Blue and green felt background with silk paper birch trees stitched to felt and machine stitched branches with dark grey thread.
New Landscapes

New Landscapes

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I started a couple of small landscapes this past week using pieces of nuno felt for the backgrounds but using the wool side instead of the silk side. I thought the “backs” were more reminiscent of forest than the silk side.

I already had some of the “birch” silk paper that I made several years ago so I used it for making trunks. Here’s my inital layouts for the two pieces. They are both about 5″ x 11″.

I then stitched the trunks down with 30 weight cotton machine thread in a very light grey. You might have noticed that I added a few more tree trunks to the right photo as it seemed a bit bare.

Blue and green felt background with silk paper birch trees stitched to felt and machine stitched branches with dark grey thread.

Then off to the machine to stitch the branches with free motion machine stitching. I only got one of the pieces machine stitched as I got tired with machine stitching. I am out of practice, I guess. Now what to do for the leaves? I could hand stitch, or use some type of applique.

It could be like ‘Thick with Green’ where I used cheesecloth for leaves.

Or perhaps more like ‘The First Leaf’ with green leaves instead of yellow. Or I could hand stitch the leaves? What do you think?

Thanks Carlene for providing me inspiration to create more birch trees!

Spinning with Tour de Fleece 2025

Spinning with Tour de Fleece 2025

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My husband Brian, and I, have faithfully watched the Tour de France bicycle race, for at least 30 years. It’s a crazy thing we started to follow every July, when Lance Armstrong was involved in racing – it was exciting to watch. Then, when the controversy about doping began, we became even more invested in the race. We still follow Lance, even though we were very disappointed in his unsportsmanlike actions. (After all, I think it is safe to say, we all make stupid decisions we are younger.) We’ve gotten familiar with all the commentators, the team sponsors, the athletes and where they come from: all over the world. It’s a nerdy thing – but we look forward to every July!

Imagine my surprise, when I found the fiber community figured out a way to “treadle” along with the bicyclist’s pedaling event!I’m thinking 🤔 it could’ve been an older woman, my age, who came up with this genius idea. She might’ve had a husband that VCR’d the daytime stages while he was at work – rush in the door, hit the remote and the race was on. If her husband was anything like mine, we watched the evening recap of stages with all the extra commentary too! It’s been our annual summer “holiday” (staycation) for almost 30 years! While it may sound like I am complaining, I am not in the least. It’s something we look forward to sharing each year: spending time together. I am typing this blog post right now, with the ‘Tour’ entering the Champs-Elysées, on the television in front of me.

This year’s Tour de France was a bit different. I had something to do while I watched *or rather listened to* the race! I started mentally preparing for my participation in Tour de Fleece 2025, last year, when I found the Tour de Fleece spinning group on Facebook. It was only a couple months after my course at John Campbell Folk Art School. I was so excited to hear this was a thing, I ordered t-shirts, and proudly presented Brian with his own Tour de Fleece 2024 shirt. We’ve worn them quite a bit this past year, and enjoy the chuckles we get – from people who know of the race – and our relationship with fiber. It’s been enjoyable to communicate with other spinners, who mentioned spinning along with other well known bicycle races. I joined them, in getting some practice in, through Vuelta a España, and the Giro d’Italia.

This bobbin is a bit overspun
Fiber purchased NY Sheep & Wool 2016
The result is the skein on the right
My Practice Spins Before Tour de Fleece 2025

I noticed so many spinners in the group were focused on spinning epic amounts of fiber, but the group itself is non-competitive. There are spin-off groups 🤭 who have copied the idea; wearing crowns, decorating their wheels, and offering prizes. I decided to keep my goal simple; have fun and enjoy the process. It worked out perfectly for me. I purchased a nice variety of fibers, from my friends at Inglenook Fibers. They are masters of color, create unique fiber blends, and best of all assist Brian in making amazing gifts for a wife who is very particular. Every year these talented Greek Orthodox nuns, create a couple fiber pre-orders, that go along with stages/locations of the race.

This year’s pre-orders were based on the location Carcassonne: a French fortified city in the department of Aude, region of Occitania. The photo here is from wikipedia, but it gives the flavor of the color pallet. I purchased the daytime inspired, Morning in Carcassonne which goes with this photo very well.

The beautiful colors of Carcassonne, France
Inspirational Photo for Soir à Carcassonne

The blend (see braid below) of 30% Manx Loaghtan, 30% Polwarth, 30% Mulberry Silk and 10% Firestar was very easy to draft. I chose to divide the braid in half and spun it on two bobbins, offsetting the colors a bit, by pulling off a couple colors, and adding it to the end of the 2nd bobbin’s fiber. I concentrated on spinning consistency, and the result was a balanced skein in the end. The skein shown in the photo below wasn’t washed yet. After doing so, the fiber bloomed beautifully and it’s probably a nice worsted weight.


Soir à Carcassonne

This “Tickled Pink” in Organic Polwarth (photos above) was a blend I received for Christmas. In February, they offered the same color blend again. By this point in my spinning, I was beginning to discover spinning little bits of this – and little bits of that are fun to spin in practicing, but not practical for me to really use. When I saw the second chance to have a total of 11.4 ounces of fiber I jumped at the opportunity to get a second package. This Organic Polwarth gave me an opportunity to spin a very bouncy (springy) fiber. I mentioned above that I was concentrating on spinning the Soir à Carcassonne consistently…so I decided to try out something I heard Jillian Moreno discuss on a video I watched. She discussed sometimes, it’s fun to let your fiber dictate how it wants to be spun. I really enjoyed the way this Polwarth allowed me to spin joyfully. I was experiencing a stressful week, and spinning that fiber at the end of my day, was helping me cope. You can see in the photos, this fiber told me it wanted to be big and bold, and boy did it deliver. With 11 ounces yielding 206 yards, that makes it a chunky weight yarn. I’m thinking it would make a warm, squishy cowl, and possibly a pair of fingerless mitts, or mittens.

