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The Wild Table Runner

The Wild Table Runner

Comments 12 comments

I have a bin full of yarn.  A lot of it I’ve either dyed or picked up at garage sales or thrift stores.  A majority of it isn’t wool based.  So I thought it would be fun to make something using a variety of these yarns and see how they felted.

It started out to be a pillow cover, but later when I started to lay it out I changed my mind.  Originally, I had a swerving design in mind.  But thought there was too much empty space and the design would probably distort the whole thing. I used two batts of merino and a prefelt over that as a base.

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I added more yarns and moved them apart so they’d have room to create their own design.

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Here are the yarns I used, not necessarily in this order.  Some I used more than once.

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From left to right:

  1. Synthetic ladder yarn
  2.  Synthetic ladder yarn  second color
  3. Decorative synthetic flag yarn
  4. Mohair/metallic
  5. Bamboo
  6. Acrylic yarn
  7. Wool Boucle
  8. Merino slub yarn
  9. Hand dyed thick and thin yarn
  10. Worsted wool
  11. Novelty yarn with nylon, tactel, cotton and lame
  12. Merino slub yarn
  13. Wool roving sold as yarn
  14. Wool/metallic
  15. Peruvian wool
  16. Thick and thin wool yarn commercial
  17. Mohair/metallic novelty yarn

I had some “Riot Eyelash Yarn” I decided to use as an edging.  Which I sewed on using a zigzag stitch after it was felted.  It is aptly named.

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Here it is laid on a white background to show the eyelash edging.

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A few closeups:

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Strangely enough the only one I had to fix after felting was the multicolored acrylic yarn which I’ve used before without a problem.  I had to needle felt it down.  The Peruvian wool also had a few places to tack down, but I think it was because it was so tightly wound the merino prefelt couldn’t grab it as well.  Even the ladder yarn and synthetics seemed to be fairly firm in place.

Here it is on it’s new home a glass coffee table.

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Its fairly dark here and it seems I got a bit of glare from the flash.  What are you working on in the New Year?

 

4th Quarter Challenge 2016

4th Quarter Challenge 2016

Comments 26 comments

Like everyone else I have a ton of scraps, threads, cut offs, etc.  I finally got around to organizing them somewhat into like piles.  As you see I had a lot to choose form. The first pic is a tub full of scraps etc.

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I pulled out some and put them on the table to pick from.

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I decided I needed a store coupon case to keep in my purse.  I recently got a new purse and none of the pockets were sized large enough to hold some of these coupons.  I have a separate coupon holder for groceries that I only use when I grocery shop.  But I never know when I might pass by a department, fabric or specialty store that calls me in to shop.

I wanted it thin so I only used prefelt on both sides of the resist. With back problems, I don’t carry a big purse and try to keep it as light as possible.

I picked through the scraps and threw a little of this and that until I was satisfied with the look.  Then I topped off each side with some wisps of merino to help keep those rayon and cotton threads and silk bits to felt in adding merino over the sides to fold over. The yellow is silk selvedge.

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I spent a lot of time rubbing so as to not disturb the little bits and thread.

While still wet:

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The purple fringe got a little wadded up in the felting process and the edges of the flap and sides of the holder needed to be straightened a bit.

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After drying I still had some wild threads so I needle felted some down and cut others.  I also straightened the fringe and needled it down. I think for my use it will be fine.  Here is the finished front:

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Back closed:20161107_163746

Now I’m ready to shop.

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Here’s another piece I started as an experiment.  I don’t care for dots or the colors of this scarf, so I decided to cut off a piece and see how it felts because I have two more scarves I do like and didn’t want to experiment with them.  I used some silk scraps and angelina on one side and the scarf on the other.

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I liked the dot side after felting. It doesn’t look so dotty, but more textured.  I may do some stitching on it. The silk side I got carried away with the angelina and don’t care for that.  I’m not sure what I’ll do with it it’s fairly small.

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It was fun experimenting with the scraps.  I’ll probably do more. Have you started your 4th Quarter Challenge?

A Halloween Surprise

A Halloween Surprise

Comments 20 comments

Here in the United States October 31 is Halloween.  A big holiday for dressing up and collecting treats for kids and some adults.  I’m not sure if the rest of the world has this tradition, but it’s a favorite here.

Four years ago I made my grandsons very basic pumpkin wall hangings.

SAMSUNG
SAMSUNG

Last year my granddaughter Lisa was too young although her parents took her out trick or treating around the neighborhood.  So this year I made Lisa her wall hanging.

I found some unknown orange fiber that was too bright, so I made some batts adding some white merino.  I wanted something  feminine and decided to add a button nose (wooden ball),  prefelt eyes, mouth, stem and bow for some dimension.

