Keeping up with emails and blogging has proven impossible just lately, I had a break from felting etc for a while and then our darling granddaughter came back to the area to live buying a house about 20 mins walk from us and just around the corner from her mum, sister and brother. For the past few weeks its been like a family reunion, every day we meet up about 11.30 and have been busy decorating since the builders finished taking a wall down making an arch between the back and front rooms. Hopefully in about 2 weeks we can put away the decorating tools and finish getting the downstairs furnisher in place.

To add to all the excitement she presented us with a beautiful great-grandson, born last week, his name is Theodore Owen Williams.

I am trying to get my head out of the clouds and back into felting, its been a while since the Gotland Wool Workshop I mentioned in my last post and I have been busy making 2 dishes. Still haven’t finished the felted vessel with pleats, knitted soldering wire and slate buttons, just time is needed!

Leaf Shaped dish

Swirl dish

The IFA have a stand at the Woolfest later on this month and I promised to make some cuff/ bracelets for the sales table. 6 of these have gone in the post this morning

Had a wonderful day at the workshop, Our tutor was Marietta Alker, who owns her own Gotland Sheep, I had never used Gotland Wool before and was amazed just how quickly it felted also it makes a good hard felt just right for vessels bowls etc. It is certainly a wool that I will use again -bags and slippers come to mind!

The following photo is work of Marietta except the Vessel (back row on the left) was made by Judith Ferns.

I havent got much to show you at the moment my vessel is ongoing but can show you the pleats which I thought may need to be stitched to keep in place but they seem to be holding up nicely, when this is finished I will show you the whole thing - just need to be left alone to play.

To get used to using Gotland I made a quick flat felt of 4 layers + curls making it into a book cover.

What have been I been doing....

Last years Calendar Girls postcards were stuffed in a box, such a shame to hide them away so I have made them into a zig zag book which is now sitting on a shelf.

Book Cover

Displaying my cards.

Back of the Cards.

This years Calendar girls postcards are taken from various artists work. Pop over to the web site and take a peep.

Maggi Grey's book Textile Translations has some lovely free online workshops starting with a little triangle book, I enjoyed myself so definatly will be doing some more work later on.

Sueb’s runs a 4 week online Box making course.

Week 1. Square and Tall.

Week 2. House Shaped Box.

Week 3. Laced-up Vessel and Textured Vessel (still waiting to be painted!)

Week 4. Tic Tac Toe Game Box


Week 5 is what I am going to do when time permits, got a bit side tracked with baby knitting, and a jumper for my eldest daughter Sharron, there is also one in the pipe line for one of the granddaughters so click click I must go whilst waiting for the spuds to boil etc



One of my younger granddaughters saw me knitting Sharrons Jumper and asked if I had any wool left could I make her a Purple Teddy so not to disappoint her…



The UK Embellisher Swap group I am on had a Paper Weight Swap, there should be use of an embellisher on it so I wet felted a small pebble and attached a flower; which was made on the embellisher.


I bought 2 meters of white prefelt from Winghams, these are the results after a lovely day playing in the dye pot. These I will use either with the embellisher or wet felting, my stash was getting low!

For a long time now I have been wanting to get back into wet felting again and this Saturday I am going to a felting workshop using Gotland Fleece so will tell you all about it next week.

Better late than never - Happy New Year, I am determined to raid the UFO Box, at long last I have finished and hung the felted wall rug, it's been ages sitting waiting for me to decide how to suspend it on the wall also I dident want to put it up till I had finished the decorating then Christmas came and went, I think you know what I mean? Its 'brother' (in reverse colours) has gone over to my daughters in Isle of Man, she is in the same position as I was - waiting for the room to be decorated before hanging! This has been a thourally enjoyable project, the quilting was hard on my hands but well worth the effort involved.

My next job I need to find a second hand foot stall to recover, I felted this stag and wasent sure if I would reseat a chair or recover a foot stall, not enough room for a chair so foot stall it will be - not easy to find I am told, did see one in a charity shop but it was a round one and trust me to want a rectangle! oh well I will keep looking.

On the knitting front I have finished my grandaughters Chunky Jumper which she is pleased with.

Dont forget to follow the Calendar Girls Blog, this year we have decided to use work from various artists calendars. January is Shane Pickett.

As promised from my last post this is the landscape, the hanger arrived and I am very pleased with it, its taken my a long while wondering how to hang this.

One of my grandchildren asked for a book cover with Spyro on, he is a little animated dragon on a TV programme and various games she has so I printed a drawing onto cotton and stitched it onto a peice of dyed cotton so it looks like spyro is flying through the air on his skateboard then let her colour him in.

Spyro Book cover.

On the knitting front only my shawl to show as I forgot to take photos of the chunky coat and beret for our daughter, beret for granddaughter and fingerless gloves for 3 of them. now making a scarf to go with daughters hat and then onto a jumper dress for g.daughter. Oh yes, several pairs of socks – something which is always on the needles.




Lots of fun with Fibre & Form online class, must admit I am hopeless with paint products etc but did enjoy having fun, of course I had to use some on felt to see what it looked like – okay spread very thin and a few possibilities came to mind.

Moulding paste Dragon on handmade felt.

Wallpaper, moulding paste and stamping.

Stenciling with Moulding paste and use of scrim

Lace and moulding paste

Rusted Tyvek

Painted and Heated Tyvek

Scroll

Inside of scroll.

Several months have passed me by and a change of circumstances unfortunately sees me making less felt, don’t get me wrong, I haven’t come to an end of my felting experience, I think that will always be on going - just a slight change in direction. I am using pre felts and like the idea of dyeing and finishing the felting process as it is less strenuous, obviously quicker so leaves more time for spinning and knitting. When feeling strong and in the mood I still make my own felt as it’s so satisfying to lay out the fibres, wet down and gently rub and roll.

Using the white prefelt I have enjoyed making this wall hanging, it is the finest weight prefelt that Winghams sell, wonderful to print on and stitch into! Whilst at the Quilt exhibition in August I bought the little hanger from The House of Lishkar stand, just right for this hanging. I phoned them and ordered a larger hanger for a landscape which I felted and stitched a while back, oh dear, its one of those peices that is still waiting to be hung!! With both hangings I placed a strip of felt on the back and needle felted it along the edge making a channel to place the hanger.

closeup

Will add the landscape when the hanger arrives.

I have joined an on-line course being run by Carol McFee “Textile Tales” and Lynda Monk “Purple Missus” which looks very exciting, lots of paint and stitch play!! Pop over and have a peep.

The Prefelt is working out well, have a look here for more information. I have used some in this month swaps.

Bookmark.

Bracelets

Postcard

Think my next order I will try some heaver weight or the Norwegian. It really helps save time and some of the work of the felting process.

Treated myself to Felting Books. Creative Felts by Lizzy Houghton, it’s a beautifully illustrated book with lots of projects inspired by nature, one being seaweed so I just had to have a play.

My other book is The Art of Felt, by Françoise Tellier-Loumagne a beautifully illustrated book of inspirational designs, textures and surfaces.