So far, I’ve discovered fiber preparation is the key to my success. For me, as a newer spinner, high micron sheep 🐑 fibers create thicker springy yarns in worsted weight or above. However, when I spin finer blends, I can get my spins down to fingering or dk weights when plied. What are my favorite thin-spin blends you might be wondering? Any low micron sheep fiber blended with 30% silk! For me, I find the longer silk fibers, help the wool fibers hold together in the twist process. The management of that darn twist is the key!

This is my current spin. I think it might make a perfect sweater!

If you’re a spinner…what do you enjoy spinning most? Leave your answer in the comments, and tell me the advantages you’ve found.

Fixing my purse

Fixing my purse

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I am in love with my large Healthy Back Bag purse.  Sadly the company has decided that they will no longer offer this size for sale.  So when my last purse died I scoured various sites so I could adopt a gently used purse.  I managed to find an affordable one in the correct size.  However, on my previous purse, the company had changed the closure on the flap pocket to use magnets.  But on my new to me gently used purse the flap closure uses velcro.  Unfortunately, the velcro was damaging my clothes as the nylon dresses I like to wear can easily be snagged/rubbed/pilled by the velcro.

I hatched a plan.  I decided to remove the velcro and replace it with magnetic snaps that I would sew on.  This lead me to do some online shopping and order a bunch of different magnetic snaps of various types and sizes.  When the order arrived July 1st (a Canadian holiday – Happy Canada Day) and so I set to work.

While struggling to get the seam ripper between the velcro and the purse I was obviously a bit too forceful and I ripped the purse 🙁  Sadness.

This required a bit of a rethink.  I dug out my large patch weaving tool and positioned it on my purse.  Then I used some strong nylon thread to create a strengthening repair of the tear.  (It is crude but hopefully effective.)

Next I dug out some embroidery floss to weave with.  I selected the dark purple thread bundle from the package on the left.  I was expecting it to weave up as a nice plaid.

Using some tailors chalk I then marked out the area I wanted to cover with my weaving on the pocket of my purse.  My goal was to roughly centre the patch of weaving, so I used a tape measure to check my lines. I was also hoping that the chalk lines would help me make a tidy square.

After planning my area I threaded the needle and began warping the mending loom.  There were a few challenges.  A few of the hooks on the mending loom were twisting over each other.  In addition, the dark purple was hard to see well against the black.  My needle was also a bit large and very sharp (there was some minor blood letting when I pricked my finger.)

I did get the loom threaded though there are a couple of crossed threads and one missed hook.  By the time I discovered those problems I was onto the weaving.  I figured that these flaws would be minor and so I continued on.

After a bit of effort the rectangle was woven. I did find the chalk lines were helpful to guide my stitches and keep the edges relatively straight. I would definitely use chalk to mark out my border again.  After removing the loom I sewed the pocket closed and then sewed in all my tails.

Finally it was time to work on my magnetic snaps.  I poked through the selection of various snaps that I purchased, and decided to use these metal snaps for the flap.  I also decided that I would install two snaps instead of a single snap in the middle of the flap. (My old purse had a single snap.).  I threaded my needle with the strong black nylon thread and sewed on the snaps.  (This was harder than expected as my needle frequently got jammed in the eye hole on the snaps.)

My project was a bit more involved than I originally expected.  But I am delighted with my purple patch and the new magnetic snaps on my purse.

I hope this post inspires you to repair something that you love and breathe some new life into it.

 

New book on Blending boards to tempt you

New book on Blending boards to tempt you

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I am not sure how it got to be Thursday so quickly. It’s been a busy week since we last chatted. I was working on another post about demoing felting, but it needs more work, so that will be coming later.  This week at the local guild, we had a social focusing on Blending Boards. My Kia is partway through her gastric surgery (one of the parts of the new parts was missing from the box, so next week?)  The weeds are trying to outnumber the plants in the pots, so that has to be done; they are all looking limp from heat and lack of water, i have to fix that too.  The last part of the huge fleece is finally in for its first rinse. Just to add extra excitement, I am still wiping out and having long naps at odd moments. Life is fun!

Since you probably are not interested in the gastric distress of my car, and are likely trying to tackle your own weeds and lack of water (although it keeps raining?) So, this will be a short blog, so you can go enjoy the weeding and fleece washing while the snowbanks are not here.  Let me show you what turned up, besides blending boards and bags of bits of fibre, at the local guild on Monday.

