Felting catch-up

I've managed to find some time over the last few weeks to spend on the embellishing machine. These are the samples (with details) from Lesson 4 of Embellish Stitch Enrich. There are a few more to do from this lesson and then it's on to Lesson 5.

For this first one I knitted up a plain piece using a varigated wool and then cut it up and felted it to a piece of felt. Hand stitches and buttons finished it off.



The second piece also has knitting on it but this time I left the squares intact and felted them, again to a piece of felt. The smaller pieces in the centre of each knitted square are pieces of left overs from previous samples. More of the same yarn that I used for the knitting was felted around the squares.



For the final sample I first felted some small pieces of organza and silk between felt and a piece of black lace. I then cut up the piece into squares, machined around the edges with metallic thread and felted them on to a foiled piece of felt. Stitches and beads were added to finish.



As with previous samples, I have also made a small square sample using similar techniques. The first three are all similar to the above samples.

For this last one I first knitted a very textured yarn which I felted. However, it came out much thicker than I thought it would as I had planned to use it for making some flower brooches. Having cut out a flower I'm not sure whether or not I will carry on with the plan. However, the bits left from the cutting out were used for this square which I felted to the felt background under some organza. Yet again I couldn't resist adding the buttons to finish!

Greenstede Quilter's Exhibition

The exhibition Greenstede Quilters had last week went very well with lots of very complimentary visitors. The three quilts I have on display looked good in their setting so I've inlcuded a couple of photos for you to see.

Our raffle this year is raising funds for the Royal National Lifeboard Institution, in particular the new Lifeboat Station they are building at Shoreham. The prizes are these quilts which were made by members.

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.