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Tag: needle felting

Bits and Pieces

Bits and Pieces

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This week has been about getting things moving towards upcoming shows. I spent an afternoon wrapping soap in wool and putting them in little nylon bags ready to felt.

soap

I sent another afternoon getting sheep parts ready to felt. The body parts are roughly needle felted then wet felted. The legs are wet felted.

sheep parts

This is what they look like when they are all put together and their wool is added.

sheep small

Lastly I have been soaking a fleece. I have no idea what kind of wool it is. it was a bag given to me a couple of years ago. Here it is getting a rain water rinse hanging in my apple tree. That wasn’t on purpose but the thunderstorm came in before I got it back into a bucket for its first rinse.

wool hanging

 

 

Felted Flowers

Felted Flowers

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It has been busy around here as we are starting at a new Farmers’ market this weekend and we have been getting ready. This was difficult because they hadn’t sent us any thing about being accepted until a few days ago. There has not been much time for felting but I have managed to do a little. I made wet felted flower pins last year. They sold fairly well but the ones I had left seem tired looking so I am sprucing them up by needle felting some lines on them.
flowers

The other exiting thing is that a couple of weeks ago I wont the free give way from world of wool on face book. they sent me a grab bag of wool. The yellow and the purple seem to be silk but I am not sure because the didn’t label the different “balls”. It was a real surprise to win because I never will anything. the wools are great colours and will get put to good use.
wow prize

around the web

around the web

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felting around the web 5 small 400

http://www.peaceindustry.com/page.php

Recycled Knits and Fabrics combined with Felt Scarf by Sassafras Design

Heather’s Red and Yellow Scarves

http://mjuliarossi.blogspot.ca/

Have you been following Liz’s journey with her students for Holocaust Memorial Day?

http://www.feltinhand.com/gallery.htm

http://woollove-functional-fiberart.blogspot.ca/2013/01/under-big-top-scarf-part-1-of-2.html

knitting around the web

http://vimeo.com/54243073

stitching around the web

http://www.wendyfeldberg.ca/galleries.html

Nell’s Textile Art Gallery

mixed media around the web

Simple Directions for Covering a Lamp Shade with Felt

Acrylic Leaf Printing for your Art Journal Pages

Shrunken Books Tutorial from Maggie Grey

http://cornit-felt.blogspot.ca/2012/06/about-our-roses.html

dyeing around the web

http://wendyfe.wordpress.com/2013/01/10/eco-prints-to-start-the-year/

looking back at 2012

looking back at 2012

Comments 10 comments

Back in January I picked a worked for the year, Breath. I think I managed to do that more or less. Stopping to think about what I want to do. I tried some new felting things and learned to use a serger. Signed up for some new shows. I went to the medieval fair all dressed up and had a great time. So I did breath and do some things I have been wanting to do for a while.  I still haven’t worked on complicated resists much but I am still thinking about it.

Dressed up for the fair
Dressed up for the fair

It’s been fun and educational doing this blog with Ruth, Karen and Zed. Through the forum I’ve got to know some friends better and meet some new friends. All in all despite some sad times this year it has been pretty good and on track.

My Felted Gift.

My Felted Gift.

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Over on the felt and fiber forum we had a holiday exchange. This is the wonderful gift I got From Teri Ann.

xmas exchange

He is expertly needle felted and  the wool in all naturally dyed. the wool was dyed using indigo,cochineal, Barberry twigs  and cleavers roots.  He will have pride of place when the decorations go up.

this is a short post as I haven’t had any time for felting the last little while. I was getting ready for the North Gower Farmers’ Market Christmas Sale December 1. that meant lots of baking. I made steak and Guinness pies, lamb and vegetable pies and tourtieres. My mom made steak and mushroom and steak and kidney pies. we sold 60 large and 35 small pies. I also made scones and dog and cat treats My husband also backed lots of bread, my daughter made muffins. It was a long day but we enjoyed seeing everyone from the summer market and the new faces too.

freezer

This was taken about half way through the day. The bags at the end are sold pies waiting to be picked up after people finish their shopping.

Around the Web – The Holiday Edition

Around the Web – The Holiday Edition

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I thought it would be fun to show some holiday crafting ideas. These aren’t all specifically felt or fiber but I thought it might help to spark some ideas for those of you who make your own gifts and holiday decor. Many of these ideas could be adapted to felting or fiber arts. I’d love to see what you’re making for the holidays so do leave a link if you’ve made something fun or post it on Flickr or the forum.

Charlie Brown Christmas Ornaments Tutorial

Leaf Garland Tutorial

How to Make a Googly Eye Ornament

Thanksgiving Blessings Chalkboard

101 Handmade Ornament Tutorials

15 Felt Ornaments to Make

Needle Felted Mitten Ornaments Tutorial

Needle Felted Rudolph Tutorial

Needle Felted Cardinal Tutorial

Yarn Organizer Sack

Fabric Boxes to Organize Your Studio

Fabric Coil Bowl Tutorial

Button Tree Christmas Postcards

Stitched Felt Christmas Ornaments

Stenciled Burlap Candle Holders

Stamped Christmas Ornament Tutorial

Stamped Christmas Ornament Tutorial (a different one)

Let Them Eat Cake This is not a tutorial or especially holiday oriented but I couldn’t resist!

Free Knitting Patterns for Christmas Tree Ornaments

Lots of Free Knitting Patterns for Christmas

Exhibition and Sale

Exhibition and Sale

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The guild I belong to, the Ottawa Valley Weavers and Spinners Guild, had its annual exhibition and sale this last weekend. I had a booth selling scarves and wraps and flowers and cuffs and hats etc. The guild does a display on a theme and has demos and promotes our classes. It’s our big event for the year. The venue is beautiful it is a community center now but used to be a church and has a huge domed center.