Guild social with Blending boards

Removing one dowl from rolag0.11) Ann making rolags on the blending board, 2 more blending boards used in the background

removed last dowl and the rolag looks flopy0.12)- Ann’s rolag is flaccid!

some of the spinners at the social, 4of the 6 spinning are using drop spindles. One you can see the rolag she is working from0.13) 4 of the 6 spinners are using drop spindles

Daisy brought in her new book: “The Spinner’s Blending Board Bible: From Woolen to (Nearly!) Worsted and Everything in Between”,  by Deborah Held. Released April 2025,  it is hardcover and has 136 pages, in English.  (ISBN: ‎ 978-0811773676, if you wanted to look at it too)

cover of: The Spinner’s Blending board Bible, from wool to (nearly!) worsed and everything in between”,  by Deborah Held1.1)cover of: The Spinner’s Blending Board Bible, from wool to (nearly!) worsted and everything in between”,  by Deborah Held

This book was written for spinners, but felters may also be inspired by it. Anyone working with fibre has more options if they know more ways to prepare that fibre. Different fibre preps produce different kinds of yarn if you are spinning, and will behave differently if you are wet or dry felting. More options are always good. For felters, the fibre mixes that a blending board can create may inspire you. Probably a turbulent sea or impending stormy sky, even mixes of greens suggesting distant trees?

first 2 pages of table of contents1.2) first 2 pages of the Contents pages

chapters 3-6 plus appendices1.3) Chapters 3-6 plus appendices

Let’s have a look at the contents of the book to see if it sparks your interest. While I am writing this, Indigo (online) has an excerpt including the full list of contents (in case my new camera and I are still discussing visual acuity) https://www.indigo.ca/en-ca/the-spinners-blending-board-bible-from-woolen-to-nearly-worsted-and-everything-in-between/c06b9a51-bd73-3adf-adf6-1d363cd16a3c.html

Here are the main topics covered (I have listed the contents of all of chapter 4, since it may be of greatest interest to felters):

Foreword

Introduction

1: YOUR BLENDING BOARD: THE ALL-IN-ONE FIBER-PROCESSING TOOL

  • Breaking Down the Blending Board
  • A Comparison of Tools Used in Fiber Preparation

2: INDUSTRY SECRETS: UNLOCKING THE HIDDEN POTENTIAL OF YOUR BLENDING BOARD

  • Aftermarket Accessories
  • Technique: Dos and Don’ts
  • Smooth vs. Textured Preparations
  • Working with “Difficult” Fibers

3: ROLLED-OFF PREPARATIONS: ROLAGS, ROLLED LOGS, PUNIS, AND ROLY-POLIES

  • Rolled-off Preparations, Defined
  • Rolling Fiber Off Your Blending Board
  • Color, Texture, and Other Creative Play

4: BATTS AND CLOUDS, ROVINGS AND SLIVERS

  • Batts
  • Better Batts
  • Make the Best Batts
  • Layer Your Fiber in Thin Staple Lengths, Burnishing Often
  • Remove the Batt from the Blending Board
  • Make It a Double
  • Make It More Woolen with Multiple and Directional Passes
  • Directional Loading
  • Recard Your Batt
  • Make It More Worsted
  • Carded Clouds
    • Make It the Most Woolen
  • Roving vs. Sliver
    • Pin-drafted Roving
  • Make Your Own Roving, Multiple Ways
  • Hand-pulled Rovings: from a Batt/Cloud or Roll-up, as a Z-strip
  • Diz a Roving or Sliver
  • Diz from the Board
  • Off the Batt or Roving
  • Double-diz
  • Make It More Worsted
  • Creative Play with Color and Texture
  • Flecks/Tweeds and Heathers
  • Garneting for Extra Texture
  • Make It a Marl by Stacking Your Batts
  • Stripes/Repeating Colors and Variegates
  • Color Blocking
  • Gradients
  • Vertical and Horizontal Gradients
  • Individually Carded Gradients
  • Scraptastic Sandwich Batts
  • Fractals
  • Fancy Farm Batt
  • Bizzed Datty Bumps

5: UNEXPECTED WAYS TO USE YOUR BLENDING BOARD

  • Bring a Braid of Fiber Back to Life
  • Flick-card Locks and Line Them Up for Spinning
  • Flick-comb Your Locks
  • Diz a Repeatable “Combed” Top
  • Wet Felting

6: CARE AND STORAGE OF YOUR BLENDING BOARD

  • Keep It Clean
  • Storage

Acknowledgments

Appendix A: DIY Blending Board

Appendix B: Comparison of Blending Boards Used in This Book

Resources and Credits

Glossary

I like that the book considers repeatable and totally unrepeatable ways to work with fibre.  While it’s fun to do artsy one-off things, it’s also nice to be able to get a predictable effect and repeat it if you want to. There are two tables I am particularly impressed with, one on types of fibre prep and what they produce (with pros and cons)(I want to meet this author!!). And the other on the Woolen to worsted continuum. It’s an elegant way of explaining vocabulary. Which is a problem when shopping for the prepared fibre, you want what you thought you were purchasing to arrive.  There are good photos of various ways to lay out colour to get different effects as well as photos that show how to use the equipment, including the diz.

Let me show you a few interior pages to see if I can tempt you to check it out further.

2.1--2.6) interior shots of the book to tempt you to go take a look at it.

As you can see from the list of contents and the photos, this book covers a lot of ground, not only in ways to make use of a blending board but also in the various fibre preparations and how they are different.  If your library or guild picks up this book, seek it out and take a perusal. Even if you never find a blending board at a garage sale or make your own, there is a lot of info here in case you do!

Back cover showing text and photos of rolags and dizing and photo of authors picture3)Back cover

Also, you can absorb the info presented and transfer that knowledge to a drum carder if you have one, or have access to use one.  You can lay fibre directly on the drum, diz off or make rolags. Even after a short-ish perusal and skimming, it has me thinking odd thoughts of trying things on my drum carder.  But first, I have to finish washing the last of that giant fleece. Just how big was that sheep? And what was he rolling around in? That water is filthy.

Oh no, a big storm is coming through in consecutive waves this evening, I guess the weather thought that fleece was very dirty too and is helping with the rinse!  I will hope the waves of the incoming storm don’t take out the power before I get this posted!!! (Ann may not be able to do the final spellcheck and find all the missing or extra capitals!)

