A week in photos...

So, the children go back to school on Monday... and what have we done?  Not a lot is the honest answer.  My son came down with a heavy cold last Monday, which he very generously passed on to me.  Quite effectively scuppering all of our plans for the week; didnt want to visit and make anybody ill, and didnt have the energy for the outings or projects we were going to do.  At least we had the leisure to do nothing without feeling guilty about it though!

We did get a nice sunny day (just the one!) and I got my daughter to model the Faerie Shawl... it is a little large on her, but I`m sure she is dreaming of proms & faerie balls - fancy dresses & frilly wraps :)



I started to sort out my craft room into new storage boxes to give me more room (I hope).  While sorting I came across 2 lots of fibre that I had dyed about 3 years ago... and done nothing with.  There was a carrier bag with just under 200g dyed merino in that had become so compressed it was almost felted.. pretty much unusable as it was.  So I teased it apart & run it through the drum carder :) adding in sprinkles of sari silk fibre... ended up with 2 decent batts - what a fantastic machine!



Which, over the next couple of days I spun into 2 nice skeins

Rachael has, so far, managed to avoid catching the lurgy (she had it a couple of weeks ago).  So of course she needed entertaining.  The other dyed fleece I discovered came in useful here.  It was dyed using Tinctoria Natural Dyes; madder & I think calendula.  Rach helped me put it through the drum carder (which she LOVES) and we carded a batt of brown Shetland cross that I have cleaned  & waiting to be spun.  We split the batts into long thin sections and Rachael has woven a panel on the peg loom

Its more or less 18" square.  The plan was to turn it into a chushion cover... I hope that it works, I think it should.  Just need to find a suitable fabric for the cushion back.

And thats our week...  Im off to find a cup of tea and some quiet (Matthew is now better & has put his music on..only quietly bless him, but its echoing in my head)

xx

An invitation to all felt & fibre friends

I am putting the wheels in motion to start a tea/coffee morning for any fibre loving folks - spinners/felters/weavers and those who are interested in fibre arts & crafts. 

I dont have a group name or permenant venue as yet.  I propose either every other Friday, or 1 Friday a month to meet up for an hour or 2, the idea is to bring along something to work on while we chat over tea & biscuits.

This will be in Halesowen, West Midlands, UK.  Possibly the first meet up could be as soon as Friday 4th March (am)   If you are interested please leave me a comment, or email me through one of my shops or flickr (links to the right).

Ultimately, if there are enough people interested we could use a room at Haden Hill House.. but as I would need to hire the room we would need at least 7 people for this (with approx £1 sub)

This is a chance to get out and meet people who share a love of fibre, no concentrating on learning a new skill as you do at a workshop - just relax and make friends. 

Dont be shy

x

Felting Faerie Fashion :)

Got to be quick with this one... time is getting away from me again - Im sure its speeding up!

Wednesday my fibres still hadnt arrived.  But lying in bed on Tuesday night I suddenly felt the need to create a cobweb wrap fit for a faerie.  Possibly because I had been looking at the Glastonbury Faerie Ball on the internet that evening..

So, as soon as the kids were packed off to school I started setting up &  laying out.  I was really in the zone that day - had the incense burning & soft music playing...

 

How much did I wish that I had table room big enough for this?!

I decided on soft pink & white merino, with creamy tussah silk & ice white firestar to add magic sparkles.  Just one fine layer of fibre to keep it light, etherial.  Less fibre of course means more shrinkage so this needed to start out BIG.  As you see, I had to work on the floor & it even outgrew my piece of lino I use to protect the floor from water!  It started out 3 meters x 1 meter.

Simple leaves cut from mawata silk hankies

I cut 19 leaves from silk hanky and scattered them across the surface... just let them drift down and felted them wherever they lay.

The silk leaves really melted into the felt.. they look lovely.  Next time I will dye them a nice soft colour first though I think.

The problem with working on something this huge & also delicate.. on the floor! is my sad deficiency in the art of levitation!  OMG my muscles were aching after this.  Fortunately when it was rolled up I could transfer it to the table for rolling.

Now Im really happy with it - but I havent got a good photo to show you yet!  Im hoping to get my girlie to model it, hopefully on a dry sunnyish day.. (not hoping for much hey?)  OR, I may be sucessfull in my construction of a dressform - you never know.

My new fibres did arrive early yesterday, so with muscles already aching from the day before I set out to felt another wrap!  This one is a nuno wrap, which again has started out pretty big.  It took nearly 5 hours just to lay the fibre.. and after a couple of hours rolling I was just so shatter I decided to stand the roll in a bowl & leave it over night.  Im about to go work on it some more now..

