felting time and see you in the next post!

Kiki

@kiki.textile.art

http://www.kikistextileart.com

Am I losing my marbles?

Am I losing my marbles?

Comments 13 comments

Do you feel like the days, weeks and months just keep getting away from you? No matter how hard you work, paddling faster and faster, the to-do list never gets any shorter? It has been 6 weeks since Felters Convergence, I was hoping for a quiet spell before the Christmas rush but it feels like it has been another insanely busy period. When I stop and think, “What have I done / achieved?” I’m at a loss…. I can’t remember!

Thank heavens for the camera roll in our mobile phones!

Early October saw my first ever pit firing with the Manurewa Potters, it was a lot of fun, with a shared lunch but, for me, the results were a little disappointing. I love colour and contrast and this style of firing produces more muted, subtle tones. It’s probably not a branch of pottery for me but I’m glad I got to try it.

These were my pots, the red / orange rings around the top were from underglazes I painted on before firing, the browns, greys and blacks were from the materials added to the fire. I have started waxing the one on the right, which has intensified some of the colours and it’s growing on me but the one on the left I think will be re-fired with some more traditional glazes.

In mid October I hosted my first Open Studio event in New Zealand, as part of the Franklin Arts Trail (which gets unflatteringly abbreviated to FAT). It was a huge success, I met so many fascinating people, introduced some of them to felt-making and even sold a few of my finished pieces, so now I have space to make more!

This photo was taken during the reorganising / scurryfunging, I’m sorry to say I forgot to take any photos during the event. Can you spot the ever-helpful cat (Aoife)?

A few felty friends and I had a play date just before Halloween where we made felted eyeballs using a variety of different techniques (felting around glass marbles, polystyrene balls and making solid wool balls).

Halloween weekend was spent with the lovely Waikato Creative Fibre group at a wonderful 3-day fibre retreat. I even managed to get some spinning done in between teaching a couple of short felting classes and taking a mosaic crochet class.

Fingers crossed I now have enough yarn to finish making a sleeveless top with a tulip hem:

Auckland is starting to feel much more summery and the weeds in my veg patch agree, they were definitely winning…

But after 6 days of hard graft and 1 broken garden fork later I was delighted to find half a dozen leeks, some potatoes and a couple of onions ready to harvest and I no longer cringe at the state of this part of the garden:

I contacted Spear and Jackson about the fork because it had a “10 year warranty” sticker not really holding out much hope that they would replace it but amazingly the replacement has just arrived, all the way from the UK, less than 2 weeks after I emailed them! Now that’s good service 🙂

A few months ago Auckland Felters applied to hold a group exhibition at Nathan Homestead, an historic building that has just completed a year-long renovation, and we were successful – YAY!

The exhibition doesn’t open until next March but deadline for the marketing materials was last week so there has been a lot of frantic activity as we formulated a plan for a felting workshop and market day. The date of our workshop falls on 25th April, ANZAC day (the antipodean equivalent of Remembrance day) so we thought a field of felted poppies would be a fitting project.

With only a few hours before the deadline I found myself hastily felting a sample for the brochure. The result is ok but not my best work. If I can find a spare 30 min I would like to fix the central flower with some needle-felting and add some more highlights and shading.

My local craft / gift shop, Clevedon Creatives + Co, have started stocking some of my work so there has been quite of lot of trips back and forth to get it set up. Now my studio looks even more empty than it did after FAT but I am pleased to have a wider audience for my work.

The Christmas season has already started here with my first artisan craft fair last weekend. This market, at the Franklin Arts Centre in Pukekohe, was a very successful start to the season, fingers crossed this is a good omen for the next few weeks after 2025 started with a bit of an economic whimper.

The felted soaps are eternally popular at my local craft markets so I have been furiously making these most evenings for the last few weeks:

There has been quite a lot of dyeing going on too, mostly silk hankies and silk top as I try to keep up with demand. These plaits will be added to my Etsy shop over the next few days.

Finally a bit of felting fun, a new journal cover. When I started laying out the wool for this I was planning to cover it with yarn in a grid pattern but just as I was about to start laying out the yarns it screamed, “WATER!”. So I rummaged in my bag of prefelt scraps and found some space-dyed orange and yellow pieces. Perfect for fish! A couple of white silk hankies to emulate splashing water / surf et voila!

