All about the bags...

After not making a felt bag for ages, in the last month I've ended up making nothing but bags!  In September I attended a feltmaking workshop with US artist and tutor Ruth Walker, who has developed an interesting way of making felt bags using a large ball and Norwegian fleece.  So I spent two days making two different bags, which was hard work but very enjoyable - here are some during and after photos of the brown bag I made.  I then ran two bag workshops last week to make felt bags - shoulder bags one day and clutch bags the next, using a flat plastic template rather than a ball.  Here are the participants and their very successful finished bags!  So now I'm all fired up to have another go with the ball when I next get a spare day!  

Felting Workshops - New Dates

Here are the latest dates for forthcoming workshops, and some photos to give you an idea of the type of thing you can make at a workshop (but have a look at my flickr site for more ideas!).  All courses are £55 per person, for a full day (c0930-1630).  If you'd like further details or to book a place (or explore dates for different courses), just email me at: natashasmartdesign@yahoo.co.uk.

 

Felt Bag Workshop - Sunday 21 October 2012 - 2 places left!

Felt Bead Jewellery Workshop – Sunday 18 November 2012 – 3 places

Christmas Sparkle Felt Workshop – Sunday 9 December 2012 – 3 places

Feltmaking at Hever Castle

Had a busy weekend feltmaking on 15 and 16 September, when I was invited to demonstrate feltmaking at the Country Life at the Castle event at Hever Castle in Kent.  I managed to get a team of helpers together (thanks everyone!), and we had a very enjoyable (if exhausting!) time talking to visitors and demonstrating the different parts of the feltmaking process.  Here are a few photos of us in action!

2012 Festival of Quilts

I visited the Festival of Quilts at the NEC on Friday, where I'd entered a quilt (based on rock layers) - see photos.  I wasn't as pleased with my quilt this year (only leaving a month to make it didn't help!), but am inspired for a new quilt for next year.  So as well as looking at all the quilts on display, I used the opportunity to stock up on threads, silk fibres and yarns for my next one.  And I'm determined to start earlier next time..!

Quilt Diary - Weeks 3 & 4

The last 2 weeks have been all about sewing the quilt - firstly sewing some wavy quilting lines with embroidery thread, and then sewing lots and lots of crystal beads on top.  My deadline for getting the quilt to the post office was today, and to be honest I would liked to have sewn a few more lines of beads on (as well as more quilting lines), but I ran out of time and had to stop (I was also running out of beads, despite making 2 orders!).  Still, I guess I should be pleased that I managed to make a quilt in such a relatively short time.  The next time I see it will be at the Festival of Quilts in August, so the final quilt will be revealed then!

Quilt Diary - Week 2

Week 2 of the quilt was all about sewing the main piece and borders together to make the quilt top.  Then I sewed the 3 quilt layers together (top, wadding and backing fabric) and added the hanging sleeve on the back.  I also sewed together off-cuts from the quilt to make a notebook cover for my friend's birthday!

Quilt Diary - Week 1

My new felt quilt  (based on rock layers) has been in the planning (well in my mind at least) since I made my quilt for last year's Festival of Quilt show at the NEC (see my blog back in August 2011).  For this year's quilt I thought I'd try and blog my progress on the different stages of making the quilt - with about a month to finish before the deadline to send it to the NEC for this year's exhibition.  Nothing like cutting it fine!

So here's Week 1, which was all about laying out the fleece fibres and felting them.  I made 3 separate pieces of felt: the main design and 2 pieces for the borders.  Here are the photos of the dry fleece prior to felting.  And to give you an idea of the size, the main design piece started out at around 175 x 75cm (which shrank down to around 120 x 50cm after felting).