Have a good weekend x

Waiting again...

Well this morning I was all set to work on a new nuno wrap.  Over the weekend I dyed an Indian silk scarf (HUGE one) and some silk hankies ready for this.  I even got so far as pulling my fibres ready to start, only to find a distinct lack of some of the blues I was planning to use!  Luckily I already have them on order from Wingham Wool (just got an email to say they are posted - yay) so I just have to wait now...

I'm hoping to add some nice dyed silk caps & hankies to my Folksy shop soon (of course I've got to actually get round to dyeing them first lol).  I've been really rubbish at listing stuff in my shops since Christmas.. must do better.

Anyway with my days plans scuppered, I decided to work on some finishing touches instead.  Felted a lovely blue/green piece with some of the aforementioned silk hankies & some firestar fibre sprinkled between the merino & silk.  I'm planning some brooches made from this.. if they work like Im picturing they should be nice :)

And a couple of big blousy flowers (the one on the left is pretty massive :)

I cant believe we are heading into another school holiday... already!  It doesnt seem 5 mninutes since the kids went back and they break for half-term on Thursday this week. 

Heres hoping my fibre gets here by Thursday so I can get this wrap out of my system before the kids break up.

xx

February Felt..

OK, so I promised a felty post this time :)   I have been felting nearly every day working out a Spring / Summer range for my Etsy shop.. 

Im pleased with what Ive got so far, there is the Spring bag - you saw the prototype a few weeks ago.  After tweeking the resist Ive now got finished bags.  I LOVE these, they take a good 10 hours of work time, plus I dry them completely at prefelt stage so I can machine stitch the bottom, so the quickest I can make these is in 2 days. 

Veeery similar to the original, but the shape is just how I wanted it now.

 I thought I had a photo of the Love Spring bag too (ecru merino with heart inlays) - but I haven't, and its almost dark now, so I shall have to wait to take photos tomorow.  Never mind, I shall post them next time.

I have also made some hip bags!  I made myself one of these last year & I LOVE it, it always draws compliments when I wear it so I decided to make some more.  So far Ive made 2 roughly the same size & shape as mine, and one which is slightly bigger.

Apologies for the close ups of me bum - its the only way to show how they sit (oh for a dressmakers dummy!)

This is the bigger one (above).  About half way through the felting process - at the time that I cut the resist out, I added some simple embroidery stitches in tapestry wool which felted in nicely as I carried on.  Got loads of lovely sari silk fibre in here too (how much do I love sari silk?   A LOT!)

Loads of sari silk fibre, and sari ribbons felted in to this one.  I love the colourfull sari silks against the  vibrant lilac & pink merino

  A crashing wave with throwsters waste silk surf. 

Gary challenged me to felt a wave... so I felted it onto a hip bag.The cord belt has a BFL tuft at the end & mohair locks plus lots of silks felted in... I formed a loop section in the cord and added 3 sea worn limpet shells (from last summers holiday :) as I was felting it.  Just need to find time for listing thing now lol.

I've felted a lovely summery nuno wrap but havent any photos yet.  I really do need to get a dressmakers dummy to display things nicely!  I'm planning to have a go at making my own, they are just too expensive for me to buy one.  Hopefully should be doing that over the next week or two so watch this space :)

What else has been going on?  Well Gary worked away for a couple of days... I thought I'd get lots done while he was away (as I could carry on working after the kids went to bed guilt free)  didnt seem to happen though.  I did carry on working late, but didnt seem to get much more done than I would normally. 

We gained a new fishy friend - Rachael has named him Bob.  He's a VERY lucky little fish.  Gary found him in an empty house he was inspecting, the people had moved out at the begining of December and left him behind.  Amazing that he is alive and healthy after 2 months without food!  (Of course for all we know he may of had a couple of buddies to begin with.. he was all on his own when found.  He settled straight into our tank, is really playful with the other fish and growing fast now that he is eating. 



BOB

Bob is the second fish that has come to us in this way - our very first fish had been abandoned on an outdoor balcony in a carrier bag!  I do not know how people can do these things!  This first fishy was named Hannibal (the cannibal) no prizes ford guessing how he survived! But again he was a lovely peaceful & friendly fish, we had him for years.

OK, time to go cook :)
xoxo

Nettle for Fibre by John-Paul Flintoff - "Through the Eye of a Needle"

This video has just been posted on one of my yahoo fibre groups... I really enjoyed it... and yet another book is now added to my wish list!