Have fun! Stay dry, Enjoy Summer and Keep Felting!!

finished my fairy tail spinning….almost

finished my fairy tail spinning….almost

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A short spinning post today. We have a social on Mondays at our guild. When I am there, I help Jan with the Library. We are going through our archive book boxes and deciding what to keep and what to sell. A big Job. Once that is done, I spin on my spindle. I am not a production spinner. I like to slowly spin small quantities of fibre; I just enjoy spinning and chatting.

I got a sample bag of fibre from World of Wool. It was called Fairytail, 67% merino; 33% stellina. It is a lovely fibre with sparkle. I know it is almost as bad as glitter for getting everywhere, but I can’t resist sparkle. Sadly, they have discontinued this group or fibre. The Stlina is much more expensive than angelina or trilobal nylon, so I imagine it was not as popular. However, it is soft and spins wonderfully.

There were 8 colours. The yellow disappeared, but I did get a picture of it spun.

The teal red is still a single and I will probably ply it on Monday. The last one is the problem child. I did try to spin this, but it just ends up dull and muddy. There are just too many opposing colours in it. The stripes are too small to let you separate them out, so it will have to be used for something else.

I have managed to do some more work on my workshop. I have discovered a mistake in my instructions. It makes me grateful for my computer and word processing. I can easily go through the document and change it. I am old enough to remember retyping things because of a small mistake.  And not being able to use white-out because it would look bad.

Book page spread collaged with various elements.
More Altered Tree Book Pages

More Altered Tree Book Pages

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My altered tree book is moving along slowly. I made a few more pages and used some of my scraps from the word printing experiment.

Book pages spread on the work table after being gessoed.

I try to keep some page spreads that already have gesso on them so that I can sit down anytime to create a few collaged spreads. The one on the middle left is gessoed with clear gesso that Paula uses. I just have the white gesso so most of my pages will be covered first with that.

Book pages spread on work table after walnut ink applied.

I then added some walnut ink to tone down the whiteness of the page. I decided to add walnut ink to the edges of one of my miniature paintings too. It definitely helps to tone down the white edges for this project.

Book page spread collaged with various elements.

Then I have a bag full of scraps and papers in my chosen colorway. It’s fun putting the mark making and other papers together.

Book page spread collaged with various elements.

The eco printed leaf is one that Paula did and gave to me.

Book page spread collaged with various elements.

I was much happier with the miniature landscape once the edge was no longer white. The words are a poem about trees.

Book page spread collaged with various elements.

The old “papers” are such a great addition to the book.

Book page spread collaged with various elements.

I found this “tree” on the right that I had made but not used in a different collage. It’s made from printed black paper. I finally used my original color inspiration in this spread.

Book page spread collaged with various elements.

Here’s another one with the screen printed inspiration paper and some mark making from the word experiments.

I have to figure out how I am going to make my signatures. For those of you who don’t make books, a signature is a group of papers that are stitched into the binding in one “piece”. I don’t think I will have all the pages filled. I will leave a bunch of blank pages so that I can draw or write or make marks in the book later. I am also planning on adding some fabric pages into the book. Then those can be stitched when inspiration strikes.

A mannequin head is sporting a bright pink and salmon flowery headress and cowl in sequins
A flowery start to Spring with ‘Flowers’, an exhibition in London, UK – Part 2

A flowery start to Spring with ‘Flowers’, an exhibition in London, UK – Part 2

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Here we are with the second part of the exhibition ‘Flowers’ that I have been to in London.

If you have not caught the first part, it is here.

We go back straight to the fashion and textiles section of the exhibition with these garments with glass beads, sequine and tulle decorations:

There are two mannequins with tight fitting outfits with flower motifs on a white raised platform
Sorcha O’Raghallaigh’s take on the theme of Flora.

This can be another take on the traditional very feminine flowery lace clothing:

A photo of a person with their head and upper body covered in black flowery lace, on a white wall
This lace seems a tad oppressive..we can undoubtedly think about the meaning of this Girl in Lace, photo by Kent Baker of a high fashion dress by Alexander McQueen, 1996. I like how the edges of the lace around the shoulders are very organic.

And what about these flowery high end sandals?

A pair of black sandals with long straps full of flower shapes are on a raised platform
Manolo Blahnik’s take on the theme, also 1996.

There was also some artistic experimentation on recycled textiles, such as this on Denim:

On a wooden board supported by a wooden shelf there is a flower artwork made of embroidered denim
Embroidered Denim on tea-stained fabric by Stephanie Comilang. I feel that the mounting on a solid wood board requiring a supporting shelf seems more like a statement of some kind than actual necessity, as it must make it quite a bit heavier and the whole arrangement bulkier, don’t you think?

And for the milliners:

A mannequin head is sporting a bright pink and salmon flowery headress and cowl in sequins
By Sorcha O’Raghallaigh. Sequins, wire and mesh. Not overly practical, but it seems very Lady of Spring kind of look.

And we can not really finish this fashion show without the wedding dress and jewellery:

A white wedding dress with large hood and colorful flowers coming out of the bustier, on a mannequin on a raised platform. The background is a flowery wallpaper in blue.
Daniel Roseberry designed it for Schiaparelli in 2024, with handpainted leather flowers: I can’t imagine it being very comfy, but surely this is not the only consideration on that special day..

A display case with matching earrings and brooch in the shape of a flower
Flower shapes are Italian jewellery brand Bucellati’s own distinctive mark on the jewellery brands landscape.