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After I wet it out, I felt it was too thin so I added some corriedale leftover batt that I did for the color challenge last year to the back.

Once it was felted and shaved, I thought it needed something else.  so, I began trying to stitch on eyelashes.  This turned out to be a nightmare.  I tried hand and machine stitching.  I did more ripping out and filling the swear jar.  I finally let it sit for a few days and found some thick cotton embroidery thread Cathy had brought me from Japan a few years ago.  Thanks Cathy!

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While the stitching isn’t the best, it worked.

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Here are some closeups.  The pumpkin was very hairy and bumpy (thanks unknown fiber) and had to be shaved a couple of times, but I doubt a 19 month old will care.

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Have you done anything special for Halloween?

 

Felting in Florida

Felting in Florida

Comments 16 comments

My husband I recently went to Florida to visit our son and his family.  I usually try to bring some wool for my grandsons to play with.  We also babysat while our son and daughter-in-law took a weekend away for their anniversary.  It’s always good to keep the boys occupied indoors since it was unbearably hot and humid outside.

This time I thought it would be fun to do pictures.  So, I had them each draw a picture.

Here they are busy creating.  Luke, the six year old, drew dinosaurs.  Josh, the four year old, is into a game or video called Stickman, so Stickmen it was along with an emoji.

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I had brought some white prefelt for the background and colored prefelts for cutouts and a variety of colored roving for them to chose from.

Luke was able to cut most of the big shapes himself, but I helped on the smaller details.  As we worked, we discussed the best way to add each part of the picture. He had very definite ideas.  Since he had done felting before, he was able to do most of the rubbing and rolling himself.

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Josh also had very definite ideas on colors and shapes.  In his picture, we used mostly roving.  The eyes were too hard for him, so I did that.  He’s a very good supervisor giving detailed instructions on what colors and were to put everything.  He started the felting process, then lost interest. So, Grandma had to finish. By the way, those are bananas on the tree.  Evidently, Stickmen like bananas.

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Unfortunately, the vinyl tablecloth I used to protect the wood table began to leach color into the felt even though we used bubble wrap.  So, there are a few pink spots in the corners.  The boys didn’t seem to mind though.

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If they ever get a trampoline, I can see them using Zara’s method to felt a rug.  I know they’d enjoy that!

 

Making some progress and free give away reminder

Making some progress and free give away reminder

Comments 9 comments

I want to remind everyone you only have a few days left to enter the free draw for a spot in Terri’s Concertina Hat Class. The last day to enter is July 28. Just follow the link. https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2016/07/16/online-felted-concertina-hat-class-with-teri-berry-in-august/

I finished my triangle scarf this week.

The wool side

finished orange and purple shawl wool side finished orange and purple shawl wool side close

The silk side

finished orange and purple shawl silk side finished orange and purple shawl silk side close

There wasn’t that much shrinkage as it is very cobwebby on the wool side.

I finished the prefelt for the building on a Picture I am working on.

prefelt for picture.

I cut some circles to make little earbud pouches.  Sorry I can’t right now remember who had this great idea to use scrap piece for felt for this. I want to keep my square credit card reader in one.

circles for pouches

I made 2 pieces specially to cut up.

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I love the way the silk throwsters waist seems to hover on the felt even though it is well attached. The blue one isn’t firm enough so I will rewet it and full it some more.

I also started 2 more. I laid the wool out first. The first one I used on large piece of silk  on top . I added the roving so you could see the colour. I wanted something a little more “masculine”.

peice for cutting dry

The other one I want more texture from the silk so I had to wet the back ground so the silk would stay where and how I put it. I then added some synthetic yarn and put tiny amounts of wool to bridge it and hold it down.  I really like how it looks so I think I will make a scarf in the same design. It is very dark in the picture because it is wet.

peice for cutting 2 wet peice for cutting 2 close angle wet

So that’s been my week in felt.  I hope you have been able to play with some fibers too. Don’t forget to enter the draw for a free hat class.

Is it Really Unfeltable?

Is it Really Unfeltable?

Comments 20 comments

A while back I had purchased a bunch of scarves from thrift shops and some sample fabrics from the fabric store.  All passed the “breath test” but some did not felt when I did samples.  I wrote about it here:

https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2016/01/20/to-sample-or-not-to-sample/

Since we have been going thru our UFOs for the last quarter challenge, I came across these samples again and decided to try something different and use my Simplicity Needle Felting machine which sits idle because I’ve never got a handle on how to use it.