I dont fancy trying felting with nettles (ha ha), but as a spinning fibre I`ve been pretty interested for a few years - who knows I may get round to experimenting this year! 

What John-Paul says applies just as much to wool & linen as nettles I think.   For someone like me with a fascination in social history, heritage crafts AND the environment, this promises to be an interesting read.  And, maybe a bit of a much needed prod (in my case) toward using even more of my local natural materials.

Next post is a felty one ...... promise :)

xx

An exciting discovery...

 

Had to share these with you!  While mooching through the haberdashery section in our local Dunelm Mill I came across these amazing pins... they are strong hold Twist Pins.  On the box it states 'for upholstery & matteresses etc' - as soon as I saw them however SOLES came to mind!

Showing the pin twisting in to the felt

I couldnt tell you the number of times I have stabbed my fingers (or leg!) while stitching on a leather sole held in place with straight pins.  Plus its a fiddle keeping them all in place, they really do try to come out.  How PERFECT to be able to twist these little corkscrew pins in 'till they sit flush and stay put. 

Sitting perfectly flush



Securely pinned and ready to stitch

I tried them out a couple of days ago, and they worked brilliantly!  They sit very snuggly against the leather sole & the point didnt even poke through the other side of the felt on my boots!  They made a tedius task easier and faster!  SO, HURRAH for the twist pin!  Im going to buy more when I next visit the shop, incase I cant find them again in future.

Must add these to my leather soles page!

Gary renewed the insulation in our loft last weekend... which meant moving all of the stuff that is stored up there.  Of course this led to rediscovering forgotten & lost things... including this drawing.  I am NO drawer/painter - at least not these days, wasn't too bad when I was a kid.  But this is special to me, I can so vividly remember drawing it... Rachael was 4 weeks old, it was the wee early hours and everybody else in the house was sound asleep.  My gorgeous baby girl was peacefully feeding... it was one of those rare moments when there are no distractions and everything just seems perfect - even though I was bone weary. I can remember wanting to hold on to the moment forever.. Looking to my right were Matthews sugar paper and a wax crayon, so I drew her.. 

This was this first time I had drawn anything in 9 years, and I havent sat down an deliberately tried to draw anything since (12 years).  I'm actually going to put this in a clip frame and hang it on the wall in my craft room... not as a work of art - which it really isnt, but as a memory (though its not too bad I think, for juggling baby at breast + sugar paper & crayon balanced on a story book :).

I spent a lovely day of visiting yesterday... so no felting.  9am had a cuppa and chat with my mom, then over to spend a lovely few hours with my friend Clare who is expecting her first baby in March.  Guess who felt broody by the time she got home?!  Clare sent me on my way with a big bag stuffed full of fibre and other goodies... she is destashing ready for baby's arrival.

A couple of zips arrived in the post today - yay!  So today I shall be able to finish off the bright hip bag..

xx

New bag for Spring

I've been working on a new bag design.  I'm really pleased... my first one is complete - and its a keeper :) .  I have another that is almost there, but I have to buy a zipper!  Why, oh why didnt I buy 2 (or even more) while I was at the sewing shop last week?!  The second one is destined for my etsy shop.  So,  pics...

 

This was felted over a pretty HUGE resist, I made it very long so I could create sections, including a full size zip close compartment.  I used a slightly coarse brown merino fibre, decorating the in and outside with creamy tussah silk and deep rose pink merino flowers.  By the time it was finished it was felted down by at good 50% into a nice solid little bag.  The bottom section was pushed up to create the inner zip section - I stitched across to form the bag bottom half way through fulling. 

The handle on my first one was a little wonky - I think I cut it unevenly.  So I machine stitched a strip of felt to match the flowers to the underside of the handle.. added a few buttons and Im really chuffed with it!  The second handle is much straighter... I like the look of the pink on mine though, shall have to think what to do with the new one...  I love the witch-stitch (or herringbone) holding the zip... takes me ages but I think its worth it.  The double flap is mostly just decorative, it does keep the bag front nice and sturdly & ensures a good fit when the flap is buttoned up.

Last week I treated myself to my first ever rotary cutter!  This was the first time I got to use it (cutting the pink strip) OMG this make cutting long straight lines SO EASY. 

I also finished off the lattice shawl/wrap that I felted last week.  Decided to add 3 little white flowers.  They work quite well as a 'fastner' actually, just pull one through a hole.  My daughter has her eye on this one - though Im not sure she would actually wear it...  Far from being an original idea in any way, this was still quite interesting to work on.  These lattices are covered in the Fabulous Felted Scarves book that I had for Christmas.

