Exciting News!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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!

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

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!

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!

Colorway

Cool w/Bonus Pieceof Hand-dyed Silk $25.00 Warm w/Bonus Piece of Hand-dyed Silk $25.00 Cool/Warm w/Piece of Hand-dyed Silk $25.00

New Blog Look & Show

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!

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

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 . . . .

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

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.