A few things .....

These are the luggage labels I made for Greenstede Quilters Exhibtion, mentioned in my last posting.







They were taken from "Quilting Arts Gifts" published in 2008-2009. It's got some great ideas in it including these luggage labels which were really easy to make.

I've also made another needle felted picture, similar to one I made in Lesson 2. I made it to hang in the caravan (to replace a somewhat tasteless floral picture that was there!) so it seemed appropriate that I based it on a photo I took last year at Pagham beach.

it's been a bit quiet ....

For several reasons I have been a bit quiet over the past few weeks on the creative front ....

1. It's caravan season and we've spent the last two weekends away from home. It's great to get away and we do relax and enjoy ourselves but I do miss my machines. I have taken some hand stitching to do so I'm not totally idle. I've also got a cross stitch project on the go which hopefully will take me through a few months.

2. Greenstede Quilters bi-annual exhibition is coming up so I've had to get my entries ready. It only meant sewing on hanging sleeves as the quilts themselves were already finished. I've entered the Blue Batik Mystery Quilt, Samuel's Hanging and A Glimpse of Kilmt, all of which have appeared on here in the past. I also made some luggage labels for the sales table. If you are close to East Grinstead from Friday 26th March to Saturday 10th April do drop in the see a wonderful display of quilts (closed over Easter weekend).

3. Work (the stuff I'm actually paid for!) has been a nightmare so many evenings I've been too tired to create! Things are getting better and the Easter break will be with us soon so I hope to get back in the swing.

Needlefelt samples

In this first sample I felted various fibres to a piece of felt that I had foiled and then felted organza over it. The whole piece was then cut into strips and woven together.

In this piece I felted some dyed scrim on to felt, cut it into strips and then wove it together. I want to add some hand stitching but haven't quite got the right colour thread so this will have to wait until a trip to the shops.

In this piece I felted various yarns into felt and again cut it into strips and wove it together. I found I prefered the back side of the piece as it was more muted in colour. I feel I need to do something more to this but at the moment I can't quite decide what it is. I've decdied to leave it and see if inspiration comes to me. If anyone out there has an suggestions, feel free to share them with me.

The final ones in lesson 3 use sari silk which I felted to a felt background. The whole thing was then bonded to a piece of Bondaweb on which I then cut into squares cut on the cross. The tiny pieces were then assembled onto another piece of felt and bonded to the background. I stitched down each join with a cotton perle thread using fly stitch.

Before cutting

After cutting and assembling

Detail

One of my 4" samples

This final piece was the challenge from Lesson 2 which was to interpret a photo of the Kimberleys in north-west Australia. For this I felted small pieces of felt, fibres and fabrics to a felt background which I had foiled first. Again a put organza over the top and felted it. The lines of dyed yarn were couched on with a copper thread and to finish I added some beads. The final photo shows a detail.

Don't forget the ideas for these experiements come from the EmbellishStitchEnrich course I'm doing with Dale Rollerson - her ideas, my interpretation.

Birthday postcards

Had to take a break from the EmbellishStitchEnrich work this weekend as i had to get some Postcards made for some upcoming birthdays. I suppose it wasn't much of a break as I embellished sari silk for the background and added hand stitching and buttons to finish.

Competition entry

I've entered the hanging I made for Samuel in this week's Quilting Gallery contest. Visit http://quiltinggallery.com/photo-contests/weekly/themes/ to vote.

Lesson 2 - EmbellishEnrichStitch

Here are the samples I've done for Lesson Two of the Embelllish Enrich Stitch course.

The first one is my interpretation of a beach landscape I took last year at Pagham. I've put the photo with it so show the inspiration. The background was made with small pieces of fibre, threads and fabrics felted into a piece of black felt. Piece of fabric were added for the plant in the foreground and the two posts. Hand stiches were added to finish.

The background of this next one was made from small pieces of fabric, fibres and threads which were felted into a felt background which had foil applied to it first. I then felted a piece of chiffon over the top, zapped it with a heat gun and added some hand stitches and beads.

The background for this next sample also had foil applied to it first and then felt and organza squares were added with buttons and beads. I felted yarns to create the "cross hatching". The background was a bit brighter that I anticipated!

The following piece was shapes cut from a piece I made from felted fibres and threads on a flet background. These shapes were in trun felted on to black felt. I then added some shapes cut from fusible foil, felted organza over the top and zapped it with a heat gun. I have found that when using the heat gun on felted organza it doesn't melt as much as when I've used it on machine stitched work. Not too sure why, it may be that the fibres have gone so far into the felt that there are less to burn?

Detail of above

This was strips of different fabrics felted into a piece of felt that had had paint applied on a piece of Bondaweb.

This final sample is one of the small sample pieces I am making as I go. It was done again using small pieces of fibres and fabric which were covered with organza, felted and then heated with the heat gun. I added hand stitching to finish.

More embellished samples

Here are some more samples from Lesson one of the Embellish Stitch Enrich course I am doing.

This has wool and silk fibres felted into a felt background, running stitched in varigated cotton perle and finally two flowers, made again from wool and silk fibres felted into felt, attached with french knots.

This was a piece of scrim over black felt. The dyed felt heart shapes were felted into the surface and then I felted heart shapes from the back. I think the shapes came out a little heavy although this was improved when I added the running stitches which does break up the black. The hand stitching was again done with varigated cotton perle.

This was the final challenge piece for lesson one. The background is strips of sari silk felted into a felt background. The flowers were again made with wool and silk fibres felted into felt and attached with two layered buttons. The stems were also sari silk.

These final three are small pieces -about 3.1/2 inches square - which use different techniques from the lesson.

They are made on a base on 4mm thick felt and I am going to make similar ones as I progress through the course.