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Felt and Stitch Bowl Attempt

Felt and Stitch Bowl Attempt

Comments 14 comments

I needed a liner for a basket for collecting eggs. This is a small basket but I will need a bigger basket before long as we got some new chickens.

chickens

I thought I would try sewing around and around a flat piece of felt as I had seen on Lyn’s blog. http://rosiepink.typepad.co.uk/rosiepink/handmade-felt-and-stitch-bowls.html she sells  an ebook of how to do it. If I had downloaded it and if I had followed it I probably would have had better results. I am much to clever for that, not.  I did it form a vague memory of Lyn mentioning something on the Forum.

So I found a piece of felt  and cut it to what I hope will fit my basket. Nothing beats guessing when its right. 🙂

felt and bowl

Next I started stitching, switching the machine from turtle speed to rabbit speed as neatness doesn’t really count here. I also used up all my part bobbins so now I have some empty ones.

As you can see after the first go round it is still flat felt. I decided there was not enough stitching so loaded up the machine with orange and off I went again around and around.

stitching round 1 stitching round 2

As you can see that didn’t help at all. There was a slight curving on one side but not what I would call a bowl. Still I needed a basket liner and after all this is not a beauty piece but a partial piece I cut it.

cut to fit

and sewed it

re stitched

egg basket with eggsHere it is with some eggs in just to prove it really is an egg basket. I haven’t really used it yet in the barn. Theses are some that where collected this morning that are not in cartons yet.

I think the problem besides not buying the tutorial and following the instructions is that my felt was fairly thick and well fulled. I do know from my few attempt at free motion machine embroidery that the felt does strange things if not backed with something. The other thing that may have done it was I started at the outside. Perhaps if I had started in the middle the felt would have reacted differently.  All in all I ended up with a basket liner and had fun sewing like the wind round and round.

 

 

A New Felting Year

A New Felting Year

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We are starting a new blank calendar.  It’s time to look back and look ahead. As I look back at my year it’s been quite busy. There have been lots of classes and I even took a couple of classes.

Linda finishedalpaca tracks happy hat

I managed to do some art with felt and make a huge curly fleece hat with horns for an exhibition.

pictures hanging picture hanging

Ann with hat (2)

 

There were not so good things. I didn’t get recalled to work in September so I am unemployed.  On the bright side at least it was a good time. I had shows coming up so I did make some money. I sold some work to a store and got invited to sell work in a local museum store. One of the best things to happen has nothing to do with felt or wool. I found out I will be a grandmother in February. So now I have a reason for all this gray hair, I will be a nana.

My new year will be exiting with the new baby,  hopefully a new part time job and more felt. I am hoping to try  for the 3rd time making  the felt boots I was supposed to try again last year.  I think it will be a good year. I hope your year was good and the new one will even better.

new-year-desktop-wallpaper

 

Felted Christmas Tree Finished

Felted Christmas Tree Finished

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Last time I told you I was making a Christmas tree.  http://wp.me/p1WEqk-2Gc  I did get it decorated before Christmas.

The small one is in Grandmas House

small tree decorated

The large on is in my house. Here it is stretched over its frame. The tomato cage give it an odd shape but I like it. Please excuse the messy desk in the back ground.  I should of rolled the top down but didn’t think of it.

big tree over tomato cage

next I decorated it. it turned out not so bad. I added some of the decorations that I have received in the forum Holiday exchange over the last few years. The candy cane is one.  In the first picture you can see the tree better and in the second one you can see the lights better. You can see my spinning wheel in the back ground too.

big tree decorated big tree decorated 2

The biggest problem with making a tree like this is there is nothing to hang the lights and decorations on. I ended up sewing the lights on, all around the tree, 25 feet of lights. I used the tinsel to hide the wire. Then I hung all the ornaments using the tinsel and wire to hook over. It looked a little bare still so I added. a string of red beads, sewn on again.  All in all I am very pleased with them both. Anyone have a better/different idea of how to add the lights and decorations?

Bubble Hat

Bubble Hat

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Last time I showed you a bubble hat I was making http://wp.me/p1WEqk-2za after it was felted it looked like this

purple before bubbles

and the inside like this

purple before bubbles inside

Next I added the bubbles using felt balls for the ones that stay in and marbles for the one I will cut.

IMG_1981bubbles inside

Then I cut the bubbles and you can leave them but I stretched them to so more of the colour inside the bubbles.

bubbles closebubles finished 2

I didn’t get a picture of it finished . I thought I had but it was one when 2 hats had the bubbles but where not cut. It will give you an idea.

hats with bubbles

If I can I will take a picture of them at the show today and edit it in. They may already be sold, I can’t remember.  I know I sold some of the bubble hats.

