Her Majesty Margo

Art Batt

2012-01-29T17:05:00.000-05:00

Yummy art batt made with my brand new Big Tom electric carder -- lots of colors for your machine-needle/felting pleasure - layer after layer of various shades of pinks, yellows, a touch of caribbean blue silk and white merino; peel of a layer for your collage or felting pleasure. I'm going to list this on my Etsy store.

Pretty Little Valentine Cuff

2012-01-29T16:47:00.000-05:00

I've been working on an exclusive tutorial for an Australian site (they are going to feature me and my books - isn't that exciting?) - this is not the one; however, working on it immersed and surrounded by all the shades of pink that I love inspired me to create another cuff worthy of the Queen is all of us :-) I'm going to list this in my Etsy store

Wish Me Luck! Creative Mojo

2012-01-04T08:11:00.000-05:00

Today is the day - tune in to Creative Mojo! I hope I won't be too nervous, never have done a "live" radio interview before!

Listen on i-tunes! turned out better than I thought - I could have talked a lot longer which surprised me!

Gift for a Friend

2012-01-01T12:49:00.000-05:00

A quick machine-needle ane wet felted gift for a new friend :-) Black wool and with a lot of added sparkle to celebrate 2012!

Happy New Year Fun Felt Flower Tutorial

2012-01-01T10:30:00.003-05:00

A gift for my readers and friends to thank all of you.

This felt flower is fun and easy to create and really beautiful! An experiment that worked out well.

Ready? Here we go . . . .

1. select a good length of some wide wired ribbon (inexpensive in craft shops)

2. REMOVE the wire from one side

3. choose some complimentary or contrasting wool/roving and machine-needle felt it along the side without the wire

4. place the ribbon in soapy water and roll until the wool has shrunk and is very well felted - no loose fibers - your ribbon will have gathered!

5. Begin with a tight roll and stitch the bottom to hold in place; continue stitching the ribbon around the roll and tuck in the end raw edge.

6. Stitch on a pin back and there you go! a quick and easy embellishement!

INTERVIEW DATE CHANGED!

2011-12-21T15:30:00.001-05:00

. . . . until January 4 at the same time - Mark didn't know that the radio station is closed for the holidays!

LIVE RADIO TODAY!

2011-12-21T08:06:00.002-05:00

Today, I'll be interviewed by "the one, the only" Mark Lipinski on live radio about my felting passion and my books! I'm very excited but at the same time a little nervous about it since I don't like the sound of my own voice! My time slot is 4:28 - 4:47 p.m. To tune in go to http://www.toginet.com/ and click on the live button on the right side. Wish me luck!!!

Felt Blessing for Christmas

2011-12-19T07:53:00.007-05:00

I'm wishing you good health and good fun with family and friends and let's not forget that Jesus is the Light of the World! Celebrate - what would we do without Him?

I'be been invited to do an interview and a tutorial for the German Felt Magazine "verFilzt Und zugeNaht" (know as FUN for short) and have a deadline at the end of the month so have been working busily away for the past few weeks - I feel very honored (though very rushed :-)
at this time of year with everything else going on but I'm savoring every moment.)

Renewing My (Felting) Spirit

2011-11-13T12:50:00.004-05:00

This weekend has been all about playing and doing what I love best - gorgeous weather, listening to wonderful soft music and having my husband bring me treats (isn't he a dear? I'd forget to eat) pulling out a variety of fiber and colors to make cuffs and getting ready to spend time with the family later - what more could you ask for to be happy?

I just love creating these (machine needle and wet felted) and wish I had nothing to do for a whole week. I'm getting ideas together for a class and I wanted something that would be exciting and close to instant gratification for students. They are each very different and have a felt button closure. Some have curls added - everyone loves them including me!

Felted Unveiling

2011-11-13T12:36:00.002-05:00

I unveiled the mushroom and rust packages a few weeks ago - I had some 8 mm habotai and some fine silk gauze. The mushroom colors turned out - surprise, surprise - a lovely mushroom shade; I thought the red one would have left a little more color but it didn't. Of course, the rust is dark and it took me a while to figure out what I'd do with them. I decided on a the garment shown here. It isn't finished yet; however, I'm so pleased with the way it is turning out. The top of the garment is felted with the habotai and it took a lot of rolling but what a lovely crinkly effect it has; the bottom is the sheer silk gauze. After felting I decided that the wool will be on the inside. I had a green velvet circle at the top back so that is now on the inside and gives a designer touch I think.

The front and sides have much more texture!

I love how the back turned out - it has a very close crinkled texture.

lovely crinkly habotai

The velvet lavel inside.

This is the felting in process - I used some white, black and some white/beige mix merino.

Mushrooms and Rust, Oh My!

2011-10-20T12:07:00.003-04:00

After the weeks of rain we had here in Mt. Airy, we had loads of moss and a great variety of mushrooms growing all over the place - these are just a few that I decided to gather and wrap in some silk gauze to see what would happen. Well it is now sitting the same rusty water outside in a brass pot alongside some softly colored silk with bright red rose petals wrapped inside (from my 49th wedding anniversary bouquet from my sweetheart) .

Here are the packages before they are soaked - the white has the mushrooms inside. Poor things are being quite tortured out in the rain, sun and goodness knows what else. I can't wait to "disrobe" them this weekend! I'll be sure to take pictures of the results!

Blackberries, Copper and Rust

2011-10-20T11:50:00.004-04:00

Well this was a very interesting experiment; I wanted to do more rust dyeing so I did some reading and found a very interesting article on-line (sorry, don't remember where as I read so much) anyway, I found that if you mix vinegar and salt and add some copper (in my case copper tubing) that any other metal you add after the copper has been sitting in the mix such as screws, paperclips, etc., will turn copper; something to do with the copper ions transferring.

This piece of silk began pink from the blackberry dyeing a few weeks back; the color was just okay nothing exiting - so I soaked it in vinegar, wrapped up some keys and pennies that had been treated in the copper/vinegar mix inside, tied it up and put it in the rusty water for a week or so covering it all with plastic.

I'm just amazed at how gorgeous this is - the pictures do not do it justice at all and capture only small sections of the interesting designs. I am considering listing it on Etsy after I have my fill of gazing at it for a while!

A Whole Lot of Knitting Going On

2011-10-20T11:34:00.005-04:00

I made this for Meg's, our 14-year-old granddaughter -- it is a sweater made from machine knitted swatches and samples, serged together with a little crochet and embroidery added.

Meg could be a model and when she tried it on, it fit her perfectly and she looked adorable - but did I get a picture -- NO!!! I'm so annoyed at myself; I was worried that it may not fit because I didn't have a pattern for her size but I guess I remembered from my last "hug."

I knitted several "artsy" scarves on my knitting machine and forgot to take pictures. One was a lovely deep red and I dropped some stitches to allow me to weave a feathery art yarn through the holes for a Birthday gift and another with fabulous curls running through it (A Noro soft mix of greys and seafoam with matching curls that had touches of shrimp; my fav - and it is now in SC).

Eco Dyeing

2011-08-06T17:10:00.006-04:00

I had this gorgeous bouquet of roses in the most glorious colorway so I wanted to savor them and try my hand at eco dyeing. I had some silk pieces on hand (habotai and dupioni) that had been mordanted with Alum a while ago for a class I was taking and that had never been used - I wet the silk; spread the petals (from 2 dozen roses), some leaves and the hips before layering the fabric accordian style. I bundled it up, tied it tightly, put it in a pot of boiling water with a tiny bit of lemon and cherry Koolaid as the fabric was just so white! then I wrapped it with saran wrap and sat out in the heat for a couple of days.

this is it being unwrapped; the habotai took the color better than the dupioni; very subtle and so delicate - I love it!

The other pieces were ho hum so I found (actually my husband found) some really rusted barrel hoops that I wrapped it around after rewetting it- this WAS supposed to be an experiment after all - wrapped it again with saran wrap and left it out in the elements. I loved the black marks made by the rusty hoops.

Still not totally satisfied with the background, I used some blackberries that I'd saved in the freezer - cooked and strained them before wrapping the fabric in rubber bands and re-dyeing - I just love how it turned out. I have rinsed it but I'm going to leave it to cure for a while before I try felting with it.

It is so dull today so the pictures aren't great - you truly can't see the subtle colors and the gorgeous sheen - the dark rust marks are just so neat - I love them! - I had no idea that the rust would turn black. I'm really interested now in pigment dyeing and have been gathering information and learning all I can - that will be my next experiment, I think.

FUNDRAISING GALA

2011-08-06T16:46:00.004-04:00

Ann, an internet friend from NC is involved in a special fundraiser for the hospital where her husband works - I've donated this "circles" (one of my favorites) silk and merino vest to their cause for Breast Cancer and I'm sure they have plenty of other goodies too.

Ready to Go!

2011-08-06T16:42:00.002-04:00

Silk and wool eyeglass case from Etsy
packed and ready to mail to it's new owner!