So I took the three felted samples I thought would felt and didn’t and ran them through the needle felting machine with all 12 needles.  As you can see on the gold piece moving the machine back and forth created a shirring pattern.  But that particular piece the the fabric is so stiff it made for a very spiky texture on both the front and back.

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Here are the backs:

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The flower scarf was the one I thought sure would wet felt. After the needle felting, it was a little stiff, but not as bad as the gold.  The green sparkly piece was also a little stiff but only on the top.

Since they were already wet felted. I tried another sample on prefelt of each of them. I also tried using hand felting, the needles just bounced off the fabrics. So, back to the machine. Then I wet felted it.

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It was still very coarse on the gold organza, but the other two were fine.  I still wasn’t satisfied because it seemed like 12 needles was overkill. So, I took out six of them and tried again on another prefelt then wet felting it afterward.

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Here are some closeups:

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I guess the bottom line is that if you really want to felt something, there are ways to do it.  However, the “hand” of the fabric may be more important for the final project than just being able to felt it. I suppose I could have used a coarser fiber, but for nuno I think softer (merino) is better.  After all you don’t really want to shave nuno felt.

I’ve found that sampling is definitely worth the time especially with the unknown.  What has your experience been?  Have you used a needle felting machine?  What is your experience?

Just a note:  Rosiepink, Lyn and Annie are having a give away of three copies of their revised pdf “Creating Felt Art.”  Their information is always organized and they give wonderful examples, photos and step by step instructions.  You can enter to win and get more information here:

http://rosiepink.typepad.co.uk/

Good luck!

 

 

 

 

 

 

More experiments with UFOs

More experiments with UFOs

Comments 13 comments

A couple of years ago, I was making silk paper just for practice.  I decided to try to cover a bowl and make some ruffle edges.  But it was a disaster. I used an acrylic medium to help give it substance, but all that did was make it stiff and unmanageable.  I tried soaking it in soapy water for a couple of days, but that didn’t do anything either.  So it went into the “pile.”  I’ve picked it up a couple of times thinking I could use it for something, but nothing came to mind. Sorry about the fuzzy picture.

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Recently, with the Second Quarter challenge to revisit our UFO stash, I pulled it out again. This time as I thought about it I started pulling it apart, peeling off layers.  I wondered if it would still felt, so I looked through my stash and found some yellow batts with unknown fibers.

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It felted just fine, some parts are still stiff, but most of the thinner areas still had the silk shine. This piece will probably be made into a coin purse.

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But what to do with the rest?

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Another UFO was a piece of prefelt I had cut for “lace” in Fiona Duthie’s Surface Design class.  I put a piece of habatoi silk under it and felted them together.  I’m not sure what I’ll do with it.  But I like the bubbly effect of the silk through the holes.

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Then I found a frame for the cityscape.

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While I haven’t made a big dent in the scraps and UFO pile, I feel good about trying some new things.

Ooops!

Ooops!

Comments 14 comments

We’ve talked a lot lately on the forum about projects not turning out as planned.  Sometimes we have happy accidents like my scarflette that turned out better than I had planned.  However, that’s not always the case.  That’s why we all have UFOs.

Last year I decided to design a credit card wallet. I spent a lot of time measuring and making resists and batts, cutting prefelt and designing a master pattern complete with shrinkage built in.  I wanted it to be functional enough to be able to put most of the things I use in one place.

20150429_161653 20150428_113623 20150429_163547I didn’t have a wallet to use as a model, so I winged it.  I used the prefelt as the base and began adding resists then the batts on the inside.  To keep track of where my folds and placements were I used pieces of threads to help keep everything in line.

On the inside I wanted three long pockets, then eight credit card slots. There is one resist under the red batt.

20150430_154427Then I added the second lower pocket offset about a half inch, and began putting the credit card slot resists in.

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20150501_152541Once I finished adding the slots, I turned it over and added resists on the front. I wanted a license holder and a pocket.

20150501_160550Then after covering in black merino and decorating with some red silk throwsters waste, I began the felting and fulling process.

The hardest part and one of my big mistakes was cutting out the resists. I decided to use an Exacto knife to cut the top large opening.  Guess what?  Yes, that’s a pen sticking thru.  I couldn’t figure out how to take a pic with my finger thru it.

The lower hole is where I wanted the pic ID to be.  Unfortunately, it wasn’t large enough to put in the whole ID and cut out a window to view it.

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The pocket on the front was also too small an opening to put anything in there that wouldn’t fall out.

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On the inside the larger pockets were functional, but I made a mistake with the credit card pocket by making each row a little deeper.  Duh, what was I thinking?  All credit cards are the same size!

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There was room for cash and a checkbook and coupons, if need be.  However, the credit cards were a disaster.  I couldn’t reliably put them in there and think they’d stay put.