I did just manage to get a picture of the hat. is sold about 1/2 hour later.

finnished hat 2 finnished hat

 

One Week to the Show

One Week to the Show

Comments 11 comments

With one week to my guild show (October 31, November 1 and 2) it must be  time to get ready. Time to put things together and make a few more hats. Last weekend my daughter painted spindles and here they are waiting to get put into kits.

spindles

The kits should be done already but when I started I discovered I was out of white wool. I have no idea how that happened. I had to order some quick. I put my wool order in with my friend Maureen at  Dreamspin Fibres. She got my order out asap and it arrived yesterday.

wool box wool box inside

The white wool is the bottom half but you can’t just order white. Now I can put the kits together. she also sent me a colour cards for her wool. this is great because every computer shows the colours differently.

wool samples

I was working on a hat as well. I will finish it today. I put decoration on the inside and outside. I will show you the finished hat next time.

hat inside layout hat outside decoration

 

Fourth Quarter Challenge 2014

Fourth Quarter Challenge 2014

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For this Quarter, I have chosen ‘Land Art‘. I was initially going to choose a specific artist for this challenge, but in the end I just couldn’t choose just one, the whole ‘movement’ is so inspiring. In case you haven’t heard of it, Land Art – according to Wikipedia ” is an art movement in which landscape and the work of art are inextricably linked. It is also an art form that is created in nature, using natural materials such as soil, rock (bed rock, boulders, stones), organic media (logs, branches, leaves), and water with introduced materials such as concrete, metal, asphalt, or mineral pigments. Sculptures are not placed in the landscape, rather, the landscape is the means of their creation.” (i.e, not Christo)

colleen proppeThere are so many inspirational artists, one I really like is Richard Shilling, a flickr search gives you lots of great photos, have a look at this link: https://www.flickr.com/search/?q=richard%20shilling  He has inspired others to create land art too, such as Colleen Proppe, who made the Leaf Flag in the photo above. Andy Goldsworthy is another name many people might recognise. Scott Robinson was inspired by him to make this Leaf art:

Scott Robinson
I discovered the work of Tom Hare while I was looking up land artists and sculptors, he does some gorgeous work. This is his website: http://www.tomhare.net/portfolio This is a photo of one of his willow sculptures, a Horse Chestnut breaking open, taken by Jodie Brodie:

Tom Hare
Have a search on google for Land Art and Land Art Artists, I can guarantee you’ll be inspired! Feel free to post your work on the forum in the 4th Quarter Challenge thread: http://feltandfiberstudio.proboards.com/thread/1788/fourth-quarter-challenge-land-art  Have fun!

Twist Fibre Festival

Twist Fibre Festival

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Last week end I went to Twist. It is a fibre festival in Quebec. It is about 1.5 hours away from where I live. I shared a double booth with 2 friends.

our booth 2 our booth 3 our booth

we had lots of stuff. Elizabeth had some yarn and spindle kits and lots of cool roving she had died in a special way to create really cool yarn.   I only got a blurry picture of it close up I am sorry to say.  This is some of Judy’s wonderful hand spun yarn.

yarn 2 yarn 1

Next to us we had a sweet lady who was displaying some fabulous dolls and selling some books. This Traveling yarn store was the other way.

spirit dollstraveling yarnstore

The lace makers were there they had a big display celebrating  the Rideau canal in winter. it is the worlds longest skating rink. Everything on the board is hand made lace.

lacemakers

Of course there was a lot of fibre for sale there was a whole booth for qiviut from raw to finished product.  Qiviut is musk ox fibre. and some beautifully dyed mohair.

Quiviet mohair

and of course Ashford was there. I imagine they are on tour. I can’t imagine they cam just for Twist. They where very nice and had lots of equipment there for people to try. My big purchase was a new e clip for my spinning wheel.

ashford ashford 2

we stayed at a very nice bead and breakfast in the tow where twist was held, Saint-André-Avellin I didn’t get a picture of that either but I did get a picture of the great “club” sandwich we had at a local restaurant.  On the bottom was duck confit and bacon, on top was green apple onion and celery, the bread was apricot, rain and hazelnut bread. It was so good we eat it both nights.

duck sandwich

 

 