I’m so glad I ditched the yarn, the jumping, playful fish are much more fun! I can’t help but smile when I see them 🙂

Phew! No wonder the last few weeks have felt busy 🙂 Why couldn’t I remember any of that without my phone…?

felted tea cosy in the shape of a pumpkin
Autumn Leaves Display, Pumpkin Tea Cosy and Stars for Christmas

Autumn Leaves Display, Pumpkin Tea Cosy and Stars for Christmas

Comments 12 comments

Lyn

I’d originally planned to make an autumn leaf garland, so I made a large piece of felt patterned only on one side as all the leaves would face the same way. It comprised three fine layers of green merino wool fibres topped with one layer of autumn colour merino wool fibres and ‘bits’ of fabric and nepps. Dry layout with close up shown below.

dry layout of merino wool and fabric scraps and nepps

close up photo of dry layout ready to make felt

I made a cardboard leaf template to enable me to cut out 30 leaves.

30 leaves cut from felt

The leaves were stabilised all around the cut edges with watered down PVA, 50/50.  When they were dry I stitched a wire stem to each leaf held in place with thread.

felt leaf with wire and stitching

pile of felt leaves

When Annie and I saw the pile of leaves looking as if they had just fallen off a tree, we both thought they would make a lovely seasonal display for a cold fireplace or a large sideboard.  Annie had the perfect colour and shape jug (it was in use in Annie’s house with a display of dahlias but they were nearly finished so reluctantly they got discarded before their time) then Annie went twig hunting in her garden.  After much snipping and choosing and changing our minds, we ended up with this.

jug filled with twigs

Then came the fiddly job of attaching the leaves … without disturbing the arrangement of the twigs and the leaves already in place … not easy … my swear jar is almost full.

vase filled with twigs that are hung with felt leaves

Annie

felted tea cosy in the shape of a pumpkin

Making a tea cosy has been on my project list for a long time.  In my imagination it has been many themes over time as the seasons and celebrations come and go and none of them have come to be, but suddenly the time was right and my tea cosy has been born as a pumpkin!

It was reasonably quick to make and was a bit of experimental fun.  I am surprised it turned out as well as it did!

I made a couple of samples that helped me test some fabrics (which if I’m honest were going to be a garland but I ran out of steam and moved on to the tea cosy!).  The samples were small at 11cm wide and 18cm wide, see below.

felt samples to test colours

I decided the tea cosy had way more chance of getting finished if I kept it really simple. So I just made two separate sides and stitched them together, adding in a stalky handle at the top, rather than a more complicated and time consuming seamless 3D form.

I was also going to embellish it with a “carved” face but decided against it to give it more year round appeal.

I started with the handle as that seemed most fun as I had not tried a curly cord before.  The cord needed a flat end to be stitched into the seam.  It was not very technical.  I got a small piece of green prefelt then wrapped loose green fibres around it then added a tapered amount on the top that I would make into a cord and then let it dry twisted around a paintbrush.  It worked surprisingly well.  I made it far too big forgetting that the felt of the pumpkins would shrink, but I just cut the end off to make it shorter.

felt cord wrapped around a paintbrush to make it curly

I had planned to make some prefelt to lay on to the flat sides to enhance the creases and shaping but then I changed my mind and just reshaped the fibres I had laid out into two pumpkin shapes.  I used a paper template and reversed it for one side so that I could keep the pumpkin sides roughly the same size and shape during felting.  To give a little extra firmness I added a thin rope of fibres around the outline.

pumpkin felt layout

I added fabric scraps and knobbly yarns to give an abstract pumpkin look to the skin.  There were so many interesting pumpkins in all shapes, sizes, colours and textures at our local garden centre so I made my own variety taking inspiration from several different ones.

real pumpkin and felt pumpkin

 

2 pieces pumpkin felt with stalk

I decided to stitch it together right sides out to keep some of the uneven edge, rather than sewing and turning.  And no it’s not lined, life is too short for that!

completed tea cosy

Lyn

To make a star garland I made a large piece of multi-coloured, merino wool felt.  It was liberally topped with silk fibres in green, red, gold and pink but disappointingly they mostly sank into the wool fibres during felting instead of shining brightly on the top!  Dry layout photos below.

dry layout multi coloured merino wool

dry layout silk on top of merino wool

When the felt was dry, 11 star shapes were cut out – 1 large, 4 medium and 6 small – then the edges were stabilised with pva/water mix (50/50).

Simple hand stitching was added using a very fine, sparkly gold Madeira thread.  The thread is very thin so 4 strands were used at a time – yes – it was often a tangle nightmare!

