Monday Felt Fun!

Ooo Monday was a play day! The kids were back at school & the day stretched out before me... so after a brisk walk round the fields with the dogs (in gorgeous sunshine) I started rooting through my stash! 2 weeks without felting had left me feeling twitchy & I had newish goodies as yet untried. I decided to do a sampler like piece of flat felt... using lots of lovely colours & embellishment.

Do you remember the lovely naturally dyed silk cap & handspun mulberry silk thread that I brought a few weeks ago? From Debbie at Mulberry Dyer (who shall be at Wonderwool Wales at the weekend for anybody who is going)

Well this is the first time that Ive used either of them... the cap is the light green - I love the texture of it, I only used about 2/3 of 1 layer from the silk cap and got a lovely thick lushious effect. The gold thread stands out really well too. I dropped a few bright gold nepps near to the silk thread too, but I dont think Ive got them on the photo.

I used a couple of sari silk ribbons too

This side is my favourite its all hot pinky purple, blue violet & more purple - yum. The other side is dark purple & peacock blue with torn chiffon ribbons & thinly sliced felt beads... I love the richness of the colours & it was interesting trying out the sliced beads, and of course chiffon felts in well :o)

I think this piece is probably going to become a bag (suprised?)

Tried to post this yesterday but the internet connection was DREADFULL - I gave up in the end. This morning has been a run around chasing my tail type morning... tracking down parcels that the posty tried to deliver yesterday wehile I was at work... delivering Rachaels water bottle to school cos she had forgotten it (memory like her mothers Im afraid :o) and back to the Hairdresser - my hair is now in a nice neat long bob :o) and Im a happy bunny again.

This afternoon Im playing with banana silk :o) let you know how I get on

xx

My new bag

Ive had a great week experimenting & playing with felt! Yesterday I felted a hip bag for myself, Its got a definate sea theme going on; gorgeous blue shades of merino, with curly locks, silk filament fibre, sari silk ribbon, homespun fancy bobbly yarn that I plied with a metalic thread and a couple of tiny bright green silk chiffon scraps. Im planning to use it a lot through the summer.

Front

Back

Its seamless, well felted & hardened (it neads to be tough). Ive felted a really long cord (probably about 10 foot) with all the yummy extras that are in the body of the bag; sari silk ribbon, yarn, silk fibres. The cord threads through the back of the bag and wraps around my hips. I thought it was going to be too long, but I really like the way it goes one & a half times around, knots then dangles.

Ive sewn the zip in with herringbone stitch, I love the irregular edge of the finished felt.

On Wednesday I nuno felted a floral panel. Its the first time Ive done anything like that... so I was trying out different ideas. Im planning to use it as a banner / flag in the garden, the base is cotton gauze so its pretty floaty - I can just imagine it fluttering in the breeze. Just need to figure out exactly how / where to hang it :o) It`ll probably end up looking like a battle standard hehe

So this weeks been good & productive for me - hope it has for you too

TTFN

x