early Celtic – Felting and Fiber Studio

Pandagirl’s Year End Round Up 2017

December 30, 2017 Marilyn aka Pandagirl Comments 16 comments

I’m always amazed at what I accomplished at the end of year. This year I took a few classes in order to expand my creativity in addition to experimenting on my own. I also tried to use up more materials and finish some UFOs.

Here is a bedside case for odds and ends made with some merino inside and unknown fiber batt with silk embellishment.

Experimenting with different types of yarn to make a table runner.

Our First Quarter Challenge – Fauvism.

Weaving then felting.

A Valentine gift for granddaughter Lisa.

Teri Berry’s Snail hat class.

Finishing and hanging an eco print. Crochet around wire bowl.

Framing the felted weaving.

I did a lot of experimenting with crochet stitches.

Practicing for Ruth’s Free Motion Embroidery class.

Crochet hats for my granddaughter and her new premature brother Ken.

A dimensional potholder.

Learning more crochet stitches.

Making a crochet hook case from a crochet sample.

A bowl for the Second quarter Challenge – Celtic

Using yarn on a resist for a vase cover.

Adding dimension to the hummingbird/tiger lily picture.

Crocheting scrubbies.

Felt and crochet earrings.

Crochet beaded bowl with stiffener.

A Pumpkin for Ken.

The Third Quarter Challenge – Edo Period; felt and hand embroidery Sakura.

Ribbon embroidery and framing.

Playing with thickened dye for Ruth’s class on felt.

Finishing a case from UFO pile and FME Butterfly

Maneki-Neko for Third Quarter Challenge Edo Period.

Framing the Rooster.

More stencil play with acrylic and thickened dye.

The Fourth Quarter Challenge — Suprematist

Penguin’s Poinsettia Holiday card.

A couple of scarves for my daughter in laws parents in Japan where it’s as cold as Chicago.

I want to let everyone know I am taking a leave of absence to focus on my health and family. I will be around just not posting weekly. We have a lot of talented artists that will be filling in starting with Tracey Thompson next week.

I want to thank everyone for helping out to give me this time. If you or someone you know has something to share — it doesn’t have to be felt but anything fiber related including paper, please contact me or one of the other moderators on the forum and we’ll get you on the schedule.

I hope everyone has a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year! Happy Creating in 2018!

2017 Second Quarter Challenge

June 21, 2017 Marilyn aka Pandagirl Comments 18 comments

At the beginning of this quarter, Ann had posted about this quarters challenge theme being early Celtic.

https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2017/03/31/second-quarter-challenge-3/

I thought a lot about it and had several ideas, but wasn’t sure I could pull them off. One of them was a pod with spirals. Lyn got to it before me, but of course as she said, everyone does things differently. So, I did.

I had some Llama yarn I hand dyed years ago in several colors. I decided to use that for the spirals. I made a little bit larger pod than usual in order to accommodate the design. I laid one layer of Merino on each side, then two layers of Corriedale and a final layer of Merino. I felt this would give the pod some substance. Here is the start of the topside design.

Full design wetted down.

Bottom (I ran out of turquoise so I used yellow.) I had actually had a yellow spiral on the bottom, but forgot to flip it over before starting the topside design so it ended up being cut out.

I did a lot of rubbing to get the design to stay, but the Llama was not cooperating. It was felting to itself and not the Merino. Frustrated, I let it dry out then needle felted the design in place. That did the trick, but the Llama shed everywhere and blurred the design.

I tried shaving and shipping tape it but wasn’t helping. So, I grabbed my tweezers and embroidery scissors and sat for an hour pulling long hairs out of the design. There is still more I could have pulled out but goal was to get the black to look black and set off the design.

Much better.