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3rd Qtr Challenge Part 3 – A Bit of a Disaster

3rd Qtr Challenge Part 3 – A Bit of a Disaster

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I would like to throw this piece in the recycle bin and never show it to anyone. But since you’ve seen the prior steps, it seems unfair to not show you the ending. It is often the case when you follow someone’s posts that you only see wonderful, beautiful work. You don’t get to see the not so good work or the out and out failures. Most of the time around here, you get to see everything, warts and all. So here come the warts!

Last week I told you that I was planning on stitching my 3rd quarter challenge piece. I started with a heavy Perle cotton thread in either 3 or 5 size. I stitched with stem stitch around the circle and then started on the inner designs. I hated it. It seemed really bulky and just wasn’t what I had envisioned. So I un-stitched it.

Then I tried a thinner thread in a bit brighter green still in stem stitch. Yuck. Because of the way the interfacing had crumpled in the center of the felt, the shapes of the design were hard to follow and just weren’t looking like the original design.

So I decided I would try cutting the interfacing out like you do with the cracked mud technique as several followers had suggested. It took me over 30 minutes to get this quarter portion cut out. The interfacing was partially felted and it was difficult to find where to cut and to make the design even and as originally planned. I was getting really frustrated with the entire piece.

So I have decided to throw in the towel and start over. I am not sure how I will use my design, I’m keeping that, but will mull over a better way to showcase the design on felt. Perhaps screen printing. I know that I could continue with cutting it out and it would be OK. But I don’t like anything about it. I’m not sure why I chose yellow because I don’t really like a piece with that much yellow in it and I don’t think it’s worth my time to continue with a piece that I will be completely disappointed in the results.

What do you think? Do you abandon pieces or do you just keep working on them until you’re happy with the results?

 

 

Fixed Tea Cozy

Fixed Tea Cozy

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If you remember my post about the tea cozy that went wrong, and-then-it-all-went-wrong I have now fixed it. First I had to needle felt the pieces that fell off, back on. I only needled the middles so I would still get the cracked mud effect. The hardest part was placing the pieces in the right places.

needle felted 2 needlfelted peices

This is what the inside looked like.

neddle felted inside

The next step was to tape it all again. I didn’t want the edges to felt down flat.

adding the tape

I did trim the pieces that were touching so they would not felt together again. I rewet the whole thing and started fulling.  Lots of rolling on my washboard to get it well shrunk and stiff enough.

It turned out really well.

finnished finnished 2

 

And a better angle so you can see the texture.

finnished 4 finnished 3

 

so disaster averted and all is well. Now I am back to getting ready for the Twist festival this coming  weekend. Twist    If you can make it make sure to drop by and visit me in booths 57 and 58.

 

 

 

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