Finished Felted Gloves

I finally had the time this weekend to finish felting the fingerless gloves started a few days ago. I'm so pleased with the results, although there was so much talk on my felt group about some people not felting sufficiently enough that I went a little overboard! In fact, I made a small pair(pink), a medium (blue) and a large (plum/green) and ended up having to really stretch them out so they will fit the young women they are intended for!

I do agree that many (especially new felters) stop working with the felt before they should; however, I don't agree that everything needs to be a really hard felt - I'll clarify this: bags and wearable goods in order to be durable and not fall apart really need to be a very hard felt but many of the items I make such as my flower art felts among others are better left a little soft. Of course, most of my machine needle/wet felted items also have stitching so the composition and the end results are quite different. These gloves are a good hard felt but quite pliable and soft (I always use a little hair conditioner in the rinse water) and functional - yeah, my first Christmas gifts complete before Thanksgiving!

My (wonderful) publisher

Martingale, who published Needle Felting Magic (and who will also publish my new book next September) very generously sent me some complimentary copies of many quilt books when they found out I needed inspiration for a baby quilt -- I've been searching for just the right theme for our new grandson, to be born early February -- I decided that the quilt should be mostly white with blue and tiny touches of red. Birds will be the theme - fat, cheeky birds perched and ready to take off for exciting new adventures. I've been appliqueing the birds ("winging" it actually since I have this idea in my mind and no pattern -- I don't know if you've noticed but I tend to give myself these daunting challenges!) and adding some embroidered details as I go along. My "test" piece didn't fall apart when washed in the washing machine and it shrunk nicely which will really help to show the stippling I plan around the birds. Mostly bluebirds with one very naughty red!

More Felting - this time fingerless gloves!

No, these aren't tree branches - they are well felted fingerless gloves! My friend Kathy invited me over so we could have a felting evening - we each made three pair of fingerless gloves so they could be rolled side by side. It takes a while to lay out the wool and it got late, so I brought the wet unfinished gloves home and have been working on them in stages as I get the time. That's the beauty of working with felt - you just re-wet and continue with the rolling and fulling. These are really a lovely hard felt. Although it is difficult to tell from the picture, there are little bits of yarn and curls embedded - there is even a little bow toward the cuff that doesn't show up.

This pair needs a little more work - almost there! The wool is getting pebby texture and the yarn is really embedded nicely. I used a lot of mohair curls and they take longer to felt.

Much more to go - some more work needs to be done one this pair. They need to shrink by a couple of inches and harden as gloves typically get a lot of wear and have to hold up!

Embellished and Scrumbled Scarf

While looking for the blazer embellishment pictures, I found this scarf I had done as a gift -- you may like to try make them too - the main scarf was needle felted according to the instructions in "Needle Felting Magic" with some silk velvet embedded and then scrumbles added to each end. For those who don't know what scrumbles are -- you are missing out! They are free-form knitted and crochet modular pieces put together -- great fun to add more embellishment!

I'm just sorry that I didn't take better pictures as it was in lovely shades of blueberry and violet (I should have taken the pictures outdoors - natures light is alway better in capturing all the subtleties of color).

Blazer Embellishment in Progress

Here are a couple of pictures of the blazer embellishment taken while dissolving the water soluble fabric. They show the colors a little more clearly!

Babylock Project

Well, I just found out by accident while doing research for my book that the Embellished Jean Jacket that I designed for Baby Lock is finally listed on the Babylock site! Go check it out and download the free instructions - just in time for making gifts! It's fun, fast and easy and makes quite a statement! You can take the same idea and use it to decorate sweaters, sweatshirts or just about anything else! Have Fun!!!

I used velvet and other materials to needle felt a collar, lapels and pocket flaps. There are several other projects I designed for them as well so look out for these in the future on the Baby Lock website! http://www.babylock.com/

We Want Glitz!!!

"We Want Glitz" -- a line from the upcoming book that's coming sooo close to being finished - even just a tiny bit of added glimmer seems to enhance just about anything!