Experiments in Felt

2011-07-24T17:51:00.007-04:00

Isn't this a fabulous wood block? I couldn't wait to start playing with it. I really didn't have the time to get the dyes out so I opted for fabric paint this time just to see if my idea would work in the short time that I had to play. I wanted to create a nuno prefelt, cut out some holes and felt it onto a bottom piece of habotai. Habotai takes a little more work to felt since the weave is closer than gauze but I think the crinkly effects are well worth the extra work. I know from previous attempts that holes in wool felt do not get smaller as the felting progresses; however, in this case because the prefelt was silk, the holes got much smaller but you can still see a tiny bit of orange peeking through on piece #2. To begin with I stamped a long piece of hand-dyed silk and cut it in two pieces; one I simply felted to see how the stamp design would hold up - on the other, I cut out some holes around the top design and stopped felting just when the fibers held to the silk before adding it to a piece of orange habotai and really felting it well -- I learned that next time, I'll cut the holes much larger if the prefelt is silk if I want more of the under fabric to show through.

I wanted to try adding a habotai nuno prefelt to a piece of silk gauze - trying to perfect this technique before I do a larger piece - I was really pleased at the "crunchy" texture of the habotai.

Felt Eyeglass Case

2011-07-20T07:53:00.005-04:00

I love creating felt "fabric" and smaller pieces allow me to complete a project in a weekend - first day to make the fabric, second day to decide how to use it - this piece of fabric was inspired by a lovely piece of hand dyed silk habotai and the size was just right to use for an artistic eyeglass case. The pictures just don't do it's rich deep tones or "puckery" goodness justice!

You can find it in my Etsy store!

Just Listed on Etsy

2011-07-11T19:20:00.007-04:00

Just listed a few new things on Etsy including this Rosy Posy quilted vest - my samples are getting out of hand - waaaay too many things so as much as I don't want to, I'm having to list some things to make room. This short quilted art-to-wear vest is all free motion stitched and it was so much fun to create - the lining is as much fun as the outside.

I've had some questions about the difference in weight between the small bags of Snippets on Etsy and the larger - the small bags are 8+ ounces and the large I weighed was 40+ ounces but please keep in mind it does vary -- build your stash while you can and I'll include a surprise!

Perfectec the green bag handle and now it is balanced perfectly - it is so sturdy and perfect for travel with so many pockets inside.

I posted about these fish before and now they are also listed on Etsy - let me know if you have any questions - I can just see these hanging from fishing line in a corner - they could be outside as well as indoors because they are both hand washable.

The picture of "Goldy" doesn't do her justice - it was so bright and sunny that there is a glare - she is so sweet!

Kind, Beautiful Granddaughters

2011-07-11T19:13:00.005-04:00

. . . and very strong!!! A couple of weeks ago while we were waiting for our food to come in a restaurant, Emma and Meg were "thumb wresting" -- I had never done this so I wanted to play too -- well, evidently, Emma is much stronger than me! Today, thumb had two shots, traction and is now in a splint - what's a Nana to do? smile and consider myself very fortunate that we have a granddaughter with such strength!

Finished Felt Heavy Duty Bag

2011-07-08T08:39:00.004-04:00

Here is my finished bag -- quite large (20 1/2" wide x 16" long) and lined with a heavier decorator fabric that has six pockets all around for cell phone and all those incidentals that we need to keep organized; I also added a magnetic closure. It is quite heavy so along the top back seam of the lining I stitched in a piece of small plastic tubing to keep it straight when it is full and the handle is attached to that; after using it last weekend on my trip to one of my favorite places on earth (Bluffton, SC) I do plan on making a slit in the top a few inches from the sides, moving the handle and reattaching it to the plastic tubing to redistribute the weight when the bag is full.

Notice the butterflies on the front - the larger one is on the bottom right front and was created with a piece of pleated shibori felted in with a little stitching added and the others are wool.

Will it All Fit?

2011-07-07T08:25:00.003-04:00

YES!!!

I wanted you to see just how much will fit in a bag -- a LOT if it's crammed in!!! These are from my personal stash for sale on Etsy and include silk hand dyed fabric snippets, wool batts, roving and curls. For my Blog readers, they are 2 for $25 plus shipping with a special surprise included for each order. Each pack is different - they can be used for machine needle or wet felting detail! A great way to build your stash and have lots of colors for shading and texture. Let me know if you'd like a really big bag - $45 gets you lots with more curls!

New (felt) Beginnings

2011-06-20T08:24:00.003-04:00

Needed a felt fix - and I have so much wool in the prettiest colors; so I'm going to make a very thick and functional bag.

Cotswold wool batts in lime/yellow, coopworth curls, silks, silk hankies, silk ribbon, and yarns - we'll see what transpires -- the texture is always a wonderful surprise once felted which keeps me coming back for more.

Gone (felt) Fishing

2011-06-15T07:59:00.008-04:00

Blue Fish gone wild! Here he is still wet with no side fins.

Here he is dry but unstuffed.

Now he is fully stuffed and happy

in the garden.

I took a great class taught by Sharon Costello "Go Felt a Fish" the week prior to the MD Sheep & Wool - alas that first blue fish was "caught" by my little grandson, Win, and has since found another home . . . . . so

we now have a little goldfish too - made while we were at the lake (well it was impossible for me to be away without felting for a whole week!) and this past weekend my granddaughter, Allie and daughter-in-law Michele, came over to make more - we were so busy that they left before I could get a picture of their finished fish but we had a great time and now they are budding felters too!

MD Sheep & Wool Prizes!

2011-06-14T07:52:00.003-04:00

"Song of the Earth" -- recognize the background? It was done some time ago but it needed "something" on the right side to balance and complete this piece. I didn't know that a cheeky little bluebird would emerge when I began! I started by sketching on to a piece of water soluble paper the shape and a little larger to allow for shrinkage. I used my embellisher to needle felt the wool before wet felting it. As I begain the felting process, I saw this sweet little guy begin to peek out and before long there he was, complete with worm and a few eggs secretly stashed in his cozy nest. He won a First prize ribbon!

"Circles" won a Second place at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. A gorgeous piece of silk from Emma Onesock inspired the rest - a hand dyed silk "circles" scarf was dyed the same shade of "leafy" green and some deep plum accents added to match the subtle flowers in the silk print as well as some embroidered and embellished circles - what fun to make and to wear!

The Maryland Sheep & Wool took place on the same weekend as we were leaving for vacation this year although I did get to take a class a few days before it officially opened. I did enter three items and won 2 "First" place ribbons and a "Second." This indigo vest -- all the various bits and pieces dyed in the vat, felted together, embellished in areas with my Babylock Embellisher then stitched; I had a great time designing this and it fits like a charm.

Royal Wedding Celebration

2011-04-28T23:40:00.002-04:00

Union Jack has been hung out to air, scones (pronounced scons) freshly baken, china plates, butter and jam ready to go -- a Scottish treat for my workmates tomorrow to help commemorate the wedding of Prince William and Catherine. I'll miss the carnival-like atmosphere that is sure to be felt all around the British Isles much like the Queen's Coronation in 1952; even though I was young, the lovely memories linger on - we had a fabulous street party and all of the children were given tins of toffee with the Queen's picture on a Union Jack background. Happy days.

New Bag

2011-04-12T07:53:00.003-04:00

My wrist cast is OFF! Haven't had a lot of time lately as my Mom has been ill and I still must "favor" my wrist for a couple of weeks. Even though I haven't been able to felt or use my machines quite yet, I managed to finish this bag which was my very first project on the Brother 260. When you "full" (shrink in the washing machine) knitted wool it shrinks quite a bit and I wanted this bag to be a really firm and hard fabric so I washed it twice and it shrunk at least 50%. A crochet ruffled flower in seafoam with orange mohair ruffly edging was added to spice things up as well as a little of the same color along the top edge; the leaf was a piece of felt leftover from a previous project. The lining is a lovely orange/gold upholstery fabric and I added plenty of pockets.

Our Littlest Guy

2011-03-11T08:31:00.001-05:00

Isn't he the sweetest?

Check out those baby blues!

The Most Beautiful Knitting Book

2011-03-11T08:21:00.002-05:00

This is by far the most beautiful knitting book I have every seen - I have more time to gather inspiration and is this ever special. You really must look at the Oleana website and watch the movie - it is breathtaking - the scenery, the models, the colorways - oh, what a beautiful treasure!

I'm Sooo Lucky!!!

2011-03-11T08:11:00.004-05:00

What a dream of a machine just sitting there waiting for me!!!

"she" is going to work so hard once I get this darned thing off my wrist.

I did manage to stitch a sample of the various stitch lengths on butter soft felt which is what I plan to use it mostly for - what else? felt!

Fulled Short Row Bag

2011-03-11T08:06:00.002-05:00

A few weeks ago (before the wrist break) I practiced short rowing on my Bulky knitting machine and used the results for this bag and fulled (felted) it in the washing machine. The lining along with a few curls and a small embellished shibori ribbon tulip adds just the perfect sophisticated touch!