The Midwest Fiber and Folk Art Fair, August 1-3, 2014

The Midwest Fiber and Folk Art Fair, August 1-3, 2014

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by Guest Artist/Author Cathy Wycliff (Luvswool)

We, Marilyn (Pandagirl) and I (Luvswool),  had never attended a “fiber fair,” so there were expectations and then the reality of the Fair.  We had planned for many months to attend the annual Fair and met there early Friday morning with great anticipation. The advance program showed photos of sheep, fiber, workshops, art exhibits, bags of fleece, etc., and the Fair delivered all of that except for the sheep. One of the organizers explained to me that August is too hot for sheep, and I guess that makes sense. So, the only live animals were a lonely llama and a couple of angora rabbits. Still, it was an enjoyable experience.

The Fair has been held for 8 years in Grayslake, IL, a far northwestern town in the extended Chicago metro area, and it’s a Fair that celebrates the work of many hands. We saw spinners, felters, and knitters demonstrating their crafts, and there were many workshops offered during the 3-day fair. There were a couple of folk singers and a few food vendors outdoors, but everything else was contained in an air-conditioned building. The majority of the indoor vendors were geared towards knitters, with many beautiful displays of hand-dyed, hand-spun yarns and goods. Neither Marilyn nor I are knitters, so we headed first for a walk around to scope out the lot.

IMG_5785

First stop was the Art Exhibit, which displayed fine fiber art–among them, my own display of five fiber wall-hangings. There were other fiber wall hangings, sculptures and “vintage” handbags (crafted from vintage patterns but otherwise entirely new).

IMG_5781
Cathy Wycliff’s Exhibit

(Cathy had a very prominent display!  It was the first thing to see on our way in.  Very exciting! — Marilyn)

Next up were the vendors, which included some crazy rag rugs, lots of beautiful yarn and bags of alpaca fleece. There were also felted hats  and you’ll notice I didn’t snap pics of the roving, since I was busy buying it. Marilyn and I purchased some fibers we have not previously felted with–including Navajo churro, 100% Organic Polwarth, white Falkland and I bought some black Blue Faced Leicester with silk. Since there was so much yarn, I did pick up some white wool boucle for embellishment, as well as silk hankies, which I have never used.

IMG_5786 IMG_5787IMG_5789

As we neared the end, we were able to view the judging of alpaca and llama fleece. Two judges followed a quality control checklist and had to concur on all points.

IMG_5788

Then it was goodbye to Princess Athena, the lonely llama,  and our day at the Fair came to an end. We would love to attend another fair, but next time would like to see sheep–sheep-shearing, sheep-judging, sheep fleeces, border collies herding sheep, etc.  Maybe there’s a trip to New Zealand in our future!

IMG_5790
Bye! Thanks for stopping by.
Making a Felt Hat with T-pins

Making a Felt Hat with T-pins

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A little while ago I received some T-pins. I had never used them before. I haven’t mad and hats with folds for some time as they are difficult to get the folds where you want them. As you try to put the second fold in the first one can easily get pulled out and so on. with the T-pins it was much easier. I could put a fold in and then pin it and then work on the next one.

hat with pins

 

The hat block is a hard foam raffia hat block. the only place I know that sells them is Franks, http://www.franksupply.com/raffia/hatmaking-supplies.html  I left all the pins in while it dried. Here it is after is is dry. It is merino wool with silk lap on accents

hat1 hat 2 hat 4 hat 3

 

I am quite pleased with it. I haven’t yet decided if I want to leave the organic edge or if I want to trim it smooth and even.

Some Felt Pictures for Summer

Some Felt Pictures for Summer

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A while ago I saw some fused glass pictures and was inspired to make some summer beach pictures. I like the simple style of this type if picture. I spent a few evenings drawing and colouring pictures. I always forget how relaxing and fun colouring is.

coloured picture 1 coloured picture 2 coloured picture 3 coloured picture 4 coloured picture 5

I decided to do a seaside picture first as summer has just started. I used

seaside 1 before

I used all prefelt except for a little silk for the waves. I split the prefelt and cut it so it wouldn’t be too thick where they overlap. I tacked everything down lightly with a felting needle.

spliting prefelt

This is how it looked after felting once.

seaside 1 after firs felting

I forgot to take one after it was finished but I all became flat and slightly blurred. I decided to add some stitching

seaside 1 after sewing

It gives it much more definition. you can see how flat and blurred the house and boat edges are. I was thinking of going around the house pieces and the boats. Maybe add some little grass tuffs. and underline the waves in white. What do you think, should I add more stitching?