Melbourne Cup Weekend

This weekend will be busy with the Spring Art Show.  I have been trying to decide on things to include on the stall and you can see hubby has been relaxing with the tv and a glass of wine. 

Felt

 Although life is rather busy and disrupted at present I am making time to be creative.  Using felt as a background and adding fabrics, stitching and embellishments I have created a container for pens or scissors: my husband tells me it is an ideal size for a small bottle of beer. 

 The second one is made from some felt I made quite a long time ago wrapped around a tin which is lined with shop bought felt.

These are quick and easy projects and are good for using up the bits and pieces in the stash.

catching up with projects

 Yesterday I had some treatment on my knee and while I was waiting for the surgery I did quite a lot of stitching.  My sewing room is cluttered with partly done work or sample pieces I have done in the past. 

I have a stall at a christmas market soon so I am trying to finish things off.  This little piece with french knots on silk will make a pretty  button or hair clip. 

This second piece is a needlebook.  Hand dyed cotton fabric with silk ribbon, beads, sequins and embroidery.

 I will line it with green felt to hold the needles.

There is batting between the fabric and the felt to give it a softer feel.  

 

The last item is silk ribbon on calico over a self covered button.

It just needs some metallic threads to finish it off.

I am always so happy to finish things that have sat around for a while.

Holidays amd precious friends

 This week I was lucky enough to take a quick trip up to the Gold Coast (southern Queensland) and while I was there I caught up with Elizabeth Peters.  I first "met" Elizabeth on the Country Bumpkin Forum, which no longer exists, and we have met in person several times.  We spent some time op shopping and also enjoyed a delicious picnic lunch in Southport: take a look here.

We spent some time looking at Elizabeth's beautiful creations: lace and felt and lots of other treasures.   you can see her work here

On a previous visit to the Gold Coast I bought this little wicker case to keep some needlework supplies at my father-in-law's house.


He lives in Tweed Heads which is at the very southern part of the Gold Coast.



On this visit I was so excited to see the contents of the case again.

 It contains needles,beads,buttons and a piece of embroidery to work on while visiting.

 I had a lovely time away but am happy to be home again.

Butterfly box completed

Well I have finished this little box.  The interior took longer than the top.  I have added some heat set crystals and glued the felt into the base.  The interior of the lid is painted a lovely buttery yellow.

Now what shall I do next?

An Easter tree

 HAPPY EASTER

2013

Last minute Easter crafting

 I have been working on my embellished fabric.

 I fused some organza ribbon over the 
piece which made it more stable and also softens the colours a bit.

I bought a little carboard box at the op shop near the library this morning and it was just the thing.  

There is a bit more to be done but so far I am pleased with it.











The op shop is one that I visited last week when Anne was here from the uk.  It is a small shop with very friendly volunteers working there and there are always plenty of doilies and trinkets to tempt me.  The time I spent with Anne was a real treat and I look forward to her return next year.

I

Winter warmers

This week I have managed to find some creative time.  I have taken pics of some of the felting process.  I hope they are clear enough.  The first shows the wool fibres laid on bubble wrap and damped with soapy water.

 The colour here looks pink because I use red net over the fibres when I am damping it down.  I use this particular piece of net from the stash because it is firm and open enough to work with.
Once the piece is damp enough I turn it over and add some more water on the other side.  Then remove the net.  The next part requires a bit of an effort, covering the piece with a sheet of plastic and rub it hard all over and then turning it over and repeating the hard work.  

I folded the bubble wrap in to tidy up the edges a bit and then rolled it up tightly squeezing out excess water.
 Rolling it back and forth a bit to continue the felting.

I then carefully unroll this parcel and roll it longways and twisting as I go as the parcel is very skinny. Again I squeeze out any excess water.
After that I put it into hot water and rinse it and then rinse it again until the water runs clear, then into the clothes dryer to finish it off.

This is the felt so far.  Some of the fibres and yarns I used were not wool and didn't "take" but so far so good.  I will add some embellishment to this with my machine.

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In the meantime I have made a scarf using the embellishing machine today.  This is the first serious effort I have made with the new machine and I did enjoy it.

I used several balls of yarn, feeding them into the machine simultaneously.  The threads meshed  together quite well and when I was happy with the effect I added the piece of pink poly/silk to the back and used the machine to fuse the layers together.  This gave a bit more stability to the whole thing and looks really good.

The weather here is so cold another scarf is welcome.  I will wear it when we go out to visit friends tomorrow.

Yarns

This week I have spent quite a lot of time out and about running errands and going to work: this presented me with a chance to check out some different op shops.  I have managed to collect quite a lot of yarn to make some scarves.

I will do some wet felting first so I have been referring to this gorgeous book Creative Felting by Lizzie Houghton.  It has so many luscious images to inspire.

This book is very informative with clear illustrated instructions and some beautiful examples to encourage experimentation.

I doubt if I will find time in the next day or so but it is something to dream about.  

Once the felting is done I think I shall use my embellishing machine to add some extra interest.  

my girls

I thought I would show you some pics of the broaches I made last year.  They were inspired by a project in STITCH magazine and I made them for a friend.  Not really my thing but they were fun to do. 

 I took this lovely pic the other day when my husband and I went for our morning walk.  The sky was so pretty.

Then later in the day I received a parcel in the post from a friend.  In the parcel there was a piece of muslin, some foil, metallic sheet, felt and wire form to play with.  So many possibilities.

Anzac Weekend

I have been fosicking about in my basket of ufos and found a piece I did a couple of years ago. It is a tulip embroidered on silk and just the right size for a needlebook.

Having come to the conclusion that it would work I then needed to find a suitable fabric for lining it. I wanted something with a bit of body to it as the embroidered fabric is quite flimsy and I wanted something interesting that would add to the piece rather than vie for attention.

Over the past few weeks I have received several parcels of goodies from friends so I thought I would look through that collection and see if anything worked well. Of course it did. A piece of painted fabric with a bit of a metallic look about it. It is quite stiff so is a perfect backing.

I stitched the two pieces together using some of the inbuilt stitches on my sewing machine and it turned out well.

I will just add a folded piece of felt for the "pages" and finish it of with a couple of charms or tassels.