Waiting . . .

2011-03-11T07:58:00.003-05:00

Most of you know that our littlest guy, Win, had surgery on his leg a few weeks ago and has a cast from his foot to his thigh - pretty tough for a "just turned two-year old" - Nana (me) thought she'd make a little doll so he wouldn't feel so alone (little did she know when she made this that she would have a cast of her very own to keep him company (grin) - actually at first, I think he was scared of it --and when we skyped - no wonder! the hair now stands straight up on end but I think he is a little more use to it by now and when Win gets his cast off, then "little Win" will get his off too :-)

Broken Wrist and Pittsburgh

2011-03-02T08:26:00.003-05:00

Having the Fancy Pin from Needle Felting Magic be the free class project for the Pittsburgh Knitting and Crochet event this year (check out the link to Positive Yarn at the top) was an awsome experience especially shared with my friend Pat who kindly drove "The Embellisher Queen" hahaha, we had more than a few laughs along the way - the pin became the "badge" for the hundreds of ladies who tried their hand at the Embellishers provided by Gloria Horn for the show. The Host, Barbara Grossman, provided a very delicious buffet with a large assortment of fiber and ribbons to suit everyone's taste! I had plenty of help and met the most wonderful ladies. The show was a great success although I had to leave early to go to SC where our little grandson was having surgery on his leg.

A few days after I returned, I slid down some stairs (my fault for rushing) and ended up with a broken wrist in a cast for 5 (yes FIVE) weeks which is not fun for me - (exhausting to get a shower) but it could have been much worse.

Latest Endeavor

2011-01-25T08:48:00.002-05:00

This top took SO much rolling and rubbing but the end result is well worth it - fits my daughter like a glove and she'll wear it to the Friday evening reception in Pittsburgh - still have to do a rolled hem around the scarf to wear with it. The picture doesn't really do justice to the fine silk habotai with the ruffled hem along one side - it's layered although it doesn't show up in the picture. Tiny curls were added to the top portion and I'm planning to add some more fancy touches to the bodice - needed to set it aside for a bit since I've been working with it so much lately.

And then there are the knitting machines . . .

2011-01-25T08:44:00.005-05:00

This ruffled "potato chip" scarf was made to practice short rowing techniques on the knitting machine - I'm completely obsessed with these machines now and want to learn all I can - all I need like everyone else is more time to develop the skill needed to accomplish what I have in mind. It turned out a little skinny so I crocheted along the edge with a very fine and soft mohair to add some width and keep it from being so boring!

Indigo Vest

2011-01-25T08:36:00.004-05:00

The indigo felt has been cut up and made into a vest - and sent off to the Art League of Pittsburgh for the fashion show on February 11 along with the "leafy" vest and the blue "scrumble" wrap posted about some time ago - (I can post another picture for those who are interested - I thought it would fit in well and give some ideas to those who enjoy free form knitting/crochet) - as you can see, the indigo faded quite a bit during felting so I did add touches of orange and some stitching to give it just a little zap of interest as well as a "sparkly" button made with my handy-dandy button machine!

Christmas Past

2011-01-25T08:26:00.002-05:00

Although I haven't blogged for a while, I've been very busy - before Christmas there was this machine embroidered wreath that was begun a couple of years ago and set aside as it was so time consuming. If you machine embroider, you may know the feeling of dread just in case you get a-l-m-o-s-t finished and something goes wrong so I think that is why I'd put it off. I decided to embroider each design separately (12 in all) and then applique them on to the silk organza square to be used as a topper; this way it can be placed over the tablecloth or used alone with a candle in the center. It really is round although the photograph doesn't show it that way - it turned out so well and was a worthwhile project and a much appreciated gift for the recipient to be brought out year after year along with the memories of the events that take place around it.

Exciting News!

2010-11-23T16:53:00.002-05:00

My "Fancy Pin" which was published in "Needle Felting Magic" has been selected to be THE free project with admission at the 7th annual Pittsburgh Knit & Crochet Festival www.pghknitandcrochet.com on February 11, 12, 13, 2011 at the Four Points Sheraton, North, Mars, PA Embellishers and supplies will be provided and I'll be there to assist and meet you - it will be a fiber blast (hopefully not a snow blast - keeping my fingers crossed! I'll be keeping good company with Nicky Epstein and a host of others - you really must check out the website for more details.

Indigo Felt

2010-11-23T16:41:00.004-05:00

Well, I don't know how this will all turn out, but I decided to use all the small indigo silk pieces and felt them on to the wool. No matter how much I processed the wool prefelt, simmered with vinegar, rinsed and rinsed and rinsed, still a little blue escaped and colored some of the very soft blue pieces (even sad to say, the white in the lovely shibori) so it will pretty much be all the same shade of blue, so that is why I added some wool in a very soft orange for some decoration as it lost some of it's appeal. I always like the challenge of taking something I'm not crazy about and adding

It has all been felted well now but it is calling for stitching and I just haven't had the time or inclination yet -- spent way too much time just processing to get all the excess dye out - not sure what the lesson is here except that I think the vat needs to be really controlled more.

Indigo Dyeing

2010-10-25T20:52:00.005-04:00

The fruits of our labor! this is my small attempt at indigo dyeing - our Dye study group met and we dyed everything we could get our hands on - one member dyed a skirt and top, another dyed an old jacket to give it new life and I took a variety of items to experiment with - wool and mohair yarn, silk caps, a portion of a silk oblong, a Chico's embroidered blouse, a very large prefelt, some cotton, a variety of silk, a nuno wrap, and some lace bits - whew! - a wide variety of blues some clamped before being dipped and rinsed in a vinegar bath.

I almost forgot to mention this piece - read about this technique on the internet and so I did the design with glue (regular old white glue) and it became the resist and left quite an interesting design.

Silk Workshop

2010-10-25T20:35:00.006-04:00

I'm a member of the Potomac Fiber Arts Guild and last week we had a silk workshop and learned amazing details about silk and how to create silk luminaries from silk hankies; Renate Moskowitz - a very, very talented teacher and member of the group was our instructor; the next two days were spent degumming silk organza, clamping and dyeing it before using these artistic pieces to create wraps and pillows using very luxurious silk oblongs and caps.

The red piece is heavy silk satin and is an example of a travel pillow that is as soft as a cloud when touched - the blue wrap was made as a gift for a friend who was having surgery to act as a "hug" whenever she needs it. The pictures just can't begin to show just how luxurious and sot this is!

Doesn't this large round luminary look like a pumkin? Even more so when it's lit but I couldn't get a good picture of it.

Felting for Frederick Fashion Week

2010-09-16T08:49:00.010-04:00

This scarf just makes me think "french" for some reason - so that's what I'm calling it! lovely shades of soft green and aqua in wool and hand-dyed silk.

My friend, Christine, http://www.bagzthat.com/ and I are taking part in some of the event of Frederick Maryland Fashion Week at the Cultural Arts Center, 15 N. Market Street in downtown Frederick. We'll be there on Friday evening at 7 and on Saturday, 9/18, where our models will be sporting our creative "art to wear" during the VIP cocktail hour from 7 - 8:00 p.m. We are very excited to be part of this show which is always sold out!

"Falling Leaves" This leafy wrap background is a gorgeous irridescent brown/copper depending on the way the light hits and it just called out to be an autumn wrap - what is more perfect at this time of year than falling leaves in Fall colors. I love it so much I want to keep it for myself! The "hanging" leaves were done on the Embellisher before being stitched and then wet felted.

.
A neck fancy created on the Embellisher before being stitched and then wet felted; soft curls added at the bottom.

Jacobean Wrap: I've very much wanted to create one of these for a long time as I just love the interesting details found in Jacobean embroidery. I'm all about the details and could spend hours. The background is a lovely irridescent deep wine that changes to plum depending on the lighting; ach end has a lovely ruched effect from the wool shrinkage during wet felting. This is mainly wet felted with a few Embellisher touches (what would I do without my Embellisher?).

Felting in Circles

2010-09-14T07:52:00.006-04:00

Circles, circles everywhere circles.

I splurged on a gorgeous piece of silk from EmmaOneSock and it looks like a gorgeous garden with a field of flowers sprinkled all over the top with shades of mossy green along the bottom. It got the creative juices flowing and so I felted it on to a mixed green silk/merino blend. I placed a band of the wool/silk roving along the bottom and added small circles of color to mimic the flowers in the silk; I had intended to make a couple of more pieces of felt in this colorway to use for a jacket which would mean I'd have to cut it up but the feedback from more than one person is to leave it the way it is for a wall hanging - we'll have to wait and see what the "muse" decides once I add some stitching around the flowers :-) It was a really fun and interesting piece of felt to make.

A variety of color coordinated silks and enhancements from my stash - more circles of course.

Some tiny circle flowers to match those in the fabric.

