Lyn and Annie have set us a challenge for this quarter to make something inspired by the decade 1900 – 1909. The challenge is here If you would like to see it and maybe you could join in. first-quarter-challenge They gave us examples of what was going on and what caught my eye was the aerial photography. It made me think of some wonderful works by the fibre artist Chris Cullen of As theCrow Flies. https://www.facebook.com/cbdasthecrowflies/. She uses mostly recycled knits and yarn in her amazing pieces. she sells mostly through galleries but does commissions through her Facebook page. for sale ..read more

I don’t know whats happened to my last year’s hat. It is probably at the back bottom of the deep shelf in my hall closet. I don’t feel like cleaning that out so I am taking it as a sign I should make myself a new hat. I think I will make it to go with my new cowl. https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2020/11/16/the-cowl-is-finished/ I know it will be a purple wool base and have the orange/gold silk lap on it. I am not sure about the leaves. I am thinking of several possibilities for the hat. You will have to excuse the very crude drawings but my drawing ability is very small. The first option h ..read more

This week I finished the basket. All it really needed was to have the handle finished and that would have been fast and easy. But a white basket is not only boring it does not fit with me. I can’t keep anything white clean for long. So faze to of the basket: dying. I have a turkey fryer/corn cooker for dying outside. After clearing a spot on the porch for the dye pot and my son cleaning all the bugs and spiders and webs out of the hose and burner I got some water heating. Usually, when you are going to dye wool you wet it first. it gets you a more even take-up of the dye. I didn’t want that ..read more

So we are just starting the 3rd month of the second quarter challenge and I have a finished piece. Everyone, please clap because I actually finished it in May, very early for me who usually finishes the challenge after the next one has started. Here’s the challenge if you need a refresher. 2020-second-quarter-challenge Last time I teased you with the beginnings. No one could guess what it was. Grey didn’t seem to be a very summery colour. Well, I made a basket. I had seen a few online and thought that’s a good idea. I liked that they looked rustic and functional rather than pretty. Best laid p ..read more

Continuing on from my last post about making felt for needle books, Felt for Needle Books I started sewing them together. Well, first I had to iron them all which always takes much longer than you think it will. Everyone forgets to mention this step or they just say iron your pieces like it’s nothing at all. There are no pictures of ironing, as fascinating as that might have been, I didn’t take any pictures. I also only took one picture when I was sewing them together. There was much swearing, and unpicking that you didn’t need to see. After sewing them together I had to think about how to de ..read more

Not too long ago I saw some nice needle books for sale and thought I would like to make some too. It seemed to be in my and my machine’s sewing ability. They will be fun adding stitching later too. First I had to make some nice felt for the covers. I started with two layers of white. and added some colour and pattern I found an old piece of prefelt It wasn’t as thick as I wanted so I added a layer of fibres to one side. and some other bits that were thicker. Then, because I must be able to embroider sheep, I made a meadow. Next, I had to cut them to size. I went looking and couldn’t fin ..read more

The other day I made a bangle. I have made them before but it has been a while. So long ago, I can’t find the pictures. I know I have seen them recently while looking for something else. I was not as good at labelling things then as I am now so searching didn’t help much. Anyway, for this one, I wanted to use some of my handspun. I have many little balls of yarn as I never make much of any one thing. To start you need a piece of cord or yarn. Make it the size you want your finished bangle. It will not shrink in size. I used a scrap of yarn. You need some wool and some yarn. I am using some ve ..read more

It was 2 days later that I got back to my pot. After some preliminary rolling in the dryer, I rolled it by hand. It shrank quite a lot. it is very tight around the resist. It is time to do some cutting. I cut in the spaces between the fins. You can see how much the hole grows as you work the edge. The little blob on the left is the piece I cut out. I didn’t want to pull the resist out through the hole. It is bulkier and less flexible than usual with the duct tape holding on the fins. I cut an X in the bottom of the outside pot. If I had thought about it I would have done it in the bottom of ..read more

I am sure if you are on Facebook you have seen the link to Fiona Duthie’s free online tutorial for a vessel within a vessel. https://www.fionaduthie.com/vessel_within_a_vessel/ It is fun to do. I have done it before. It is here if you are interested. They were fairly small pots. https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2019/01/06/pots-within-pots/ I thought I would do another one just for fun. I decided it should be bigger this time. For the template, I used a wall clock I had that is to good to get rid of, but I don’t use. I am sure you all have things like that around. To give you an idea of sized ..read more

This is the last of my contributions to this quarter’s challenge. I am looking forward to finding out what the next quarter’s challenge is. Last time I showed you my circles of silk and wool to be made into flowers. First, I rubbed and rolled them until they were well felted. Then I folded them into a cone and started rolling in my hands and pulling on the point. That resulted in this: Next, I cut some leaves from the flat green piece and needled them onto the flowers. I thought they need some stamen. I used locks. These are Wensleydale cross locks I bought already dyed. The first few I ma ..read more