Going forward, the exhibition also had a wall of stylized flower prints, all pretty similar in concept and disposition, all apparently making references to the famous ‘Flowers’ series by Andy Warhol:

Two prints of stylized flowers in groups of 4 each on a green wall
The original ‘Flowers’ prints by Andy Warhol that have been hugely reproduced and copied/referenced to since their conception in the 60’s. He used an interesting method to come to this design that he later reproduced in hundreds of prints: he took photos by Patricia Caulfield on a magazine, simplified the images by flattening, cropping and amending the contrast, then screen-printed them or painted them on canvas in different colorways.

Something quirkier in mixed media seems like a parody of our flower veneration when it comes to indoor plants: take the exotic but so very common now Phalaenopsis orchid..

There is an upside down vase of pink orchids on a stand. two persons' backs are behind the stand admiring other artworks on the wall behind the upturned vase.
You could surely do something similar in needlefelt, but this is painted bronze, aluminium steel, and epoxy. By Tony Matelli

Another mixed media artwork that used fabric was this one, that I particularly noticed for its use of colour:

A blue log supports various flowers and mushrooms in artificial colors, on a white stand on a platform.
This mixed media artwork has an interesting choice of colours. Wood, grout, fabric, acrylic paint, resin, polymer clay, metal, wire. By Nathalie Djurberg & Hans Berg

A huge success with kiddies and also adults was this moving structure by William Darrell. The plastic petals were constantly rotating.

A moving installation is in the middle of a room inside a small circular enclosure filled with bark. There are stem-like structures emerging from the bark and supporting moving blade-like petals in different colors. the petals are rotating. In the background there are people looking at other artworks on the walls.
It does not seem much in a photo, its main feature was the moving petals of the flowers.

I post here also this painting because it reminded me of some of Moy Mackay’s artworks in felt, but it is by Vik Muniz in archival paint.

A very colorful painting of a vase of flowers in a black frame.
This is really saturated colours!

And I guess here we come to the very star of the show in my perspective (though by no means to the end of the exhibition, that was huge!): a big immersive installation that I loved, by Rebecca Louise Law, an installation artist based in Wales. It took years of picking up dead flowers and herbs and seed pods, with substantial donations by public parks and private gardens. I can not even imagine the time she must have spent on installing the whole in the gallery, as each dangling strand was carefully tuned in terms of shape and colour: only being inside the room could give an idea of the patient planning of each part.

Some people are exploring an immersive installation of dried flowers and herbs and seed pods dangling from the ceiling.
I could not photograph it in full, as it completely covered the whole room ceiling to floor. There were big arms extending towards different corners of the room, each made of many many single filaments.

Detail of one arm in the installation of dried flowers by Rebecca Louise Law
I can not add too many photos but this may give you a better idea of what I am talking about in terms of individual strands: ridiculous amounts of flowers and herbs just in one of this, all linked with very thin copper wire in long freely moving filaments.

This big installation was about the connection of us humans with the earth, and about meditating on life, death and the space that is between life and death. I found it awe inspiring for the sheer technical challenge of planning and creating it, and I can  not explain the moving feeling that one got by slowly walking in the room and looking up and down at the cascading strands of flowers and herbs with their subtle changes of colours and shapes perfectly paced to create a rhythm in the composition. This aspect could not really come through in my photos, as the variations were too subtle to show well in photos and only being there would do to experience it, unfortunately.

Another artist using real flowers and muted colours, but singularly and to completely different, streamlined effect is Stephen Doherty with this Giclee print:

Giclee print of a single flower in muted pink and black on a white background
By Stephen Doherty.

Interesting was also a small section of the exhibition on the use of flowers in protest, with some photos of historical examples such as this very American one:

Photo of a group of young people offering flowers to uniformed soldiers as part of the anti-Vietnam war protests at the Pentagon in 1967
This was shot in 1967 at the Pentagon by S. Sgt. Albert R. Simpson.

Next was a room about flowers in music, film and literature: the walls were packed with famous album covers and film posters, and display cases were showing books. There are of course hundreds of examples of flowers in any of these fields!

Here I found a nice textile take on the first and most famous fairies books, the ones by Cicely Mary Barker, and I took photos for Leonor (you may remember her post about sewing dolls clothes, if not, read it here):

In the foreground there is a mannequin with a green top and pink skirt and fly-like wings. In the backgrounds there are persons looking at other displays on the walls.
This is Sweet Pea Miniature Costume, created in 2019 (though it feels older to me, due to the muted colours) by Vin Burnham and property of The Frederik Warne and Ladybird Archive.

A wall covered in framed music single covers sporting flowers either in the title or band name or in the picture or both
This is just to give you a rough idea of this room. This is part of the music section.

Following this, there was a room with an interactive installation were weird digital flowers kept being generated by AI in response to people’s movements, becoming by turns luscious alien jungles or more sedated growing stems. It was not very suitable to photos, so we just sat there a while observing and, to be honest but do not tell anybody, gratefully having a rest.

Followed more flowers in various medias, from cut steel to cut paper:

A cut paper composition of dark pink poppies with a white background and a black frame.
By Susan Beech.

I liked this composition of linocut on handmade paper by Grace Gillespie, as it very much linked to the William Morris section that we had already passed in the first half of the exhibition:

A 4 by 3 grid of paper pieces, each printed with flower motifs in bright oranges, reds and pink, with only one blue bird in the upper center piece.
I may find inspiration for printmaking ideas in this..