Here is the inspiration fabric although the indoor lighting just doesn't do it justice.

Why I Haven't Been Posting

2010-09-14T07:31:00.006-04:00

Knitking Bulky 260

. . . . Knitting Machines! I acquired two knitting machines from my dear friend, Jean, who was looking for a good home for them and she knew I'd take good care of them - but I confess I was very intimidated and didn't even know what I had when my husband pulled all these components out of the (many) boxes. For those of you who don't know anything about knitting machines like me a month ago - these are the most sought after and sometimes good ones can be hard to find since Brother stopped making them some time ago. I've always wanted one but never really knew their capabilities until I began reading and searching on-line and now I'm so excited! One of them is a Knitking Bulky 260 with punch cards to enable patterns, the other was still brand new in the unopened, stapled box and is a Compuknit IV which is a completely computerized machine with over 500 patterns built in. Not only did I get the machines but all of the accessories that are available including the ribbers for each and the G carriage (which will knit the garter stitch without assistance) but lots of other goodies as well. I bought gorgeous wool yarn to make a bag on the Bulky and then "full" in the washing machine for my first project but I've been busy getting ready for an event this weekend at the Frederick Center for the Arts that I'm doing with my felting friend, Christine of Bagzthat.com.

Compknit IV (computerized 500+ patterns)

Ribber attachments for each machine.

Paypal Fixed!

2010-08-11T08:21:00.002-04:00

If you'd like to purchase Snippets, scroll down - we are still trying to figure out how to get it on to the sidebar but Paypal now works! If you have color preferences, please feel free to write to me hermajestymargo@aol.com and I'll do my best to please you :-)

Sending YOU a Personal Invitation!

2010-08-05T08:17:00.003-04:00

YOU

are cordially invited!

Hauser Wine Shop & Gallery

17 Lincoln Square

(in the heart of Gettysburg)

Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

Andi & I - paintings and fiber art show/sale

Reception: 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.

Shibori Borealis

2010-08-05T07:50:00.004-04:00

Another mixed media piece for the gallery in Gettysburg this weekend - pleated silk shibori with needle-felted backbround mounted on to textured/painted surface. I really want to take a better picture outside but for the past two days we've had dark stormy clouds in the morning so this will have to do but I love just looking at the combination of soft silky colorful pleats combined with the wool and other textures. I thought about naming it "earth, sea and sky" but Shibori Borealis won out!

Summer Tag Sale! Sorry for the Problems - Please Read!

2010-08-03T07:28:00.020-04:00

My apologies to all who are trying to make a purchase and the link doesn't work - please don't worry as I have quite a bit and I'll make it up to those who've tried without success by giving you an extra goody!!! I'll get Andi to fix this for me - sorry I would, but I don't know how. In the meantime, you can just write directly to me:

hermajestymargo@aol.com and let me know what you'd like - you can always go to the Paypal site and send me a note there until it is fixed!

For a limited time, while supplies last -- buy one Snippets, get one free!!!! A piece of hand dyed silk will be included in your order as a special gift from me to you!

Stock up and save BIG Happy Embellishing from Her Majesty!

New Blog Look & Show

2010-07-26T07:41:00.007-04:00

Blogger has a few new template offerings - and I just fell in love with the "watercolor" background I've changed to. Something about watercolor to inspire the creative juices every time; I was so delighted to find it as I'd seen it on another Blog and wondered how on earth to do something similar - well it had been readily available and when I found it (or did it find me?) I just couldn't resist; have to play around with changing the font color though when I get more time.

Andi and I have been invited to show and sell some of our work at a small gallery in the Hauser Estate wine shop right in the hear of Gettysburg.
17onthesquare.com
I'm not a painter by any means but have had an idea for a couple of years now and have been playing around using various mediums as a background on which to mount my small felt pieces; this could be a new venture as I find it to be quite fascinating. For the background of this piece I used Liquitex "Resin Sand" mixed with acrylic paint; I thought it was finished a couple of weeks ago but everytime I'd walk past it, I'd feel as though it needed "something" on the bare wall. Painted some tiny flowers to repeat the felted flowers on the other side and that was all it took!

Be On the Lookout - Upcoming Sale!

2010-07-11T14:51:00.003-04:00

Be sure to be on the lookout for a great summer "Snippets" and hand-dyed silk sale within a few days. I need to really make room here and am not planning to do to any shows for the forseeable future. All the wool, silk and bits and pieces are from my personal stash and materials left over from my many (many!) colorful projects.

New Felt Work

2010-07-11T14:28:00.005-04:00

I've been invited to present some work alongside my daughter Andi who does some wonderful painting at at gallery in Gettysburg. The pieces need to be hung so I've been experimenting with how to best present my felt without having to actually surround it with a frame which I think would be distracting so I've been experimenting like a mad woman with various ways to have the frame be an extension of the subject. I'm really pleased with the results and have learned a lot; hope it's well received -- we'll see. I only had a couple of weeks (which translates to weekends for me) to prepare and luckily I only need to provide a few pieces.

Just finished felted the "green" piece and will decide how to best surround it this afternoon.

Here is piece number 2 which is surrounded by hand dyed silk waste embedded in the Gesso. I really like the flower on the right.

Recognize this? It's the piece I made for the tutorial, cut up and redone a little and now I like it so much better and hope they do at the show as well!

What I've Been Up To . . . .

2010-07-11T13:15:00.010-04:00

New Felted Laptop Bag for my Macbook Pro!

This is the front

The back

The inside

First of all, just the day before I left on my trip to Texas, my laptop decided to go on the "blink." I couldn't resist getting an Apple Macbook Pro and I just love it. It's lightweight and the software will make it easy for me to redo my website that I've put off changing for so long - the truth is that the present website I have is quite difficult to work on. I'm able to go to classes at the Apple Store at lunchtime any time I need help, so there are no excuses left other than lack of time --the store is just around the corner from my work! To carry it to class, I made a sturdy felted case that fits like a glove using a resist; there are two pockets inside -- one for the laptop and the other for my notebook.

Fix Ups

2010-06-10T20:05:00.007-04:00

As happens at times, I was disappointed in how much the red disappeared into the background; I had hoped it would make more of a statement but that didn't happen. So, a couple of things -- I simply embellished a piece of red over a portion of the left area. The wool area showing through in the middle got some beads that ended up reminding me of a fancy flower stem which needed a flower. If you look closely, you can also see that I also added a piece of velvet, a flower with a leaf and some more stitching to define them and balance the other side. BUT you need to know, that it took a few days of me looking at it to see what it needed to be finished and trying things out and you'll have to do the same with your piece; if you do this exercise enough, your eye will become trained.

Try various approaches and different materials - embroidery, beads. You can always remove them or cover them up if they don't turn out the way you like. I could have done crazy stitching by hand with a heavier thread or embellished some yarn on top - there are all sorts of options once you get to this point.

I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial - let me know if you have questions and please send pictures so we can all see the various approaches and different colorways from all of you who chose to partake.

Let's Add the Wool

2010-06-10T19:17:00.003-04:00

Select some wool or wool/silk mix in the colorways of your choice. If you are going to felt a piece that will be close to your skin, then you'll want to use Merino, Merino/Silk or even Blue Faced Leicester (which is a personal favorite) for softness; however, for a pillow, collage or bag you can experiment with some of the more coarse wools.

Place an old towel down on the table and cover with a piece of bubble wrap smooth side up over the towel. Put your piece right side down on top of the bubble wrap.

Begin layering wisps of wool all going in one direction and overlapping slightly (like roof tiles) and cover the top; repeat with the wool going in the opposite direction. Finish with a third layer going once more in the same direction as the first wool layer.

Using a bowl of cold water with a few drops of liquid soap detergent (Dove, Ivory or something else mild) soak the wool using a sponge (recognize this sponge Karen?) and cover with a piece of firm plastic. (Painters cloth from the hardware store works great for this)

Gently press down the wool using your hands on top of the plastic (add a little soapy water to make it slippery) ensuring that the all of the wool has been wet through. Now begin gently rubbing for a few moments. The next step is to roll up the "sandwich" - plastic wrap, your needle felted piece and the bubble wrap around a pool noodle and roll for 100 times before opening up and re-rolling from the opposite side for another 100 times. Remove the plastic. At this point, I like to commence rubbing until the piece passes the "pinch" test - meaning that the fiber will not separate from the rest when you pinch it. This takes a while and once you felt a few pieces, your hands will know when the wool has migrated through the silk fabric and felted. If you look closely at the front you should see some wool fibers by now.

I prefer to continue using my hands to rub versus more rolling as it keeps the wool very smooth (which I love).

Next take it to the sink and put it in hot water to rinse the soap out; blot out the water and roll the edges of the piece in to itself some more, the wool will continue to shrink and the silk on the front continue to pucker more.

Place flat right side up and allow to dry.