Madeira gold sparkly thread

Small star brads were easy to push into the felt.

gold star brads

Here is a close-up of 3 stars – the large star is 17.5cm (7”) wide.

3 felt stars with embroidery and brads

The garland was strung with Madeira metallic effect yarn.  It’s very strong but lightweight and has no stretch.

Madeira metallic effect yarn gold

The star garland has a ‘wing span’ of 180cm (6 feet) so I was unable to pull the camera far enough away to get it all in and the detail would have been lost – so I spread it out on my craft table and photographed it in two halves!

There are 11 stars – the centre star is in both photos.

Right half

star garland right half

Left half

left half of star garland

 

Merrickville Ont. Canada, New Fiber Festival -Fiber by the locks

Merrickville Ont. Canada, New Fiber Festival -Fiber by the locks

Comments 8 comments

On Sunday, October 19th 2025, we had a new small fiber sale happening in Merrickville Ontario.  It was a lovely sunny day so perfect for a drive south of the city.

poster of silliwet of a sheep for the Fiber byt the locks sale1.1)poster of new fiber festival

Merrickville is a small town along the Rideau cannel at one of the many locks.  The town has many beautiful stone houses and buildings.  We arrived early and found a good parking spot, so let’s walk over to the locks and take a look around.

map showing the Pew building and Merrickville locks photomaps showing locations of Ottawa to Merickville and the area around the event beside the locks1.2) map showing the Pew building and Merrickville locks.

The pews is the building we were going to on the maps it’s the little red dot. It is also beside the locks and across from the blockhouse (where the guns and soldiers were, in case we were invaded by Americans in 1812). It was a lovely warm not-fall day for October, the leaves were turning and the water was still, giving beautiful reflections of the fall colour. (I was not the only photographer out and we had lens envy chats!)

the Merrickville lockstation with trees changeing colour, red and yellows1.3) the Merrickville lockstation

the Canal locks at Merrickville reflection of fall trees in still water1.4)the Canal locks at Merrickville

the Canal locks at Merrickville looking down the lock trees refecting into still water1.5)the Canal locks at Merrickville

the Canal blockhouse at Merrickville, the military would be stationed here to protect the cannel from American incursions.  I is now a musem1.6)the Canal blockhouse at Merrickville, the military would be stationed here to protect the cannel from American incursions.  I is now a museum.

the Arron Merrick Building (Side) stone block 3 story building with lots of windows1.7) the Arron Merrick Building (Side)

the Arron Merrick Building (front) decoration serounding door way cascading leaves in fall colours with window box of white flowers in front.1.8) the Arron Merrick Building (front)

Its now time to head back to the Pews (formerly a United Church of Canada building, from the 1890’s)

former church now called the Pews. truncated nave with cross esction and tower inset into one corner adjacent to crossing sections. the church is stone blocks. vewed from a lwer angle looking upword agaenst a very blue sky1.9) former church now called the Pews.

The upper part where the church was is still filled with pews and is often used for concerts. The lower hall is accessible from the back of the building. That is where we are heading next, if I can pull you away from enjoying the fall colour.

It’s a small hall, full of 4 foot tables, so it’s a bit snug, but that is more for us to look at. The vendors are just doing the last of their set up (we will wait in the back corner, out of the way, till its time to shop).  One of the vendors just pointed out a doorway with a ramp to another lower section, we can look at that afterwards.

the lower hall filed with 4 ft booths,very full this shows the center booths.2.1) most of the vendor tables in the hall there are a couple more to the left out of frame and at least one more to the right.

Shall we have a quick look around?

2 photos showing a booth with coats and a booth with yarn 2 photos showing a clsoe up of mini tapestrie landscapes and the other photo is of a coil basket 2 Photos; Sewing bags and knit things including a Hat on a manikin head 2 Photos; White Knit? Pumkins and crochet rugs 2 photos: knit hats and jacket and Yarn in skains 2 photos: wool cloth and yarn in many colours and yarn and knit socks and scarf 2 photos of braided yarn in many colours 2 photoss Mohair for sale and locks with wated doll in green outfit2.2-2.9) booths in the main lower hall

The second part of the lower level was accessible through a doorway and a small ramp. This was less finished and more basement-like. It also had an exterior door for accessibility from the outside. The booth sizes were bigger in this back section. There were two felters, which you may be interested in.