There was a room on flowers and plants in Science and in Medicine, with botanical drawings and paintings, and also mathematical works inspired by plants and flowers proportions. The room included a Damien Hirst’s work about Valium with spots in the exact shape of daisy seeds, that might be of interested to the more science oriented of us:

A print of dots in different colors forming a circle shape on a white background and with a white frame
Apparently, those are not random dots, but precisely determined. Lambda chromogenic print.

There was also a section on flower gardening and the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, that is a venerable institution started in 1913 and whose first poster has been designed in 1935 by Margaret Calkin James. This section explored (a bit superficially) our relationship with flower growing.

A bit incongrously in my opinion, here there were two glass cases with a kind of morbid take on mixed media flowers, and it maybe says something of me that I want to post a photo of it here for you to collectively say Yuck!

In an upturned glass bowl there are flowers made of small animal bones and teeth.
Yep, it’s animal bones and teeth. How nice. By Emma Witter.

At this point fatigue had totally set in, I am afraid, and I could see that this particular artwork got to us out of proportions.

To react to this and perk up, I tried to get a few more photos only of very bright and uplifting artworks after that!

Four very brightly colored paintings of plants and flowers.
Brightly and riotous like those oils by Mimei Thompson in the New Shoots section of the exhibition.

Cute-pugs-effect warning here:

Painting of two pugs puppies in front of a flower vase.
The title is also pretty funny if your first language is Italian, as it is ‘Gnocchi’ (in Italian that is a type of potato dumplings with no filling). By Ally McIntyre

Six very colorful circular artworks in a 2 by 3 grid.
I really liked this idea for using screenprint on ply in a different shape that does not need any frame at all. I can totally see how those can work well as points of interest in a room even singly. By Jess Wilson.

And with this I think that I will finish on the brightest note, so here is The End, and I hope that you enjoyed a taste of this big exhibition in London, and that it might inspire you in your creative months ahead!

Kiki

http://www.kikistextileart.com

@kiki.textile.art

Soap, Chooks and Distant Memories of Summer

Soap, Chooks and Distant Memories of Summer

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It’s funny how the time flies isn’t it? I feel like I have been crazy busy for months but when I stop and think what I have to show for it, I’m stumped! I have been working on a piece for the IFA magazine, Felt Matters which has taken a fair chunk of my time. Fingers crossed, that piece will appear in the September issue but I can’t say too much about that before it is published….

There have been quite a few markets and spin-ins this month, which have been fun but not all that profitable, fingers crossed I do better at the next two, a pottery market in South Auckland and then Fibretron, one of the biggest fibre events in New Zealand….

I sold a few felted soaps at the Nathan Homestead market:

So I have been replacing some of that stock, first I needed to work out which soaps needed replacing:

Then to work…

A few of the finished soaps ready for the next market….

Not fibre related but we have two new chooks, a friend adopted a new dog and was struggling to manage so I agreed to add her two ladies (Thelma and Louise) to our flock of nine naughty chooks. I had hoped to keep them in a separate run and coop (alcatraz henitentiary) where they could all see each other for at least a couple of weeks. However, 3 of my girls decided the mountain of food in their troughs wasn’t enough, they wanted what the new girls were eating and broke into alcatraz. So I had to play prison guard and break up the fights, turns out one of my Red Shavers is a horrible bully, she’s been threatened with the pot a few times.

Thelma and Louise in the henitentiary

Thelma and Louise are still sleeping and laying in the henitentiary but are allowed to free range during the day. For the most part they are hanging out away from my original flock but every now and then I have to break up the squabbles and chase the naughty bully away.

In between chook chasing I have started work on a crochet shawl using some hand-spun art yarn, can you see the shells and glass beads? It was spun form some of the pina colada blend I have for sale, it contains pineapple fibre and reminds me of summers on the beach. A distant memory in the depths of a New Zealand winter!

Summer Needle felting Demo, July 12 2025

Summer Needle felting Demo, July 12 2025

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Summer Demo at the Glengarry Pioneer Museum

I have spent the week, investigating possible new cars, trying to fix the cell phone that had just been Fixed with a new sim card, so I can chat with my car’s Doctor and my bank. After one call out it is again refusing to let anyone talk to me. (it’s not that I get a lot of calls, but some day the visa purchases I am told I made, while I was sleeping, will be delivered.  What will I do with all those amazon iPhone? I wonder who is getting them and who’s visa it is that keeps paying for them?

Was it a few weeks ago I was out at the father’s day Blacksmithing event in Dunvagen Ontario. While there, felting and taking pictures of blacksmiths, I was asked if I could come demo felting for their fiber and fabric event in July. I said I was interested but would have to confirm closer to the event.  I am still not back to feeling like myself yet.

flyer for the event 1.1) the add for the Glengarry Pioneer Museum event.

So beside the phone and the car,  I spent part of this week trying to find my demo stuff to do a display of both 2 and 3 D needle felting.  (I should probably have found Miaka’s giant fish to sow wet felting,  but as I said I am still not quite back to normal and seem to still be forgetting to think of things.)

Of course I need to take the Mer-Boyfriend I was working on too. Now where did he wonder off to? he went into the guild a couple weeks ago, I am sure he came back. What is it with Mer-Teens wanting to play hide and seek in my house?? We searched the bags that go back and forth to the guild, no, I looked in the office, the bedroom and was trying to search the living room. Glenn even checked the basement. I was so disappointed. Maybe he had found Miss Mer and they were hiding together? Maybe I should collect the rest of what I want to take and then look again.