Adding More Strips

2010-06-08T07:13:00.005-04:00

Now add another strip - notice that there is a space between them - this is where I want the wool to peak through when we add it. It is also okay to overlap slightly in places.

Important Note: If you are are worried about your needles breaking in the thicker/heavier areas, don't use the foot pedal until you "test" that area by turning the wheel by hand in that area; in these heavier areas, pierce by hand turning before using the foot pedal in the same place, repeat where necessary.

A little puckering of the water soluble fabric is okay but if it puckers too much then pull up your embellished strip and re-embellish that part again.

In my third strip, notice that I let the edge of this silk gauze ruffle as it is the selvedge and it won't fray; this works best with the finer fabrics. Also notice in this strip that because it is so thin, that I manipulated it as I went along before needle felting in place.

Time for some red (of course, it does have a little green to pull it all together - much the same way as selecting colors for a quilt).

Once again, there are gaps left on purpose here and there.

Keep adding pieces, sometimes strips, sometimes not. Pay attention to to this pleated piece - this is the "rolling pin shibori" referred to in "Making More Needle Felting Magic" - if you don't have any, make some today -- it will be ready to use by tomorrow! It will lose the pleats when wet felted but will add a lovely heavier puckered texture to that piece. By using all weights of silk, we'll have a variety of textures when we are finished and that is our goal here.

Notice that I only embellish the edges of the pleated fabric before adding another and doing the same thing.

Here is my piece ready for stitching. Inspect your piece to make sure that any gaps you have are not too wide; if they are, add a small piece to "bridge" the pieces. I did this between the red and green at the top left.

If you do not wish to wet felt at the end, you can add the wool and/or silk fiber to fill in the gaps at this point before stitching.

Stitched and ready to rinse. Free- motion stitch over your entire piece (I do larger swirls) leaving the ruffled edge in the center loose and only around the outside edges of the pleated shibori. For this step, I like using Sulky clear poly thread; however, you can use thread of your choice - glitter (although sometimes it breaks when I go too fast) or embroidery thread too. It all depends on the effect that you are trying to achieve; if you use colored thread, then you will focus more on the stitches - I like to focus more on the texture :-) A note about what thread to use in the bobbin here - I have to confess that I'm pretty lazy when it comes to that, I use whatever bobbin thread is already there or what needs to be used up unless I'm doing some stitching where I want the bobbin thread to come to the top and in that case, I'll use the "proper" color.

At the sink, place your piece in some warm water to dissolve the backing. Using a little liquid soap between your wet hands, gently rub your piece to remove all of the stabilizer and rinse well, adding a little hair conditioner to the last rinse (don't be too concerned with this as we'll be using soap when we get to the wet felting stage). Lay flat on a towel to dry. Take a good look at my piece and remember, even if I used the exact same materials for another piece, it would probably look quite different. Do not expect that yours will look exactly the same even if you used the same colors - yours will be your own "baby" and will turn out beautiful!

Next, we'll focus on adding the wool and wet felting!

My Finished Piece

2010-06-07T08:20:00.002-04:00

Here is my finished piece - don't be afraid to add or remove, it's all part of the creative process of your piece "talking" to you and you paying attention. As we go along, I'll tell you what I liked and didn't like about mine (yes it happens all the time, and what I did to fix it).

First Steps Embellisher Tutorial

2010-06-07T08:02:00.004-04:00

We'll begin by selecting our colors; I want use a variety of seafoam greens and a little red. At this point, I have no idea where these colors will lead - I may have to add or take away and this is okay since it is part of the creative process.

Fold or mark a line down the center of your water soluble fabric.

Begin with your first strip near the center; make sure it is longer than your water soluble as it will gather up - some fabrics more than others and you will just cut off the excess at the bottom. It does not have to be exactly straight and on purpose I began with the most difficult fabric to work with - dupioni as it shreds when embellished but the finished effect makes it worthwhile. I cut off excess threads along each side.

Closet Embellishers - Come Out of the Closet!!!

2010-06-03T07:45:00.003-04:00

Let the fun begin!

If you'd like to be part of the group I call "Closet Embellishers" here's your opportunity! I'm doing this as a thank you for all those who purchased my books as well as for those of you who need a little encouragement and coaching to build your Embellisher confidence. When I get my materials back (still en route) from the show, I'll have some silk and wool for sale and if you mention that you're Embellisher "is out of the closet" (or from under the table hahaha) you'll get a 15% discount!

Andi's experiment that Emma helped with (earlier post) gave me an idea for our first project and we'll be doing something similar. We'll be making a piece of embellished fabric that can be strictly machine needle felted and stitched or you can take it further as I have and wet felted the results and added beads, and more embellishments (I'll post a picture of my almost finished piece soon). I'm all about making the fabric because the end result can be used for so many things.

MATERIALS to get ready:

Water soluble fabric - the size is up to you but if you are a real beginner, I'd limit it to no more than 15" x 15"

Fabric strips (about 2- 3 " wide) - enough to fill up your piece. I chose a variety of silks from lightweight (silk gauze) to heavy (dupioni). Wide ribbons can be part of this too.

Wool roving or batts in colors of your choice (2 ounces should be enough)

Thread - (I like to use clear Sulky Polyester but you can use any of your choice)

Sewing Machine - any that will do free-motion stitching

More to come soon . . . .

Linen Top with Pockets

2010-06-03T07:36:00.003-04:00

The hand dyed vintage hanky that was blogged about earlier and came from Artistic Artifacts in Alexandria, Virginia, ended up on a crisp white linen top purchased from J. Jill (love their things). I'm so sorry that I didn't get a picture of Andi wearing it at the show with her tight black leggings - oh, she was adorable; she looked so young, modern, fresh and fun! Maybe I can get a picture of her wearing it the next time she visits as I don't think the picture quite does it justice. The pockets are so sheer and delicate and the french knots in the same colorway added at the top pulls it together.

Silk Strips, Felting and more . . .

2010-06-01T07:10:00.004-04:00

Nana Margo helping Meg with her sewing machine while her sister felts in the kitchen! Meg loves to sew and has great plans for this summer - I can't wait to spend more time helping her and I know whatever she makes will turn out great! I think we are very lucky to have children who want to instill important values in their own children's lives. Not too much TV nor electronic games. For one thing, these girls are so busy with the horse, the dogs (Australian Shepherds) and not to mention the mouse!

When Andi returned home from our trip she was inspired and went "shopping" for wool and fabric in my "stash." When we visited her over the Memorial Day weekend (they live in a small country town 10 minutes North of Gettysburg) she let me see what she had been working on. She had embellished strips of colorful silk and velvet on to water soluble stabilizer as she saw me do for my demos and then stitched them down before washing away the background. The only thing is that she is not a sewer - a fabulous, creative artist but sewing is just not her thing. So fixing it became our creative challenge which brought in adorable Emma who is good at everything she undertakes - school lessons, riding horses, playing the alto sax, etc., who wanted to help. Andi pulled out some of the wool she had and we began laying it down over the wrong side of the piece and wet felting it. As you can see, Emma loves to roll and the finished project is just what her Mom wanted - she has a lovely piece of mixed silk and wool for the project she plans to make!

All this gave me an idea for our first "Embellishers Come Out of the Closet" project which I finished yesterday and will begin posting about soon.

Good job Emma!

Martha's Sewing Event

2010-05-31T20:13:00.005-04:00

The booth was a lot of fun and I met so many terrific ladies! So many of had no idea of how an Embellisher worked and were amazed that it only had needles and no thread - I actually had to prove it to one of them by taking the machine apart to show them that there is no bobbin!

I have such a great respect for Martha Pullen, she is not only a very clever lady (and so funny!) but has been instrumental in keeping fine sewing alive which I think is so important; she remains a kind and decent person as well.

I remember years ago (early 70's) trying to find someone to teach me "whitework" and when I did find someone who knew about it, her eyes were failing so she wasn't able to teach me.

Here I am on stage, I must say while I wasn't at all nervous, I was anxious to do it well since I had never done a power point presentation before. I got some good feedback which I appreciated and will keep in mind in case there is a next time - keep to one picture per slide -- some ladies were so far back, it was difficult for them to see the detail in some of the slides but other than that, it was a great success (and I was able to relax when it was over).

Here is Andrea modeling at the fashion show on Friday night - poor thing had no notice at all, I just sort of "suggested" that she should do it and she did a fabulous job - much better than the pictures that her Mom (me) took!
This is my blue shawl with a needle felted top and "scrumbles" along the bottom - still a favorite.

Here's the lucky winner - her name was drawn after my presentation and her prize was an Embellisher! She stopped by my booth the next day and got some goodies to play with.

Felting Again . . .

2010-05-11T06:56:00.007-04:00

I did manage to work on a nuno vest here and there in the past few weeks to wear with a long dove grey dress that I purchased. The collar is hand-dyed silk needle felted/wet felted. The body is a lovely sheer white silk gauze - with silk/merino fiber and hand dyed silk leaves in various shades of soft green; it was very difficult to felt due to the very high silk ratio - but it fits me well and looks great with the dress. It sits back on the shoulder a bit and dips down in the back. It won a fourth prize at the MD Sheep and Wool last weekend. My other green "leafy" vest won a first prize!

