Playday!!

Yesterday I had another free studio day and was able to continue working on my Botero-inspired piece. When I wrote about this project several days ago, I mentioned that I was scared of this piece and that is still very real, but I am slowly…..oh so slowly…. feeling better about it!!!

When I stopped last week, I had done a lot of thread work…..

Now it was time to add something other than thread.

My first choice was to add some wool leaves and ended up using a needle-felting process to make the leaves……

I added some more that were lighter in color…..

….which made me realize that the bottom leaves were too dark. DRAT!!!! Instead of taking them off, I simply added some light-colored wool roving and stitched over the darker ones. It worked great!!

Next, I decided to play with some couching, using various bits of yarn that I have floating around. This was where the morning ended……

I filmed a video showing the needle-felting process and the couching work. I hope that you enjoy it!!

Later yesterday, I was able to do the fabric painting and make some other decisions about the piece so be sure to come back for more!!

Some Assembly Required

As I have mentioned in previous posts, my Mother is 88 years old, lives independently and is a magnificent quilter and needle-worker.

As she has aged, she has found it hard to come up with projects to do, so that is where I have tried to step in. We have finished one quilt together and are in process of a second. She has gone thru a drawing phase, a Jigsaw Puzzle phase, a “paint-by-number” phase and I am hoping to trigger another phase with her Mother’s Day present.

After categorically stating on this blog and to my friends that I really didn’t like needle felting, I decided to give it another try, and of course, I love it!!!! My biggest problem was that I didn’t have an idea of what to do and I am not very good at just putting wool roving down and turning them into something.

Much of the impetus for this project came from just having completed my River Challenge and being fairly happy with how the wool roving looked as the background.

So, for this project I started with a piece of wool felt and started adding bits of wool roving to create a meadow scene.

I particularly like how the variegated roving looks.

I then took my hand punch and started working the threads in using a foam block for the base.

At one point, I decided to add a bit of purple roving to the sky thinking that it would add interest…..

But, after I had felted it, those accents turned into far off mountains….I LOVE IT!!

I was afraid that the bits of roving that punch thru to the back of the felt might bother Mom so I fused a fine interfacing to the back. After trimming, I zigzagged a single line around the piece to help hold any loose roving on the edge (this will be trimmed off at the end)….

I am sending this to my Mom, along with these threads…..

….and the instructions that this meadow needs trees, flowers, rocks or whatever she can think of to add.

I am hoping that this will encourage her to look thru her embroidery books and plan a beautiful meadow!!!

So much for the Mother’s Day gift that has ”some assembly required”

Bits and Pieces

I finished the last two BQL challenges yesterday, including binding. Here they are…..

I especially enjoyed doing the embellishing on the purses.

I had commissioned my friend Anita’s husband (Bill) to make a rust piece for me that looked like sunflowers. Last night she presented me with this wonderful piece…..

I cant decide which side I want to use…..what do you think?

I think that I am going to print out a bunch of copies of this photo and practice designing the quilting.

I am leaving for Texas in the morning to spend a few days with my Mom. The main project that I want to do is to document all of her quilts……she has done some wonderful ones.

I will try to post if I can. I am actually excited about trying to do an email post, but am not sure that I know how. If you see some strange entries, you will know that I am trying to figure out the process.

Until later…….

A day with the Felting Machine

On Saturday morning my husband and I did the local attractions and visited a Dog Show and the Oconee Cultural Arts Foundation artists market. We bought a few pottery pieces that we will take on our next overseas trip to use as thank you’s for people who host us. We like to take things that are made here at home.

When we got back home, Michael (hubby) kicked me out of the kitchen so he could make Marinara Sauce (and listen to music VERY loud), so I retreated to my studio. Even though I have several quilting projects going on, I decided to pull out the Felting Machine and play a little bit. I ended up making this small purse out of a piece of black wool felt that had been given to me.
I am still not super good with the felter, but I know that I learn something from each project and that I will soon get the hang of it!!!

For this piece, I used a Silk Hankie and a Silk Cap that I bought last year in Australia, and some wool yarn that I found on a clearance table for $2 per skein.

What I SHOULD have been doing yesterday!!!

Actually the title is not entirely correct…..I spent yesterday organizing my stash (see last post), when I should have been doing tax returns!!

However, at the end of the day, I spent about 30 minutes doing something that I have wanted to do for about a year. I took three of my needle felting pieces that I made over a year ago and framed them and got them ready to put into our Guild Show Boutique.

Until now I have HATED framing pieces because I didn’t feel that they had a professional appearance, especially on the back …but that has now changed.

I did some research and found a tool that allows you to put the brads in the back of the frame to hold the piece in properly. The tool is a Picture Frame Fitting Tool and is made by Logan products.

It works great and I think that it makes my pieces look a lot better.

Now for the pieces….here are the three that I framed this evening and I am happy with how they look…that is a first!!!