2 photos second hall basement: clothing and Upholstery Shop 2 photos second hall basement: Embroidery and anteques table display and close up of back of merorrors 2 photos second hall basement: Felting booth figures photo second hall basement: Felting booth Pictues landscape and Santa photo second hall basement: Edge of felting booth and Husband reading photo second hall basement: second felting booth this one has framed pictures.3.1-3.6) photos second hall basement

We had a thorough look through the event then went up the street to Alpaca tracks in hope of a butterscotch colour of alpaca fiber for a friend’s project. What they had, was not really what I was hoping for, but the store was interesting. Unfortunately, the fiber for sale is upstairs, and I was not feeling up to stairs by that point. So, I will show you a couple quick shots of the ground floor.

Outside and ramp into stone house that has been converted into a store (Alpaca tracks)4.1) the store Alpaca Tracks T(h)read Lightly

2 Photos one of felt flower with yellow center and wall hanging of alpaca 2 photos of displays Mettle frog with umbrella in front of felted mellons and wooden pumkins with cutting bords and scarves in the back ground 2 photos one of window vew with felted sunflowers and one of small wooden cut work candel holders 2 photos, one of Felt orniments including felt dodo bird and small alpaca made of leather.4.2-4.5) displays within the store that cot my eye

It was a store full of cool things to look at, much seemed to be made by local artists. Since I could not find the colour of fiber I was looking for I will have to look in Toronto later in the week.

 

I hope your virtual shopping money has not been badly depleted!! There is still the OVWSG guild sale to tell you about.  If you were in Ottawa the first weekend in November, I hope you dropped by (you might turn up in a blog post!) if you missed it, you can always plan ahead and be there next year!  But, if i am doing this in order, we need to have a quick chat about; reflections in glass, the ongoing Mer project, and a Visit to the Olive Sparrow (where there were lots of options of fiber!) before we can get to the guild sale.

PS the sneaky comment button is still hiding at the top of the page if you would like to chat!

Woodland Pictures and a Sunflower Wedding

Woodland Pictures and a Sunflower Wedding

Comments 15 comments

This month Region 8 of the International Feltmakers held an Autumn Woodland themed wet felted picture workshop led by Susan Mulcock. As with many other regions we’ve been struggling with workshop numbers recently so it was great to receive so much interest in Susan’s class that we were able to fill two separate classes over the weekend. A big shout out has to go to IFA member Kerry Thomas who travelled 250 miles from Lockerbie in Scotland to join us on the Sunday.

  • Kerry

We were encouraged to bring our own photos to use as inspiration and I chose one I’d taken while walking a local section of the Viking Way between Horncastle and Woodhall Spa. The Viking Way is a 149 mile long walking route through Lincolnshire, Leicestershire and Rutland. The route opened in 1976 and its name recognises the influence of the Norse invaders on the east of Britain. The route is clearly marked with the recognisable signage of a viking helmet on the yellow disc. 

 

Photo shows a wet felted Autumn Woodland themed picture. it was inspired by a stretch of the Viking Way near Horncastle in Lincolnshire.

I didn’t think to take photos of the process but this is my finished picture. Looking back at my original photo I think I must have been in a colourful mood when I was laying out my fibres! I’ve added some free motion stitch to help define the tree trunks and some of the finer branches but drew the line at adding hand embroidery. I feel I’d like to do some but I know that if I start I would have to add lots of it so I’ll live with it for now and maybe more stitching will be done at some point.

These are some of the wonderful pictures that were created over the weekend.

Something else I wanted to share with you, with permission from the bride, was my friend Sally’s wedding. Or rather the incredible textile/fibre creations that Sally produced for her wedding to fiance Chris. Sally joined the South Lincs Spinners, Weavers and Dyers three years ago where she learnt to spin and weave. She fell in love with both of these crafts and challenged herself to use them to create her own wedding outfit.

Chris’s mother is German and Sally has a thing for sunflowers so Sally aimed to combine both these themes for her big day. She began by purchasing green mulberry silk fibre from World of Wool which she spun. Next the spun fibre was woven and blocked before being cut out and sewn to create the beautiful bodice for her traditional German style dirndl outfit.

Extra fibre was spun and woven (just in case!) and this was used to make her usher, son Lewis, his waistcoat and to make the ring cushion. The gold apron features a white band made up of number of symbols, designed by Sally, that represent members of her family and these were crocheted using a fine thread to add a very personal detail to the outfit.