Judy at Artistic Artifacts in Alexandria, Virginia, offers loads of vintage linens all hand dyed in a variety of yummy shades. Of course, I couldn't resist and brought home quite a few to experiment felting with. This handkerchief seemed like it would be a great candidate for fancy "pockets" to adorn a fine cardigan (I have one in mind). Simply cut in two and machine needle and wet felt some detail along the top which naturally gathers when it shrinks.

After I shipped all the materials I had dyed for the booth, I had plans to felt samples in each colorway but I found to my dismay that I had SHIPPED IT ALL - even the pieces I had set aside for samples!!!! . . . a little stressed? hahahaha!!! Anyway, I'll just have to use what I still have in my stash and "wing" it - here is an iris created from silk gauze. The background is nuno wool and silk gauze in green.

Some more pins and buttons - this time using my new pin cards and adding a little "bling." You can see the front and back of the new postcards - I'll use these for my business cards. The new fiber pack label is shown on the bottom right.

Sighs of Relief and New Branding!

2010-05-10T07:53:00.003-04:00

There was a deadline to meet to get all the contents that will be in my booth at the Martha Pullen Sewing Event in Arlington, Texas, by the specified time - I can laugh about it now but not being experienced at this, I just don't know quite what to expect. I wanted to have enough but not too much - now I can finally get excited about the trip next week. Thank goodness that Andrea will come to help (Jenni would love to come too but she'll be at a seminar for her new job).

Our son, Ian, has worked really hard to implement another of his Mom's whims to have new branding. Using just "Margo" for labels and packaging just seemed to make sense since that is "Her Majesty's" name after all!!! (hehehe)

When I decided to accept Martha's invitation, I knew I'd need a booth sign so I felted quite a huge one using machine-needle felted (of course) and stitched letters so Ian designed a font for my labels, etc., using my fabrics in various colors within each letter to match the sign and I just LOVE how they turned out; it sure helps to have talented children willing to help.

I honestly meant to take pictures as I went along but truly didn't have any spare time at all - thank goodness for Andrea, our eldest daughter who came to help making fiber packs and flower kits.

Since never having had a booth before I had to ask a lot of questions from experiences vendors of all the "what and what not to do" nature. At first I wanted to offer lots of felted items but early on I realized that I'd never have enought time to accomplish this so I set out to make lots of kits - and this meant lots of dyeing on the weekends. I probably dyed 20 - 30 yard of various silks and some curls/roving as well. The bottom line is that it is all SHIPPED and should arrive in place tomorrow - Yippee!!! what a feeling.

And of course, the presentation - organizing tons of pictures was just the beginning and now to practice to keep within the hour (I could go on and on and on . . . )

There is more to come tomorrow - I actually had time to felt yesterday - ahhhh, "felt" so great and just the therapy I needed.

2010-03-16T21:31:00.002-04:00

A ruffly eye glass case (with one of my buttons) and a black and white ruffled scarf - merino and silk.

A Few Loose Ends

2010-03-16T21:25:00.002-04:00

Here are some of the flower pins for the flower dress - I'm doing a ton in the periwinkle and mauves.

This is a belt to which I've added three airy organza flowers to.

This was a pillow I had to take apart to stitch the flowers. It was Embellished a while ago before I knew that the components would pull off if tugged - and that exactly what someone did as it made it's travels around.

Another seamless felted bag - a favorite this time. A silk print felted onto a lovely orange merino; it's going to have a felted button too :-)

Marbelizing class

2010-03-16T21:19:00.003-04:00

The piece with the black is my favorite - the pale green and blue come in at a pretty close second. I can't wait until I have more time to try my ideas.

This class was quite a learning experience. Elin Noble is a fabulous teacher and we spent 2 1/2 glorious days just playing with paints and fabric. I got rid of the pieces I didn't like but I love all of these.

Three Bags in Progress

2010-03-16T21:11:00.003-04:00

This little fanciful bag started out as a scarf that I just didn't like, but I LOVE it as a bag - I just cut it up and stitched it together again; quite funky and a little dressy, The inside is the palest fulled wool and has a couple of pockets.

This yummy wool felt bag has pieces of clamped and dyed silk embedded in it - I picked up the wool from the MD S&W last year and it wasn't identified. It is very soft (not merino) with lovely bumps and is felted very, very well. I still have to stitch the handles on some of these. The lining is a lovely complimentary vibrant pink hydrangea on cream (with pockets of course).

This quite large seamless, felt bag has pockets inside and some Embellished design/machie embroidery on the flap.

Buttons

2010-03-16T21:03:00.004-04:00

I purchased a button machine from Hope Yoder when I came back from KMIS in Tampa to make some covered buttons. Once I saw Hope's samples, I knew I just had to have one of these machines; it is going to come in so handy for my Embellisher scraps and marbelized fabric (I just took a fabulous marbelizing class from Elin Noble last weekend). Oh my gosh, this machine is such fun, so fast and has very professional results! There is a very small learning curve and then it's "you go girl!" Fast and easy - my kind of tool. I had a ball using it and so did my 10 and 13 year-old granddaughters without any help from Nana Margo (my Mom is Nana Bell). In fact, I had to pry them away from it or they'd have used up all my supplies!

Flower ball gown

2010-03-16T20:54:00.003-04:00

This was a rather "slinky" table top very curvy, female shape with a basket/metal base covered in pink velvet that I bought from a Valentine display at HomeGoods to use as a display prop when I go to Arlington, Texas. I want my booth to have a soft "watercolor" feel and am going to make tons of flowers that I will pin all over her skirt (if I ever get them finished). It had some white boa around the top and the waist - that was the first to go. The space is rather small so lots of things will have to go "vertical."

Invitation

2010-03-02T07:57:00.003-05:00

http://www.marthapullen.com/market/2010sewingmarket.pdf

You are probably wondering why I've not been posting lately - well, I was invited to be a "Celebrity Speaker" by Marth Pullen at her big event in Arlington, Texas, in May which means an hour long PP presentation. I'll also have a booth there (never done that before) where I'll sell a few felted items and my fiber/snippet packs. There isn't much time to prepare so I've been busy every spare moment coming up with ideas for the booth and doing research. I was very excited when I learned that my friend, Evy Hawkins, http://www.abitofstitch.com/ will be there too. Evy has written a great article for Belle Armoire (there is a link on her site) and so kindly mentioned me! Evy was my host when I taught in SC a few years back and is one of the nicest and most creative people I've met.

I do promise to post a few pictures within the next day or so.

Workshops and Trunk Show Presentation!!!

2010-01-30T12:02:00.005-05:00

Be sure to join me for several exciting events. I'll be doing trunk show presentations/workshops in several locations - more information will be posted soon.

Artistic Artifacts on March 20 in Alexandria, Virginia

Quilting Adventures on April 16 (evening) 17 and 18 in Richmond, Virginia http://www.quiltingadventures.com/

Tampa Trip; I Signed an Embellisher!

2010-01-28T07:39:00.005-05:00

This cheerful row of houses sitting in the sun along the water's edge was created while I was getting ready for my trip to Keep Me in Stitches, Tampa, Florida. I love creating cottages and houses, it's just so much fun to add the tiny details such as fancy doors and windows. It has a new home now with my dear friend, Karen, who picked me up after the event had finished to take me to her lovely home in Clearwater; we had a great time touring Tarpin Springs checking out the Sponge Farm and having dinner at the best of the Greek restaurants, Hellas (mmm, yards of fabulous mouth watering Greek pastries too).

You can't really tell from this picture, but this fluffy flower has about 12 layers of silk gauze - I'm going to add a pin back. Great to dress up a sweater or a hat. My mind was in a sunny mode (unlike real life) while getting ready for the trip. I was tickled when one of the students who purchased an Embellisher asked me to sign her machine! A first for me and so funny!

Valentines day is fast approaching, so why not whip up a few hearts to share with those you love; you could make some small ones to hand out. A very special Valentine for those you care about and a perfect way to use up your scraps.

Ready for Tampa - these packs of bright colors contain silk velvet, wool, silk gauze and dupioni, yarns and curls all dyed by me and the other packs have a delicious assortment of curls just waiting for the labels to be added.

As Promised - Felting using a Sander

2010-01-11T08:00:00.004-05:00

Very little time this weekend - Birthday celebrations kept us busy - on both Saturday and Sunday (I'm very lucky, thank you for everything Mom, Pamela, Gordon, Andi and girls as well as for all the gifts and cards in the mail) but I did manage to squeeze in (just a little) time to play with my new toy.

This piece is very thick and is several layers of wool with various fabrics on top - love my sander :-) great texture that would have taken me hours to achieve just by rolling - it still needs some stitching and beads when there is more time.