Here are some pictures of my booth and me explaining what nuno felt is to a customer.

 

 

This is one of the organisers wearing an exquisite shawl she knit using her own hand spun alpaca.

This my friend Judy,http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.jumaka.com%2Fspinning%2Fpetfur.html&h=fAQGCIXhy , she not only likes to spin yarn, including dog and cat fur she also likes to spin wood on a lathe to make nostepinne for manually making a center pull ball) and  drop spindles in several styles and weights including supported spindles like she is using in the picture. This is her booth, she shares it with another friend who is more camera shy.

 

The Guild display had the theme around the house  and of course we had spinners and weavers demonstrating.

 

Lastly here are pictures of some of the many booths that where there. We had a good variety with both finished goods and supplies.

     

     

All in all it was a good show with not as many people as usual but the ones that came were buying. I hope everyone’s upcoming sales are good.

Needle Felted Name Tags

Needle Felted Name Tags

Comments 8 comments

I was invited to teach a mini class at the local weaver’s and spinner’s guild meeting on Wednesday. I decided to try the needle felted name tag project that Ann had suggested to me. Thanks Ann! It was perfect for a guild meeting because the ladies could all use their name tags for meetings and conventions that they attend.

 

I didn’t do a very good job with the photo taking but you can see the partially finished results. We started with a base of felted wool blankets, scarves or sweaters cut into pieces about 3″x4″.

 

The base wool was covered with whatever color of wool the ladies chose. Each one ended up different colors and they were all pretty quick in needle felting the backgrounds down. The excess wool was wrapped around to the back and needled in to make a nice covered edge.

We then spent a bit of time figuring out what we wanted the lettering of the name to look like. Yarn was used to form the lettering.

 

The hardest part was fitting the name in and not running out of space.

 

As you can see, everyone had a good time using a variety of colors and yarn choices.

Tacking down the yarn with a single needle helps to get the layout. You can always pull it back up if it doesn’t work out. Tara used roving to make “fatter” letters. She was considering whether or not to outline the letters with thin yarn to give it a bit of “splash”.

 

Julie used a felted, fringed scarf and kept the fringe. Didn’t it turn out cool?? To finish off the name tag, you just glue or stitch a pin back on the back side about a third of the way down from the top.

 

And here is Shelley’s name tag. She was going to add a charm or button at the top. She hadn’t quite decided. We had a great time and hopefully they were all inspired to add a bit more felting into their repertoire!

 

 

 

4th Quarter Challenge _ Weather

4th Quarter Challenge _ Weather

Comments 12 comments

We’ve actually had such a long cold wet winter here in oz that the site of some sunshine is so lovely and with the weather finally starting to warm up I found myself at the beach briefly the other day just taking in the ocean and some warmth, so I thought for this challenge we could felt a piece depicting our own weather no matter where in the world we live, and be it the ocean and sunshine or freezing temperatures with your lovely snow topped mountains, its your seasons.

And just a couple of lovely pictures of our Island in the sun !!

This is a place called the Nobbies were all the little fairy penguins live

Just a gorgeous sunset on the Island, would make a gorgeous felt piece

Looking forward to seeing everyone’s weather challenge to see the difference in our temps right now. Happy Felting and we’d love to see you in our interactive forum where we all love to share some great information or just have a chat, so come along and join in the fun http://www.feltandfiberstudio.com/

Demo at the Fair

Demo at the Fair

Comments 8 comments

I belong to the Ottawa Valley Weavers and Spinners Guild. Every year we do demos at various fairs and events. This last week end we where at the Carp fair, http://carpfair.ca/ It is a typical fair with rides and concerts but it is in the country so there are horse shows, both western and english, as well as competitions for cattle, pigs and sheep. There are the quilt competitions and other domestic arts and the best corn, squash and forage contests. After you’ve seen all of that and you make it to the back on the fair there is the antique section with old cars and farm machinery on display and being demonstrated. That’s where we are, in a tent with the antiques. We don’t mind, the men who run the machinery are a great bunch. The only other woman we see demonstrating is the blacksmith.

Here are our display tables. You can see tractors through the windows.

 

 That’s our demo loom on the end. Lots of people give it a try. It has some very interesting patterns on it.

Here I am demonstrating  how to make a needle felted sheep. That’s my coffee in the foreground with its wool felt cozy. You will notice I am wearing long sleeves, my felt vest, my wool cape and some fingerless gloves. When we set up in the morning it was about 10 degrees celsius, or 50 fahrenheit. Once the sun came around to shine on me I started to warm up and shed layers. You can just see the tip on my drop spindle on the table. That’s the other thing I demonstrate.

Here are the ladies spinning.

Jan is out guild librarian and she handles the demo loom and is spinning on a road bug spinning wheel. It is designed to fit on the floor in the front of a van so you can spin while your driver whisks you down the highway.

Here is Linda first carding and then spinning from the rolags she made. She has  a Louet copy she bought second hand.

 

Last but not least is Bernadette who has a very pretty wheel but I don’t know what type it is.

We had a great day together. We met lots of new people , we handed out lots of bookmarks about the guilds up coming exhibition and sale.  We answered lots of questions and got a few people interested in joining the guild and learning more about fiber arts. Do any of you belong to a guild or go our demonstrating to promote fiber? I think next  year we should yarn bomb a tractor what do you think?