A felting makeover

A couple of months ago I started this felted picture with the idea I wanted to create a forsythia bush. I got started and then got busy doing other things. Yesterday I got it out and I was no longer inspired by it. So I did some research on landscapes in my books and other tutorials and got out my wools....Not the best day yesterday to work with wool! It was hot and sticky and I felt I was wet felting it as I went instead of just needle felting. Had to take several breaks just to let my hands dry out! LOL....

                                                         This is what it was before:



                   This is what it was by 9pm last night. I think I am happy with it :-)

 

That's the beauty of working with wool. If you don't like it, just pull it off before you felt it real good and change what you don't like. This still needs some more felting but I like how it looks now.

 

Happy Creating!

Anita

At least I have my fiber!

Will this cold ever stop? I am sure I am not the only one asking that question. I know it is not helping my healing process for my knee. So warm weather come on. In the mean time I have my fiber and my yarn...YEAH! Knitting keeps me sane. I can sit by the fireplace and cuddle with my bright colors.

The pantone color of the year is Radiant orchid. I love it so I bought some fiber colors in that family and did some felting.

 



So I did some playing and made a picture and a flower. Lots of fun!

 

I Thought my first attempt at the flower turned out ok. The stem is too thin but I could put a wire around it. I can also secure a pin to the back and wear it as a brooch. Dyed some purple silk and am now going to try one in purple. I'll let you know.

Happy Creating!!!





Weekend scarf done!

Here it is! I think it can be done in a week end but it did take me longer. It went really fast with the larger size needles. It did not come out to 88" long. I thought maybe I spun it too thick but then decided to weigh it. My one pound batt turned out to be just under 130z. However, it is so bulky that I don't think it really needs to be much longer. It has some flexibility and can stretch out a little to make it more narrow. Overall I am please with it and it was a great way to use up a lot of fiber at one time!

NEW PROJECT !!!

Now I am onto another project. I was at home and didn't feel like going over to the studio to get some fiber. I was in the mood to spin some more. So I looked around my sewing room. Surely I must have some fiber somewhere in here that I can use! Well, of course I found some batts I had ordered from a gal in Oregon. She makes art batts and calls herself Hanks in the Hood....she lives near Mt. Hood.Check out her etsy store http://www.etsy.com/shop/hanksinthehood . I had 4-3oz batts just waiting to be spun up. I am spinning another single bulky as I want to make another hat. This time with a brim.

Chunky Hat

It took a bit of doing but I finally managed to make my 58yds stretch to complete this hat. It did not take long to make. I used a size N crochet hook. I am finding out though, that I need to make my thick parts of the yarn a little thinner. It would be a little easier to crochet for this type of project and also easier on my hands. I really had to work in some places. But it was lots of fun and I have completed my first blog project!

Next up is a vest out of some fiber I felted. It was already dyed when I bought the batt so I used my needlefelting machine to felt onto Vilene. It is a washable stabilizer. All the pieces are ready to go now to finish the design.

Also I am spinning another thick and thin yarn for a scarf. More on that later.

Busy for the summer!

My teaching responsibilites are on a limited basis now for the summer and that gives me more time to be at the shop. I just purchased 5 new wool fleeces that I will have washed and then decide if I want to dye them or work with them in the natural color. Touching the fiber has gotten my spinning desire going again and I brought my wheel to the shop. I am setting up on the porch with my glass of lemonade and it is very relaxing! I get into such a rhythm that I can put myself to sleep...haha...I have started a yarn and fiber group the second tuesday of the month. Last month I had one spinner come. She has ignited the spinning laying dormant in others in the group, including me. It will be interesting to see if anyone brings their wheel in June. Off to the porch and my spinning.

New Things From TNNA

I had such a good time at TNNA in Columbus, OH. There was so much to see and so many different kinds and colors of yarns!!! I took some really great classes and met some awesome people. Deciding what not to buy was the big question. I had my list and started down each aisle. I did pretty good until I hit aisle three. My list suddenly got longer as I took in all there was to see. By the end of the first day I was exhausted and my mind was on overload! When I got back to my room I laid everything out on my bed and sorted what I had done and what I still wanted to do the next day. I am happy to say that I did not go overboard but there will be plenty of new yarn and rovings to look at over the next few months. I am looking at stocking looms and spinning wheels in the fall. If you have an opinion on this I would love to hear it. It has been awhile since I designed a new Baltimore Album in wool so have been working on that. There will be some in wool applique and I am trying some in needlefelting to see how that will look. I am excited and have only just a short time to get so much done before returning to my teaching responsibilities in at the end of August!

New Yarn!

Superwash yarn is finally here. Great colors from Malibrigo. Rios in 10 different colors. A worsted weight yarn...210yds per skein. It is so soft and the hand-dyed look is just fabulous!

Weaving & Spinning

I have been working hard to finish this shawl I have had on the loom for several weeks. They are all a good idea when you start but about 3/4 of the way through you begin to wonder "why did I start this project". It will be beautiful once off and I am so close to putting on the fringe. I have been spinning for a new shawl and am eager to try this new idea. I am finally using the new Clemes spinning wheel I bought at the first of the year. It has a very Large Jumbo Flyer & bobbin and I am using it to ply my singles together. It is working great. Of course I am also trying to clean and throw out stuff...but get side tracked with creating!!! Well off for some more cleaning!

Wool Flowers

I taught a class at my quilt guild this week on making these cute flowers out of wool. They are so easy to do. I will be making up kits and selling them at the shop in all your favorite colors!

Fiber..fiber..fiber!!

Samples of Pencil Rovings at the shop.