My thoughts on this: I wondered "what if" I machine-needled wool through silk dupioni and then used the sander to felt it - turned out to be a great idea and one worth exploring further. I had painted some pieces with dye and color coordinated the wool with the colors on the silk - this would really be magnificent for crazy quilt squares; this piece still needs some more stitching by hand and some beads.

This is a different area of the same piece.

The photo just can't capture the areas with the soft subtle colors of this very soft and flowing piece - oh, and I also pulled threads from the edge and used them in the felting.

My cordless sander: I used two layers of rubber shelf lining under my piece to help cushion the vibrarion and when I kept the sander moving, the vibrations were manageable; still needed earplugs though. A good thing is that the charge doesn't last forever - maybe a good hour? so the temptation to overdo and do nerve damage is probaby helped by this since I worked for no longer than 10 minutes at a time. I purchased the battery charger that takes one hour to charge the 18 volt battery. Drawback is that the bottom of the sander is velcro so no way to attach anything to the plate to keep it catching from the wool; but that little point is very handy to get into small areas. Solution was to use heavy plastic over the top of the piece. I began using bubble wrap but a tiny area got a hole and it began "grabbing" the wool through the hole - scary moment - Yikes!

Bottom line is that I love it, expecially for those times when you want to speed up the nuno process. I just can't wait to use it again!

In Tears (of Joy)

2010-01-08T07:50:00.002-05:00

A wonderful tribute from my wonderful firstborn, Andrea. This weekend I'll post pictures of the B&D cordless sander that I got for my birthday! I began trying it out last night but didn't get too far - phone calls kept me quite busy all evening so the felting will have to wait until tomorrow!

My Hat

2010-01-03T17:53:00.005-05:00

I've wanted to make a hat for as long as I've been felting but something always got in the way. I fell in love with Jannio's hats on Etsy, in fact I purchased a gorgeous deep red one (I'll have to take a picture) but Her Majesty has a rather large head (yes, she does) and it's a little on the small side but still worth having nevertheless. If you want one, go to Etsy and find her - she's in France and the quality is just superb and she's very accommodating. Anyway, I decided to try my hand at making one - I wear hats all the time and it had to be a little fancy and elegant but functional and warm and it's all of these. I wore it last week and felt just like a princess :-) That's the beauty of getting to a certain age, you can wear what pleases YOU! The turned back brim frames the face and yes, it's quite large!

Using up the Dye

2010-01-03T17:40:00.003-05:00

I took a wonderful dye class a couple months ago using clamps and resists - the black piece with the dots and the silk with the circles next to it were the pieces from class. Since I wanted to use up the extra dye in the dypots, I decided to do a few experiments.

A little shibori on the peach and resists were used on the green.

These are some of my favorites dyeing first in a lighter shade before clamping and overdying.

These turned out just fabulous - dye painted on paper and which is then clamped to the silk and I was pretty thrilled to see how great these turned out. The one in the center is actual groups of very tiny muted flowers.

Trunk Show in Tampa!

2010-01-03T17:36:00.005-05:00

I'm getting my trunk show all spruced up for the Keep Me in Stitches event in Tampa on January 22. Join us if you can! Call KMIS for more info

Three Bags Full

2010-01-03T17:21:00.003-05:00

I've been dyeing for three days now - a custom order for class kits. A ton of merino, curls, 9 yards of silk gauze, yards of silk velvet and some dupioni that I've overdyed (blah original color) with some very interesting results - I love working with these colorways but I think I need a change about now!

Worth Waiting For

2010-01-03T17:15:00.002-05:00

Here's our littlest guy - now you see why we were so excited - he is just the SWEETEST - we enjoyed a whole week with him as well as great Christmas Eve and Christmas Day parties.

Waiting for Win

2009-12-21T09:45:00.004-05:00

John Winston that is! They are on their way as I write this; they left this morning and will be here by this evening - it's a loooong way from Hilton Head, SC to Mt. Airy, Maryland. I'm praying that they will be safe traveling over the recently snow cleared roads as they get closer.

This is the antique sleigh that we had stored in the attic. My Mom worked for 25 years for a school that used to be an orphanage in Washington, D.C. and when they found this little sleigh in their attic she brought it home for Jenni who is our youngest - the older two would never fit in this! I remember taking Jennifer (Win's Mom) to a little friend's birthday party in the neighborhood when she was two years old in 1978. It had just snowed, and was too deep for her to be able to walk through it, so dressed in her white hand-smocked (by me!) tea length dress, leggings and white fur coat and covered with a snuggly blanket, I pulled her to the party. Oh how I wish we had a picture of her then, sitting in this little sleigh with a warm furry hat over her long dark hair holding her little gift :-) Isn't this little dolly a dear? - he is one of the ten "stinky kids" who's motto is "Always Be a Leader of Good."

Wonderful memories and more to come . . . . . . . . . .

Merry Christmas to all of you - Blessings to you and your family!

Felt Playmat

2009-12-21T09:24:00.003-05:00

I'd planned to make a warm blanket for Win when we took him out on the antique sleigh we had stored in the attic but as I began work, I thought about how practical that would be when he goes home to SC. I then decided to make a rug that would double as a playmat. He loves "Thomas" and trucks so I thought it might be fun to have something to pretend with. It's a good size 3' x 4' and quite thick, in fact too thick for me to manipulate well while wet so I stuck it in the bathtub and "stomped" on it - I felt like Lucille Ball stomping on her grapes! It was a riot, but it worked great! (glad my husband didn't take a picture) It lays really flat and has a lovely texture that you can't quite see if the photo. It had five layers of wool before the surface decorations were added. As you can see, there is a railroad, a little road, a pond, clouds, tiny birds (hard to tell on the photo), tree, houses, sun and a hill. When he is older, he can play trains, cars, boats or people. I'm so pleased with it - now it just has to dry

Feast or Famine

2009-12-21T09:12:00.003-05:00

There have been no Blog posts recently because it's hard to bake, felt, shop and decorate while sitting at the computer (and, oh yes, how could I forget about my job and all that entails working at a Church during this Christmas season!). Anyway, I make little hand sugar cookies, iced with Royal Icing and dusted with edible gold every Christmas as everyone just loves them. I have a few different "hand" cookie cutters but this size seems to work best. This year, I decided to add what I feel - I'm so grateful for everything we've been blessed with and wanted everyone else to share the Love. These are the "practice" cookies, left for my husband to enjoy while I had to attend a late night meeting. The recipe I have is for 12 dozen but it only makes half of that number. I do it in stages: make the dough and cut into 4 sections, wrap in wax paper and chill until I get the time to bake a section at a time or all if I can manage.

Snow Men

2009-12-21T09:02:00.003-05:00

I do love snowmen and have a special collection. These first two are among my favorites, are made of fabric - muslin? and painted in the softest tones of blues and greens - they are so well done, I wish I had purchased more of them. The detail is unbelievable.

Of course, I do love this little "bobble head" guy - too sweet!

I felted a snowman pillow as a gift for my assistant at work - she loves snowmen too. He has a tiny pointy carrot nose that I stiffened with textile medium but my camera battery just went dead, so a picture of him will have to wait :-(

Snow Princess

2009-12-21T08:53:00.003-05:00

I just couldn't resist this "Snowflakes" sign and then I found a Snow Princess a couple of weeks ago - I'm wondering if she is the one who "commanded" this past weekend's 24" snowfall? If so, she's been very naughty as she's caused havoc with our plans to have our SC family with little Win. They were supposed to arrive this past weekend and you know the rest! This picture was taken early evening on Saturday and it kept snowing through the night. Good thing I'm on vacation this week since we have along winding driveway through the woods so I'm not going anywhere for a few days. I only hope that our family will be able to make it for Christmas Eve and we always have the family party; this is baby Win's first and some in the family haven't met him yet.

Sunflowers to Brighten the Day

2009-11-11T07:46:00.005-05:00

Missed my usual weekly post - I've been under the weather with some sort of sinus/respiratory problem but I did manage in between resting to play a little. Sunflowers are always welcome and cheerful in the garden. We can't have any living in the woods but a few weeks ago, when I was preparing for our "French" dinner, I found the most gorgeous bunch of the very sturdy smaller variety in the grocery store of all places and they inspired this imaginary garden. Although you can't see them easily in the picture, the flowers are surrounded by green stitched leaves. The background was wet felted, then machine needle felted and stitched before being wet felted once again. It was difficult to capture the color on the bottom portion since it's a dreary day so I had to take the picture indoors. I'll be putting this on my Etsy store after I have a change to enjoy it a little.

Barely Enough Time!

2009-11-03T20:29:00.003-05:00

It's been a challenge to say the least but I've finished four cuffs, two pins, one neckpiece, one belt and one quite large felt. They are finally ready to add to the Etsy store. I'm really pleased how they turned out - I hope you like them as much as I do.

The felted and stitched yellow wool and silk cuff has a mother of pearl buckle closure.

