scraps – Felting and Fiber Studio

Pandagirl’s 2017 3rd Quarter Challenge Part 1

September 1, 2017 Marilyn aka Pandagirl Comments 25 comments

It took me a while to decide what I wanted to do for the challenge of the Edo period in Japan. I was drawn to the simple scrolls with flowers and branches.

https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2017/07/07/3rd-quarter-challenge-2017/

I scoured the museum sites and Pinterest. I’ve been to Japan during Sakura (Cherry Blossom) season and particularly love the trees and flowers so it wasn’t too hard to narrow it down.

Since the scrolls seemed to be pale yellow, I made a batt backing then made another light batt using the Osage hand dyed merino and corriedale as a background. I added some darker fibers randomly to give the effect of lines in a scroll.

I had some left over merino/silk scraps from a scarf I had made for my son years ago. They were supposed to be tassels, but I didn’t like them and cut them off and saved them. But they make perfect tree branches. Here is my first layout.

But something was off. It didn’t feel right to me. So, I rearranged the branches.

Next was to make white prefelt for the flowers (commercial wasn’t white enough) and cutting out the shapes in several sizes. This was not an easy process. Here it is a wet look. The neat thing about the layout is that the branch can be down or up.

I didn’t want to felt it too hard. But I may have to steam it before or after I add either hand or machine embroidery for details.

Actually the photo shows more texture than with the naked eye.

How do you like the branch, down or up?

Pandagirl’s Year in Review 2016

December 29, 2016 Marilyn aka Pandagirl Comments 17 comments

I hope everyone had a nice holiday and are ready for the New Year.

It’s almost the end of 2016 and looking back on the things I’ve done, there seems to be a few themes.

I did a lot of natural dyeing. Avocado skins, pits and the combo.

Cochineal

Alkanet/Logwood

Osage

Madder

Cutch, Rhubarb and Indigo

Eco printing

Resists

Under the sea theme

2nd Quarter challenge working with scraps – the former credit card case turned into an ear bud case.

Then the cityscape with scraps.

A scarflette with locks

Ginkgo stitching

Crochet piece felted and embellished with stitching

Felting wit my grandsons

Silk scraps into a free motion stitched vase

3rd Quarter challenge adding dimension from Kristy Kun’s class

Ruth’s Paper Lamination class

Teri’s hat class

Mini weaving wall hanging

More work with scraps for a sewing machine case

4th Quarter Challenge with embellishments for a coupon case.

And blue booties for a shower

Of course, there were also plenty of samples during the year including using the needle felting machine to felt some unfeltable fabrics.

A big thank you to Cathy Wycliff for her post on weaving and felting; my sister Carol Olson for sharing her new sheep with us; Nada for sharing her workshop experience in Slovenia; Zara for her posts on Felting on a Trampoline and her Yak, Mongolian, Churro and Zwartables samples; Leonor for her soap tutorial and Terri Simon on sharing her projects from Kristy Kun’s class.

It was a great year for me in terms of learning new things and doing some recycling. How was your 2016 year of fibers?

Happy New Year and Happy Felting in 2017!

Finishing the Panels

December 5, 2016 Marilyn aka Pandagirl Comments 28 comments

Last week I showed you two large panels I made using scraps. Since then I created three more.

One long panel.

Two short ones.

Here they are laid out on the floor.

Here’s the final project.

So, whats underneath?

My Simplicity Needle Felting Machine naked. Sorry about the lighting, this was our first snow and kind of cloudy.

Now you see it.

Now you don’t.

I was amazed that I got the sizes right. I purposely left the edges organic. Its a little lopsided but the top of the machine is narrower than the bottom. Now I can change it around for a different look when the mood strikes.

Did you see that coming?

We have three spots left for sponsorship to keep our forum ad free, if you’re interested, please visit the forum and leave a response under 2017 Sponsorhips. Thanks!

Creating Panels for a New Project

November 27, 2016 Marilyn aka Pandagirl Comments 19 comments

I had such a good time using my scraps and embellishments for my coupon case, I decided to do a larger project using panels. And using up more of my scraps.

Here is the first large panel. I started on white prefelt and added bits of leftover batts creating a cloud effect for the background..

Then I added silk selvage, pieces of cheesecloth, silk pieces, scraps of scarves, metallic fabric, yarns and a little of this and that, topped with threads and a bit of wool wisps to secure the threads.

The next panel I forgot to take a pic of the cloud background. But for this one I used silk selvedge, silk scraps, cheesecloth, boucle yarn bits, mohair, prefelt offcuts, and pieces of leftover roving amongst other things including threads.

It was fun just picking out things from bags and literally throwing it on. The textures are great.

Closeups:

I love the way the threads cross over and look like roadmaps.

Here is the first one finished with closeups.

I was surprised the prefelt just grabbed everything. I had to shave each panel to get some of the glittery stuff to shine again.

Three more panels to go, so stay tuned.

Have you done your 4th Quarter Challenge yet?

4th Quarter Challenge 2016

November 11, 2016 Marilyn aka Pandagirl 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.

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

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.

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

While still wet:

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.

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:

Back closed:

Now I’m ready to shop.

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.

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.

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

Felt and Fibre scraps

November 10, 2012 zedster66 Comments 15 comments

I thought it was time I tidied out my felt and wool scraps as the boxes and bags they were in were getting too full. I know it’s really geeky to categorise scraps but whenever I try to find the right size pieces for a project I seem to spend more time sorting and searching than anything else. I never throw anything felt, fabric or fibre away, everything is good for something. This is from my bag of scraps that aren’t usable for anything else, so I save them for using between layers of texture felt.

Often when I’m laying out a project for felting, I end up with a few wisps of wool or fibres here and there, so I put them in a bag and keep adding until it’s full, then card them together. I get some really nice heathery blends, and they always add a lot of interest to felt with such a variety of colours and fibre blends.

Sorting out my box of big spare pieces was fairly easy, I mostly sorted it into thick, regular and cobwebby pieces. The box of smaller spare pieces took a lot longer. In the end I had about 8 or 9 separate piles: thick, regular and cobwebby pieces, and, as shown in this next photo: long wide strips; medium regular strips; thin strips; regular short strips and really thin and short strips.

I bought some water soluble stabiliser a while ago, so hopefully I’ll find time to use the really short thin strips for making a bowl using Ruth’s tutorial. The longish thin strips are great for making into loop fasteners. I wet them with soapy water and roll between my palms until they’re felted and sew them onto my project. If the piece is long enough I can leave the ends dry, fluff them out and the loop can be felted in with the project.

Once I’d finished sorting all my pieces, I chose some to use for my project-a collage book cover. I’d make a similar one a few years ago using felt pieces and ‘invisible’ thread, but I wanted to use my fancy new machine and zig zag stitch to sew strips and pieces.