I just love fiber. No matter what other crafts I do, I always come back to the fiber. I wiped the dust off the wheel and have been spinning. I am stepping out of my comfort zone and trying to make some real novelty yarns. The key I guess is to just be fierce and don't worry about the rules. I think sometimes we worry too much about doing it perfect that we limit ourselves to just jumping in! I'm in with both feet!!!!

"Remember Me" pillow

I finally got my pillow top done. Today I will sew it together and get it stuffed. Tell me what you think.

Flowers!

My forget me not pillow is coming along. I have to attach the leaves and embroider the trendils. I am going to make some flowers out of wool strips. They will make nice pins or embellishments to a bag or jacket. I have some pretty pink I am going to try it with. Look for a picture tomorrow.

My Pillow Weaving

Hi,

Well my pillow did not get finished but wanted to share a picture of the top anyway. I have always wanted to try this weaving with fabric. I used my felt and just started cutting. This is a patriotic time of year so wanted to do something red, white and blue. You will find it on the porch in one of our new lawn chairs. Stop by and see the collection and enjoy some time chatting on the porch. We have a lovely space hear. Yesterday we were watching the chipmonks scurry around and we have a mother bird with babies in a nest in the rafters of the porch. She was not happy that we were setting there and could not get back to her babies! Well on to finish my Forget me not Pillow.

Happy Creating!

Pillows, pillows, pillows!

Well I am in a pillow mood. I am making some new designs and putting together a pillow using a weaving technique. They both are coming out great. I hope to have pictures for you tomorrow. The weaving technique will be a class. More details to come. Well off to sew!
Anita

It's my birthday!

I have been very lax on keeping updated here. So being my birthday I thought today was a good day to start new. Since my last post I moved the shop to Pittsfield and share and old housewith a quilt shop. It is working out very nicely. my yarns, fibers and hand dyed wools fit in great. It makes for a nice fit. Right now I am working on wool applique samples and thought designing some new pillows would be nice. Pillows are quick and easy and nice to change out with the seasons. As soon as I have one I will put a picture up. I decided to do some things for myself!!! What a great idea. so I am making a piece from the Arabella collection from Pat Sloan--Bella's Blooms. I am goint to change out some of the applique pieces for my hand dyed wool. It will look great in my living room. I need an up date and the bright colors of this collection will be great. Well off to get ready for my birthday cookout.

A Positive Response

I have been to two quilt shows with my new pattern and the response has been very positive. Some did not know that the applique was in wool until I pointed it out. When they realized that it was wool they seemed to ohhh...and ahhh....that much more! I am diligently working on my second piece. I am very close. I can't wait to show you this one! I am getting ready for another quilt show next week. This is the Red Door Quilt Guild in Meadville, PA. This is their second time doing a show. It should be a good time. Of course I will be taking the Baltimore Beautie in Wool there as well.

Well off to sew!!!

Felted eggs

Well we can finally feel spring in the air. It is so nice to see the flowers out and the grass is greening up nicely. With the change of seasons comes new inspirations. For the easter and spring season I have been needlefelting eggs. A simple technique of using the felting needle to punch fiber into styrofoam eggs. They can be as simple or fancy as you want. I did some classes recently and it never ceases to amaze me at the creativity of students in the class!!! Check them out.

Now I working on a line of hand-dyed, hand-spun yarn. I have learned alot in the process, mostly how long it takes to have a mill spin the yarn for you. So I decided for this first batch I am going to be spinning it myself. I will be posting pictures as we go along.

Happy Creating!

Anita

Bag Pattern

Well I have done it! My Classy Bag pattern is finally done and ready to print.

I have learned alot about using a digital camera and publisher in this process. I will be debuting it at the Chautauqua Quilt show this weekend. It has been a stressful couple of weeks but after this weekend I hope to get back to the creative side. There is a fiber and quilt show in Meadville in October and I want to showcase some new fiber items. I hope that you will stop by my booth at Chautauqua. I am in the Hotel lobby...so you can't miss me. It will be a great weekend with Eleanor Burns coming as the main speaker. So I am off to finish some things and I will talk to you after the show!

Anita

Quilt show 2008

Hello:

I belong to a quilt guild called the Happy Scrappers. We are having our quilt show this weekend and oh MY...what beautiful work there is!!! We have is every other year so there is time to build up a stash of quilts, wallhangings and wearable art. The workmanship this year was outstanding. We usually have some type of guild challenge for the show and then there is viewers choice on the work. This year the challenge was using the log cabin block somehow in the piece and then applique. Of course with my love of wool, I knew immediately that it would be appliqued in wool. I had this vision of a fish pond. so I made one big log cabin block with white on one side for the sky and blue water on the other for the pond. I added a extra pieces to each end to get the length I wanted and then just had fun with the applique. There were 16 entries in this category and I am proud to say that I place SECOND!!! You can see the piece below. I am so excited that I placed. Now I have to decide where I want to hang it! I also entered another piece and it placed FIRST!!! This piece also placed first at our local county fair. That piece is going to hang in my office at the University. I have had lots of compliments on the color choices. Well off to the second day of the show!

Have a great day!

Anita

Spinning & Weaving!

I can't believe how fast the summer is going now. Soon I will have to think about going back to my full time job of teaching at the University...no more playing for awhile then. And playing I have been doing. I wiped the dust off the spinning wheels and have been trying my hand at some chunky spun yarn. What fun I have had doing this. I dyed a whole fleece into three different colorways and getting ready to spin up some for the next scarf I am making. I also purchased a new rectangel loom. After several trials to get going I finished my first one. Check it out:

I have another one on the loom and am spinning some wool and silk to make another one. They really do up pretty quickly. I am surprised but I like it. Well off to finish knitting a purse that needs felted for a class project. More to come later!