During our visit to Ampthill Fibre show this summer we saw a stall selling kits to create your own parasol. Sally bought a kit and had the fibre specially dyed to fit in with her sunflower colour scheme. She then crocheted her parasol cover and put the whole thing together to create a stunning accessory for her outfit.

Another beautiful touch was the wet felted Sunflower with Tyvek daisy’s that she made with me. It was attached it to her veil which in turn was lit from beneath with fairy lights.

At our Spinning meeting the month before the wedding we had a drop spindle demonstration and members that took part had the chance to spin a short length of fibre to take to Sally’s wedding. At the reception we took it in turns to add our yarn to a small piece of weaving which Sally and Chris will keep as a memento of their special day.

At the end of the ceremony I can imagine Sally breathing a huge sigh of relief that all her hard work had paid off and resulted in a day that was incredibly creative, unique and very much “Sally”!

Paper, Ink and Textiles….and….Pumpkins!

Paper, Ink and Textiles….and….Pumpkins!

Comments 19 comments

This will be a brief post from me this time as I frantically prep for overseas adventures…

Early this month our textile group had a workshop entitled Paper, Ink and Textiles given by Justine Warner (www.justinewarnerartist.com). She is a familiar tutor to our group as we have previously (a few years ago) undertaken her workshop involving ties. In fact at one point, she was known as the ‘Tie Lady’ meaning that donated ties would appear in bags on her door step!

01 An example of Justine’s Tie creations

 

This workshop was a new venture for Justine who demonstrated her ‘accidental inked finding’ with us that she has now perfected into an abstract landscape form.

02 Justine’s new work on paper

With both tables and us protected against being possibly inked in the process, we followed Justine’s instructions to create coloured sheets of paper. The sheet sizes were ideal for long landscapes and initially we worked on inexpensive paper to get the hang of the technique. Then we were let loose on the thick watercolour paper.

03 Colouring our sheets of paper – quite a messy process!

 

04 Some of my papers drying

The timing was such, that we had all the messy work done before lunch, giving us time for our work to dry.

Recently, Ruth posted about hand stitching into paper, so it is quite a coincidence that I had been machine stitching into paper around the same time.

As you can imagine, machine stitching directly into watercolour paper is the perfect way to create perforated shapes that decide to separate! So, it is no surprise that we used an iron-on interfacing before starting our stitching.

Again, we were given clear instructions on how to create our ‘implied’ landscapes and how to use the various bits and pieces (fabric, wool tops, threads, metal leaf, netting etc) to enhance our work.

05 The beginnings of my stitched landscape

All too quickly the afternoon was over….time just evaporated! Sadly, this meant that no one piece of work was finished (so I have yet another WIP to complete!). The collective display was impressive, and each piece looked so different. Adding a simple paper ‘frame’ to view each, really turned the creations into stunning works.

06 Work by other members of our group

07 and more work

These are just a few of the pieces that I particularly liked from a workshop that I enjoyed and was all too short.

 

Switching tracks (all will be become clear, I Hope) –

On Saturday, five of us from our local group attended an NWR (National Womens Register, Formerly the National Housewives Register) national conference held at the Hopetown Museum, Darlington.

I digress, but wow what a place….Hopetown is an ambitious £37m rail history museum, finally open for the 200-year celebration of passenger rail travel (the first being from Hopetown in Darlington)….I will definitely be going back to fully explore the offerings for every age, ability and technical know-how (most of which are free).

After the morning speakers and lunch, it was time to disperse to our various chosen workshops. Solo, I joined the ‘craft’ workshop with its seasonal theme of pumpkins.

The tutor brought lots of furnishing fabric offcuts and gave us clear instructions to make a small or large pumpkin, and if we had time maybe two.

08 Pumpkin examples

09 Conference Pumpkin workshop

We all set to sewing, and there was much light chatter. When you are part of a group, either local or national, you are one amongst like-minded people, so I found it easy to chat with my neighbours sharing our supplies and stories.

10 The invisible person or ‘ghost’ (my opportunity to continue the Halloween theme) marks my position!

11 The finale ‘Group’ photo

12 My efforts

On this occasion, whilst I did bring home a big pumpkin WIP, I set to and completed it that same evening….woohoo, an achievement. Both now have a place on the table. Happy Halloween👻

 

I will be keeping my eyes wide open during my adventures, particularly for creations and inspiration of a textile nature, and hopefully I may get a different slant on something I know. If I do, I will report back!

 

Inspiration is all around us….I hope you see something every day that will make you pause and take note.