20160226_125503Folded over it doesn’t look bad on the front.

20160226_125843 The back is a different story.

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I had considered trying to save it, but I don’t believe it would be worth the time since many of the proportions are off and there a gaping holes. However, I did learn a lot from the experience.

  • Try not to make the project too complicated
  • Use a model for size proportions
  • Never use an Exacto knife to cut out a resist

I hope this may help others when they are planning a big project in the future. 🙂

 

To Sample or Not to Sample

To Sample or Not to Sample

Comments 35 comments

This isn’t as exotic as sampling Swedish wools, but it was a lesson in the benefits of sampling.

A while ago I had showed you a pile of scarves, blouses and remnants I had purchased to try nuno felting.

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While they all passed the “blow”  test or looked or felt like they would felt well, there were a couple of big surprises.

When I make samples, I usually use prefelt and small samples of each of the fabrics on the same piece.  This way they are all felted the same way in the same amount of time in the same way.

Here is a picture of a couple of them before felting.  The upper left was an open cotton weave, the upper right was a scarf of unknown origin.  The lower left was a remnant that was sparkly with some embroidery and the lower right was part of a silk blouse.

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This isn’t a very clear picture below,  but the second from the left was the one scarf I purchased I thought was perfect for nuno and was looking forward to using it on something special.  To the left of that on top was a scarf that felt like it had some lycra in it below was a piece of lace and sequin on some type of mesh. The third from the left was an organza with sparkle.

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Boy was I mistaken.  After all the others were felted I continued to work on the flower and sparkly pieces, but they wouldn’t felt.  I was really glad I didn’t invest in a big project to use the flower scarf.  I even tried it on another piece of felt. You probably recognize the purple on the left that I used for my jewelry roll.  The scarf on the right also felted nicely.  I even used some wisps of wool on top of the flowers, but they clumped together and there were only a couple of threads on the flower piece that caught.

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Here’s a closeup of the right one.

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The other samples turned out nicely. The blue green and red were silk and the gold a polyester organza.

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The one on the right below was a burnout fabric which surprised me it felted so well. On the left a silver gray polyester organza.

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The blue on the left was a piece of lycra which didn’t do well either, but I wasn’t surprised at that. Above that was a piece of acrylic yarn that felted nicely.

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The blouse felted very nicely and I’m sure I’ll use that for a special project in the future.

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I was also surprised at the sequin and mesh.  I thought that also had a lycra base.  I loved how the mystery blue scarf turned out.  It has a shine and felt like a polyester with something else.  It has a very nice texture.

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My favorite was the brightly colored scarf.  Now, I wish I had yards of it instead only part of a scarf.

20150509_131214I don’t always do samples, but if I want to use something for an important project I’ve learned its best to take the time to do it.

Now I know what to expect when I use these fabrics and which ones not to use for felting. Although a couple of them might work with coarser wools.  But that’s for another time.

4th Quarter Challenge – Monochrome

4th Quarter Challenge – Monochrome

Comments 32 comments

No one will be surprised at my choice of subjects, a panda.

I had some maori batts in a  gray color so it seemed an easy choice as a base.

I’ve been trying to add more dimension into my work as I mentioned in last week’s blog post.  So, this was one of my goals with this project.

I layed out the batt then made the head of the panda in prefelt, then added the shapes for the ears, and eyes.  Since the nose would be the center of the picture, I used a needle felted nose shape in a heavier fiber then covered it with another nose shaped prefelt and needle felted it onto the batt. I don’t know why it looks pink.

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I continued to build up the shape, added gems for eyes and covered them with another layer of prefelt and more fiber. I wanted to give the fur a fuzzy effect so I carefully cut and put fibers along the edges and a little shading around the eye.  For the body, I blended some gray into the black for contrast. Since the arm blended in with the body I just used a shaded area to give it a little dimension. And of course, the panda is eating her bamboo.  Her nose is actually bamboo fiber. Here is a side view.

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After securing everything with more needle felting, I wet felted it.  The maori didn’t shrink much which was fine  because I intended to wrap it around a canvas frame.

20151024_160628A close up.

20151024_160640Well I changed my mind and hung it without wrapping it on a frame.

20151030_132929I may put it on a darker background to make it stand out from the gray wall.  What do you think?

Have you done the challenge yet?

I want to let you all know I will be taking a leave of absence.  I’m having surgery November 3 and don’t know how long it will be before I can resume felting.  In the mean time, several forum friends have offered to help fill in my blog spots.  If you have something you’d like to blog about to help out, please contact Ruth, Zed or Ann.  I hope to see you all back here soon!  Thanks for your support!