Happy New Year Fun Felt Flower Tutorial

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!

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

LIVE RADIO TODAY!

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

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

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

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!

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!