I got the Moose bag with the landscape and the bags of fiber to work on it from the hall and added it to the commercial felt bin with handles. Glenn said he found the sample punctures down stairs. I found the green tool bag and extra foam garden needling pad to work on. I found the bag of core wool of carded roving from World of Wool and wound a couple big balls of wool from it. (I am going to have to get some more soon I hope Ann needs something from them!) I had Glenn’s moose bag hanging in the bedroom, when I grabbed it, it was lumpier than I remember it being…. I looked in and guess who was hiding inside? Mer-Boyfriend!!!

map from Ottawa to Dunvagan Ontario. about an hour driving.1.2) a bit of a drive with all the construction on the highway

Saturday July 12 2025, Glenn loaded the car and we were ready to go. oh my, its seems a bit warm out! As you step out the door it feels like you are wrapped in a very worm wet wool blanket, except for the wet part that would sound nice, but the blanket is wrapped around the head too and you are trying to breathe through it. Not so nice, really. If only my car would consider letting the AC work, well I still remember cars without AC so rolled down the windows. The drive was not too bad once we were moving and we arrived with time to set up.

Other than hot it was a beautiful sunny day, booths were scattered around the museum grounds and buildings. I had a fabulous spot on the covered porch at the corner of the building and very close to the handy cap parking! We loaded up the grey box on the walker and threw the black car blankets on top. Glenn brought the other bags and we quickly set up a display. I turned the commercial felt box on it side so the opening was towards the back of the table where I would be sitting. This gives both a spot to hide stuff, like my camera, extra work tools, and wool, as well as give height to the display. I used it to lean the Mer’s against as well as one sitting on top of it. it also supported the two moose bags and the picture of the winter round bales. I had miss manta and Sharkette sitting in front of the work area and the little aluminum folding table from the car had the fox face picture.

setting up felting demo display felting display 2D and 3D Close up of the Mers (Mer-Persons)2.1-2.3) the Mer’s getting ready to People watch and hoping for a tennis match.

When I have the Mer’s comfortable,  we can made a quick tour around to see some of the booths before people started to arrive.

Glenn took a few shots of the demo as I was working and chatting. They will show the display better and prove I was actually there!

old chair beside display of felting2.4) Glenn had the cool chair and a book on architecture as well as my old camera.

Ottawa Valley Hay rolls in winter2.5) Winter hay in the Ottawa valley

manta ray and sharket in forground jan in background Mr. Mer, Sharkboy, Jan in back ground2.61-2.62) Proof I was there (I never seem to be in the photos!!)

Fox face clsoe up needle felting in a way similar to watercolour2.7) Fox and my sturgeon reference photos

open sided barn with quilts displayed inside closer vew of a few of the quilts3.1-3.2) There was a quilt display in the open sided barn

I was hoping to get back and take some close ups, But kept having people stop and ask lots of questions about needle felting. I hope I got them inspired to try it.

first people ariving for the event table and sign and people4.1) Oh no I better hurry, the first few people are arriving. (Glenn is manning the demo so we can go take a quick look around.)

Most of the venders were under tents.

Booth with sewen items4.2) Sewing

Knitting and sewing itums4.3) Knitting  and Sewing. I think the pom-poms will melt shortly!

pop up tent with Alpaca yarn underneeth4.4) HUM selling alpaca yarn and teddy bares. I didn’t see any fiber but I tried to get a quick look.

closer vew of yarn and alpaca bare display4.5) a close up of some of their stock

Chrochay itums4.6) Just past the building with the forge there was a booth with crochet. I got distracted looking ahead, and almost missed her!

looking ahead towords more log buildings with tents with booths 4.7) There are booths hidden under the trees and by one of the log buildings.

Oh there are more booths hidden by the open carriage barn! I almost missed them too, lets look over there first.

There must be fiber here somewhere!

a large display of sweadish weaving 5.1) Swedish weaving. it’s a type of needle weaving on already woven fabric. The patterns were very interesting.

close up of sign and some of the patterns5.2) Swedish Weaving Guild of South Glengarry and Area

tables of booth beneath large trees 5.3) I think this was a display of Lace but I didn’t ever get a chance to get back and look. They had a lovely shady spot!

Rug hooking demonstration and display table beside5.41) this was a display of rug hooking

Rug hookers display table close up5.42) some of their display

crocheay anagarumi5.51) Anagarumi gnomes, bees, and sea creatures!

anagarumi bees and cow5.52) close up of the bees and the Cows I didn’t notice!

braded ruggs5.61) Braided rugs, the one on the end I particularly liked the colours chosen

braded rug display with cool old sewing macheen 5.62) cool sewing machine

the Embroidery guild display of work5.71) the embroidery guild display

the embroiderers and more of there work5.72) the embroiders enjoying the shade

AH HA!! I found fiber people!

2 seated drop spinners and one seated carder 6.1) Drop spindles and fiber prep!

I found out later there was a drop spindle competition between three of the guilds represented here today.   Think I was told it was The Twistle Guild of Glengarry, the Kingston Handloom Weavers & Spinners Guild and the Ottawa Valley Weavers and Spinners Guild (OVWSG).

I better get back to work soon or I will get fired before I get started!

Oh there is one more booth on the way back, it advertised bespoke Tartan kilts! (But no modeling display!!!) Sorry I got distracted by the tartan sample books and missed the kilts on the table.

books of tartan samples Historical recreations of tartens7.1-7.2) tartan sample books

Ok, now to demonstrate needle felting. I am focusing on making the flattish bottom of the sturgeon so I will have to build up on either side of the wrapped armature.

Mer-Boyfriend in progress. focusing on underside of fish parts8) Mer-Boyfriend in progress. focus is on under side of fish part of body

I explained multiple times why i was making a Mer-Boyfriend to lour the missing teen-Mer back to the office.