Today I am strugging.  Inspiration has run dry..  I cant felt another of my Spring bags until I buy some resist fabric - none of the pieces I have are large enough, and the original resist I made is looking a little sorry for itself, I dont want to wreck it until I have copied it so I'm not using it again.

I cant finish the 2nd Spring bag OR the Hip bag till I have the right zips, had to buy these mail order as I couldnt find a suitable colour here... and I'm still waiting!

Guess I'll go do some boring (yet essential) jobs.

TTFN

xx

Some finished projects, some just begun

Thought I'd take a moment to put up some pics of the journal cover & slippers now they are finished...

Almost went cross eyed with all these inlays! The cross is a piece of silk velvet felted in - shame it ended up off centre in the circle... think I was concentrating too much on keeping the boat inlays in place (its made up of 7 pieces).  The boat & fish have gone into the felt a littl too much in places, think I really should of wet the fibre before adding the inlays, they might of kept crisper edges then.  Still like it though - hope my mum-in-law does :)  I think my favourite bit is the embroidered fishing net - which you cant really see in the photos..

So far this week I've tinkered with a summery nuno beach wrap/shawl. I need a dressform to display it properly... here it is jumbled up with the head-kerchief I felted last week - I LOVE all these pretty summery colours :)

Green head kerchief, Purple wrap

I've felted a pretty big lattice wrap too, which I'm planning to sew some felt flowers onto.. And I felted a hip bag today in hot colours with loads of sari silk fibre & ribbon... just need to find a zip & embroidery silk that go now to finish it off.

More soon

xx

A week spent swimming in colourful fibre...

OOooo this week has been a treat!  First week back to felting after 3 weeks off while the family were at home... much as I LOVE family time, its always nice to get the fibre back out :)  I have devoted the week to FUN, things that I have been planning to do but havent had time & pressies that I wanted to make.  I cant share all of my makes with you at the moment... they may get spotted and spoil a suprise.  But heres what I can show..

I have felted a journal cover for my mum-in-laws birthday.  I wanted the design to be `things that matter` to her.  My mum-in-laws big loves (apart from her family) are Cornwall, she was born and raised there and is still very much Cornish even though she has not lived there for many years.  And the church plays a major part in her life.

After a lot of thought I decided to go with sea, sky and a fishing boat for the front cover and a Cornish Celtic cross for the back.  Its finished apart from the embroidery that I want to add - more pics to follow soon :)

All laid out & ready to go... finished pics next time.

I started experimenting with summer headgear, but havent got a photo of this yet. I decided to nunofelt a head kerchief... The style is inspired the scarf-like head wrap (called a head-rail) that I wear at work (I dress up as a Tudor servant and work with schools in a local museum for anybody new who will probably be thinking "WHAT?!" at this point). As I dont have pics yet I shall talk more about it when I do...

And I felted some boots for my sons birthday - he turned 14 yesterday (where has the time gone?!)    I didnt have lasts in his size and didnt get round to making some from socks and duct tape, so I had to borrow his feet for a little while to finish them off :)  Its a bit of a challenge trying to make something `manly`.  I used Norwegian wool in grey and white, adding areas of blue Icelandic wool in the final layer.  Im pleased with how they turned out, the blue in the felt is reflected in the soft blue leather soles... I just need to add a toggle fastner now (as per his request :) think I shall use the leather again for that.

We had a wonderful day out yesterday to celebrate.  Matthew wanted to go to our local zoo, where we spent many happy days when the children were younger.  The weather was pretty good; dry & sunny though very windy.  The highlight of the day was in one of the 'walk through' enclosures, when one of the black & white ruffed lemurs held Matthews hand!  It was on the handrail next to us and just reached out and held on very gently with a hand & foot - stayed there for a good 5 minutes.  Matthew said the lemurs hands were cold so maybe he was warming them up - it was soooo sweet!  Another funny bit was when we came across a flock of cameroon sheep in pets corner.  OMG they were funny... there were 7 or 8 of them in there, most were saying "MAAaaaaaaaaa" but one missed his "M" every time just saying "AAAAaaaaa" I love hearing sheep anyway - always think they are funny... but these they had very funny voices, some were really deep, and they were SO loud.  There were 2 lamas in with them and they made a very tiny little noise, such a contrast to the sheep who were hardly as tall as the llamas knees.  My hubby recorded them on his mobile, now every time I phone he gets a very loud mad MAAAaaaa-ing :) It truly was the most hilarious noise I have ever heard.  All the photos were taken on our phones, so I cant post them unfortunately. 

And the rest of this weeks makes are secret...  but will be revealed in time.

xx