This fancy felted neckpiece has a felted button closure, is lined with silk and edged with curls

The blue cuff is finally finished too with a felt button.

This is a rather large and sturdy felt with butterfly markings - suitable for a small rug or for cutting to make a fabulous bag.

How about a belt to fancy up those blue jeans - stitched detail and a mother-of-pearl buckle.

Another blue wool bracelet with red roses and edged with curls. Felt button closure.

As promised, the first of my destashing of my trunk show - a fancy bag with silk ribbons and wool curls.

Snippets

2009-10-28T08:05:00.004-04:00

These were custom "Snippet" orders - each is experimental pack is unique and includes all sorts of hand picked (by the Queen!) color coordinated goodies; wool fiber, curls, yarns, silk ribbon, hand dyed silk velvet, fabric, silk hankie and silk rods.

If you'd like to order one (or some!) just e-mail me: hermajestymargo@aol.com.

Busy, Busy, Bee

2009-10-27T20:35:00.006-04:00

Busy felting - you probably think I'll never get these listed on Etsy (promises, promises) but I have to do things in stages due to time constraints and work responsibilities (computer work must be done in the early morning or evening) and the plan is to list these by this coming weekend.

Rust crewel cuff; fancy button. Machine needle, stitched and wet felted.

Pink flower pin - machine needle and wet felted.

Pretty posy pin - with ruffled top and curls along the bottom.

Yellow rosy cuff with mother-of-peal buckle (doesn't show here).

Sample green bag from my trunk show.

Blue cuff with pink flowers - felt button.

Cuff and Samples for Etsy

2009-10-20T08:02:00.004-04:00

I've begun making some things for my Etsy store and love the colors in this cuff - the base is a gorgeous blue silk Dupioni with lots of tiny purly curls from my stash machined into the background with vibrant pink flowers on green vines. All it needs now is some hand embroidery and/or beads and a closure to finish it.

Since I love to experiment and have soooo many samples (would take toooo many hours to go through these for my trunk show) so I've decided to sell some of these on Etsy including my red vest - I love it and learned so much from making it but I just can't keep everything. My trunk show (3 containers full) just won't hold any more so I'm going to have to be brutal and send some of it to new homes. Stay tuned.

Gift Bracelet

2009-10-20T07:56:00.005-04:00

This bracelet was made for a very special person - my cousin and hero - she's been battling cripling Rheumatoid Arthritis since she was three years old - and she just reached a milestone . . . . . . drumroll - she's 50 today !!!
Congratulations wee cousin, Karen. I love and admire you for your sheer grit and determination. I can't even imagine how you've managed to be so strong after all the years of pain, treatment and surgeries you've been through, Oprah doesn't have a clue of just how much she's missed by not having you on her show for your birthday. You are so giving and cheerful even when you are suffering; a true miracle. You are so loved.

Fall Felted Belt

2009-10-20T07:46:00.003-04:00

This is a felt belt, machine needle felted, stitched before being wet felted. Rings were added on one end and it almost has a tapestry look. Parts of it looked like the picture I chose for my postcards to hand out at Houston (this is the back of it) - I'll include one with all of my orders. I couldn't take any more pictures because the samples I took to Houston are traveling to Rhode Island at the moment for a show.

It looks great with a grey sweater over grey jeans - just the right "punch" of Fall color.

15 Minutes of Fame

2009-10-19T08:01:00.004-04:00

That's right - 15 minutes! That's precisely how much time you get to do your "Schoolhouse Presentation" in Houston. It wasn't enough that's for sure as there was a lot of interest and many questions about the wet felting process. I could have gone on for hours about my passion! I met the same group of ladies that attended my demonstrations a couple of years ago when my first book was introduced. I wish I had gotten a picture of these ladies - so friendly and all decked out in their creative best - all very talented and I'm flattered that they think I know enough to follow my work. I even met some people that read my Blog! It truly is a small world. Although Martingale hadn't arranged for any demos this time, I managed to get some time at the Babylock booth as my followers (and some new ones too) were desperate to learn more - the folks at Babylock were kind enough to let me use their machine for as long as I needed - luckily I had brought a ton of supplies and some sample fiber packs that were "ripped" open and attacked! This is the only picture of me (I really don't like any pics of myself) but my beautiful and VERY creative firstborn, Andrea, was my helper and model and we got stopped everywhere we went with questions about who made the vests, bags and wraps. We had some great times - fancy dining, shopping, gazing at the amazing creativity of the very talented quiltmakers and even made time to loaf a little - well deserved for Andrea who is a busy Mom who has a husband, two daughters, two dogs, mice and a horse (as well as a very responsible job from home helping kids!) Isn't she great? (also the kindest person you'd ever want to meet)

I'm the luckiest Mom alive to have three such caring and wonderful children who are all doing a great job with their own families!!!

This is one of the booths we were very impressed with - we spent lots of time admiring the setup and the well arranged color groupings of all these fabulous ribbons, buttons and buckles. I spent hours there (as well as some $$$) and had a difficult time not buying more.

My Finished Felt Belt

2009-10-06T19:36:00.003-04:00

I finally finished my silk/wool belt by adding a silver button with deep blue center from my stash - the wool ties that I had originally planned just wouldn't look or feel right on this piece since the wool is sandwiched in between the silk on front and back so it doesn't show - a button seemed much more appropriate and I'll wear it with tailored pants in a soft mocha and cream silk shirt - looks fabulous as it has the most beautiful glorious shades in a silk burnout and has ruched so much during the felting process - it has a little ruffle along the bottom; the back of the belt is a sheer orange irridescent silk. This belt will also add a lot of character to a dress or skirt so I think I'll get a lot of wear from it. It's definitely one of my favorites.

New Felt Belt

2009-10-06T19:32:00.002-04:00

This is a felt belt to wear with jeans - I thought it would be a fun surprise for Andrea to wear while we are away :-) As a Mom, I always love giving surprises (as I love getting them too!) - it's a nuno that wraps around and ties in front - I hope she'll like it. Life is so short, I believe in living in the moment and making the most of each one we are given.

Surprise Birthday Gift

2009-10-06T08:29:00.003-04:00

I knitted and fulled this bag a couple of years ago and finally added some snazzy lining complete with pockets this past weekend to give to Andrea, our daughter, for an early Birthday gift. We are leaving for Houston on Thursday and I thought this would be a fun and sturdy bag to hold any "goodies" we may find. The lining matches the flowers and I used fusible interfacing to give it more body and I LOVE it - now I'm ready to knit another one.

Tweaking, tweaking, and more tweaking

2009-10-06T08:24:00.003-04:00

I've spent more time tweaking the fit on this vest - I did want it loose but fitting more through the waist so I rewet the waist area and worked on it a lot and ended up taking in some darts at the back - what a difference it made and now I'm completely satisfied with the fit.

Red Felt Vest Finished!

2009-10-01T20:45:00.006-04:00

This is one of my very favorites. It's loose but fitting and is just what I wanted. The shoulders are wide and create a drop sleeve; it is much longer than it looks here and much more red (again that stark sunlight when I took the pictures); check a few posts back to see the true color. I used every spare piece of felt down to the button which is rolled to mimic the pinwheel design element. There are also ribbons pinwheel flowers on the the pocket flaps. It's very soft/fluid and I used some other trimmed pieces for ruffled pockets and a small peplum in the center back.

Belt

2009-10-01T20:39:00.003-04:00

This is another instance where I found it impossible to capture a good picture - this belt is made from a most gorgeous piece of silk burnout on one side and orange irridescent silk on the other with wool sandwiched in between - oh the ruching is so gorgeous! At first, I was going to add wool cords for ties but I've since decided to use a simple button instead - I will get another picture and post at some point. It will compliment a simple outfit of light brown pants and cream silk shirt - it is just the right touch and looks really elegant with the delicate ruffle along the edge.

Felt Sampler

2009-10-01T20:29:00.004-04:00

I haven't posted recently because I've been busy making felt - but for some reason, I've had the most difficult time capturing good pictures. First it rained and was very dark and dreary, then when I finally got a good day, I think I tried when the lighting was too stark - anyway, you'll get the idea. What I intended was to create a felt to use as a sampler for some of the flowers in my book to show how they can be incorporated into other felt works and now it has been shipped to Houston with all of the other samples - I'll be leaving very soon now! It's actually quite a large felt - about 60 x 36 and later I may decide to cut it up and make another vest. What you don't see is the reddish poppy in the purple wool that ties the other reddish elements in the green piece together.

Fall

2009-10-01T20:24:00.003-04:00

Can you imagine that I found all of these varieties of mushrooms in one small area of our yard? - I've mentioned before that our house is in a clearing surrounded by tall oaks and last weekend I was amazed at the beauty of these interesting varieties - even though they are probably all very poisonous!!! I did wash my hands thoroughly after picking them. If I had the time, I'm sure they'd make wonderful dyes - but alas, I don't right now although I'd love to experiment.