I was doing quite well with chatting and working on the under body,  then realized there were booths in the school house too. Since the people seemed to be elsewhere it’s time to take a quit trip to the bathroom then on to the schoolhouse!

Oh this is where the fiber people are!! Two of the booths have drop spindles, one selling Ashford and the other had their own design. Quite hefty but I tend to like heavy whorls (I was tempted) I got distracted by second hand quilting hoops and bought 2.

spinning tools and wooden knitting needles more tools and qui;t hoops in the back ground9.11-9.12) Tools

one of vendors showing how to use a drop spindle9.21) Drop spindle demo to a customer she had batts on the shelves at the back too

bags of fleece some washed and some raw in various breeds9.22) washed and unwashed fiber various breeds

Here is the winner of the 2-hour drop spindle competition. They were each given, the same amount, of the same fiber, and had to spin the longest even amount (?).  I am not sure if they had to ply it, or if they were spinning singles.

the drop spindle compatition winner was from the OVWSG10) this is the competitor from my local guild who won!

Mer-BoyFriend is progressing11.) odd I was sure I took a lot more progress pictures as I was working.

It was close to 3pm and I wanted to make a quick run (ok running is not really quick and it doesn’t look like running…) but I had wanted to go take pictures of the quilts and see what the yarn seller beside the wall-less barn was selling.  I had a couple more people come up, just as I was wheeling away from the table with my camera who had questions about needle felting. By the time they had run out of questions, I looked up to see this.

the quilts are being taken down close up of the one i had been admiring as i worked12.1) the quilts are disappearing!

Which quickly became this:

packing up the venders and quilt display12.2) 4pm and packing up

Oh well, maybe next year?

I did have a lot of great conversations, including with the photographer I saw at the blacksmithing weekend. He gave me a few more tips on the new camera (we both were admiring each other’s lenses)

I got an invitation to demo in Van Kleekhill but I found I was still feeling the drive, so it’s probably too far out for me yet.

I packed everything away and Glenn got it into the car. Which was quite warm… I think that the temperature outside the car said 38c. it seems hotter in the car… let’s roll down the windows. On the porch there were occasional little breezes blowing through, but when the breeze drops and now we are in the car, that blanket we are breathing into seem to be even wetter and warmer than this morning!

We stopped at the gas station before getting on the highway home, to buy cold peach drink and a Fresca.  Ah that feels so nice.  Window down as long as we are moving it feels a bit better.  Just wait a couple months and we will be complaining about the cold.  I guess we have got to enjoy the lack of snow banks while they are missing!!

The hot weather is grate for washing fleece when you don’t have hot water outside. So it’s not all bad! However, it has taken about 3 days to get the washed fleece to dry. I have now started the third batch of the giant white fleece and it got an extra rinse in the heavy rains with the thunderstorm yesterday!

In case I was feeling up to staying for the social tonight at the guild I brought someone to work on. The Mer-Boyfriend seems to be in a rush to get more work done so I had better get back to work before he wants to felt me! I did get a good chunk of library work done, but I was feeling wiped again by the early afternoon so did not stay for the rest of the social. Mer-Boyfriend got his hands on the felting needle I had been using on the weekend. He was all set to do a bit of work on himself!

Mer-Boyfriend with felting needle stuck in his low back13.1) still a lot more work to do on the under structure

Mer-Boyfreind getting ready to self felt!13.2) I had better get that needle away from him soon!

I hope you enjoyed the drive out to Dunvagan, Ontario, and that it wasn’t too hot for you. (the car said it was 26+humadex on the way out and 36+humadex as we headed home.) Have fun and keep felting!!

Felted Cat Cave, a quick how to -revisited.

Felted Cat Cave, a quick how to -revisited.

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I am supposed to have the summer off. So far, I don’t seem to have stopped running. So I have nothing new to tell you about. So I am going to share this with you again. I hope you enjoy it again if you have already seen it.  I am at a Demo today. I plan to take lots of pictures and blog about it on July 23. It sounds so far away, but I am sure it will be here the day after tomorrow.

I have been wanting to make a cat cave for some time now. I decided it needed to be bright. I picked some Blue Faced Leicester wool so it would be strong and dyed it chartreuse. Then I picked some purple and magenta for the spikes.

Spikes and Wool

I wanted an oval cat cave. I used my oval hat form to get the shape and gradually sized it up.

Drawing the Resist

I laid out 4 layers of wool for strength and even shrinkage. I put the first side aside, and after laying out the second side, I poked holes to put the spikes through.

Spikes in the Wool

After wetting it all down, I wrapped each spike in plastic wrap so it would not get felted down flat.

Spikes all Wrapped Up

I covered it with a sheer curtain and rubbed both sides for a while and rolled it for a while, and then wrapped it up, put it in the dryer twice, changing the position of the felt each time.  It was starting to shrink, so I cut out the resist and switched to rolling it in a stick blind. I find the stick blinds to be very aggressive and shrinks the felt quickly.  I did do some throwing, too. Finally, I rinsed the cave out in a bucket of alternately hot and cold water, being quite aggressive with it. I then had to stretch the top so it would be domed. I steamed it to heat it and make it easier to stretch. Mostly, I used a wooden spoon to push in a sliding motion to get the shape. Here it is on top of the resist, so you can see how much it shrank.

Finished Cave on top of the Resist

Here it is in use; it didn’t take long for one of my cats, Wu, to take up residence.

 

Cat in Cave

As a footnote, Wu (the queen of all things) is no longer with us. This is one of my favourite pictures of her. She really liked the cave; we buried her in it, here on the farm.