Well, we have been experimenting with felting some lovely free fleeces, given to us by a very friendly local farmer & his wife... the fleeces came from their free range sheep. I spun some & crocheted the yarn into warm wooly hats for the family as a thank you. Now, I know that the fibre spins very well but I wasnt too sure how well it would felt... there was only one way to find out... We decided to have a go at quite a big piece of felt, so we used an old bamboo blind and `foot felted` it out in the garden - lots of mess & lots of fun! (see pictures posted last week) We`ve done this before when we made rugs for the kids bedrooms; if you`re interested there are photos in my Crafty Kids Gallery .
This fleece didnt felt brilliantly it has to be said, but its very soft and will make a great squishy centre for the rag rug projects the kids are working on. Matthew (my 12 year old) is making a seat cover for his bedroom chair, and Rachael (my 10 year old) is making a comfy floor rug that she can take with her when she visits Matthews room to play on the xbox 360.
These pictures show Matts seat cover, he is about half way through the `podging` stage. We have recycled a pair of curtains in heavy fabric (red) and an old flannalette bedsheet (yellow). Matthew is working his initials MA into the seat back. When he is finished I shall sew a backing fabric on with the felt sandwiched in between and we can fit it to his chair. The picture above shows the front, 
the picture below is the back.
Rachael doesnt want me to post photos of her rug yet. BUT, a couple of days ago she set herself up, out on the deck in the sunshine, with a bowl of warm soapy water and a couple of handfulls of fibre - a little wh
ile later, after she had sewn on the ears and tail she had a lovely little mouse! At the moment he is one of the blind mice from the nursery rhyme, but she might add eyes when we find just the right beads for the job :o)
I think he`s adorable!
So, that what the kids have been doing! Of course, I havent managed to get much done myself, but its nice to spend plenty of family time, just chillin`... pottering around etc. We`ve had quite a few bake days and gardening too. Infact I`m going to show you our `bean tree` I`ve never seen runner beans get this big - they HUGE. They are growing up a willow obelisk, as they kept going up & out we had to add extra withies so they had something to hold onto. I recon theyre about 9 feet tall. Some of them, once they had reached the end of the sticks drooped down for a couple of feet - then grew back up themselves!
It looks a bit like a Darlek from Doctor Who in disguise!
On the felting front, I made a new purple triplet set for lovely Keiara (the one I had sent was a smidge tight) which means that Ive got the original triplets :o) and the purple set I had been working on for myself (below) is now free to go on my etsy shop. The embroidery is a little different on the bangle of this set, and the purples are a different shade (every piece has to be different).
The colours have come up a bit weird on the photos - I think its funny light at the moment. Oh well, you get the idea...
I shall be away from the internet for about a week and a half after tomorow, so after this mega waffle blog :o) that`ll be it from me ... for a while.
Take care of yourselves
x
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