My first sunset

OK time to share the fruits of another playday ;o)

Friday last week I finally got around to felting a sunset! Our garden backs on to fields & woods, right behind our back fence there is a HUGE beautiful old beech tree. In the winter the sun sets right behind the woods & some nights the sky is just so breathtaking that all you want to do is stand and watch the colours changing. Unfortunately I havent had much joy taking photographs of this... the sun is just too bright even as its going down, and I don't have filters etc. I have managed to take a couple of nice ones though... I decided quite a while ago that I really needed to felt a wallhanging with our sunset beech tree...

Needs to be mounted now

I didnt want to clutter up the bottom of the picture too much with undergrowth etc, so I felted in strips of silk fabric & curly locks to add texture...its enough to hint there theres stuff there without being too busy.

My inspiration photo

I shall probably mount it onto linen stretched over a board, thats how I mounted the seascape I made for my nan a year or so back. I did a fair bit of surface embroidery onto the seascape though and dont want to embroider this sunset, so I shall have to see how that works out. Ive also got a dilema about what colour to mount it on...creamy white? or dark?

Yesterday I worked on a big piece of felt that Im planning to make a tunic or maybe a jacket from. Today I am dyeing the felt; I mordanted it this morning with alum & creme of tartar - got to say it smelled much more than when doing a smaller amount...which makes perfect sense I supose ;o) Now Im dyeing it with Tinctoria Red Lac, which smells nicer than the mordant - hope it takes well and that I like the colour... In the cauldron it looks like mulled wine!

Hopefully pics tomorow...

How it all went...

Well the Christmas Fayre is over & I had my last meeting at work this side of the holidays - I broken up now folks - YAY!

The fayre was lovely; I met some really nice people and when the choirs were caroling it was such a lovely atmosphere. The fayre was in the great hall of Hartlebury Castle, which is still the home of the Bishop of Worcester, it has a great high ceiling& flagstone floor - you can imagine what the accoustics were like, some of the carols gave me tingles! Unfortunately the table was TINY so it was overcrowded, & I didnt like the layout of the stalls - it didnt flow. That said my friend Nicci & me both had more success than at previous fayres. Nicci is a very talended artist - you can just about see a couple of her little paintings on the photo below - we had half the stall each & the tree was in the middle, so it shows a bit of both our work :o)

I hadnt realised how much stuff Id made until I wrote an inventory the night before - I think I had gone a little mad, I had so much stuff. Still it`ll end up on my etsy shop over the next few weeks. I took some photos, but most of them didnt turn out well...

This is my felted Christmas tree - Im really pleased with it. Its seamless, felted over a resist, I scattered twinkling angelina fibre all over it before felting & some cerise sari silk fibre to give a tinsel type effect. I wound the ribbon around it to hang my phone charms from - thought it was a different way of displaying them.

My lovely husband customized a wooden towel rail for me. Its a good job that he had, it enabled me to go UP with my display.

Unfortunately I now have a roaring cold which is slowing me down... and there is so much going on with kids at this time of year! My daughter (who recently turned 11) was performing, as part of her schools choir, at the Young Voices concert at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham last week - its the 2nd year that shes taken part & loved every minute. They had so much practice & so many songs to learn - I would not be able to remember them all, Im amazed that the kids can; the concert lasted about 3 hours so you can just imagine how much they had to learn. Today she is dancing in the schools Cinderella production - she is Cinderella in the opening dance in her raggedy clothes (guess which momas gonna be sitting blubbering) and then shes singing in the choir. My sons school have decided to close early & the weather man is promising heavy sleet & snow for around the time that he shall be coming out.... not quite sure how to be at the play & collecting him yet?! Hopefully hubby will be home in time to help out....

Hope you are all enjoying the run up to Christmas :o) TTFN