Felt Flower Wallhanging

With Open Studios coming up, I wanted to create something new for the studio, as well as to find a better way of displaying flower corsages.  So I created a wallhanging to pin the flowers to, which doubles up as something bright and decorative for the studio.  Thought I'd share some before and after photos, so you can see the process. 

Photo 1 shows the felt fleece all laid out in landscape colours, I then added some bubble mohair wool strands to act as flower stems.  Photo 2 shows the developing felt during the process - flattened with hot soapy water and rubbed to help the fibres felt together.  Photo 3 shows the finished felt (shrunk by about 30%) - I didn't worry too much about keeping neat edges as I knew I was going to cut the felt.  All in all this took about a day to make (half a day to make the felt and another to create the hanging). And we both appear on this week's front cover of our local newspaper to advertise Open Studios - link here:Oxted County Border News, 24 May 2012

 

Flower Workshop 20 May 2012

Just to let you know that I have 2 spare places on a Felt Flower Workshop on Sunday 20 May 2012 (£55 per person) - come and learn how to make felt flowers as corsages or to use for decoration. A few examples here of what you could make (also have a look at previous posts for more examples) and just get in touch if you'd like to find out more or book a place, or if you'd like to find out more about the different courses on offer.

Cupcakes!

I've been designing project articles for Beads and Beyond magazine, and through this the editor Michelle recently asked if I could produce an article for the revamped Sewing World, another Traplet Publications magazine. So a great chance to do something a bit different. Having made my sister-in-law Jess (who runs the 'La-di-da Cupcake Company', based in Surrey, she makes fantastic cupcakes to order, as well as cakes and afternoon teas) a cushion and notebook from cupcake fabric for Xmas, I thought I'd stick with the theme and made a Cupcake Kitchen Tidy (don't tell Jess, as that'll probably be this year's present!). And no felt involved, which is a departure for me. So look out for the May 2012 issue of Sewing World which is just about to hit the shops!

What happens to the felt beads I make?

Last year I made some beads for a jewellery designer called Cristina, who commissioned me to make a number of silk-covered felt beads to match some purple agate slices. She's now made her jewellery (which is for sale on her site) and she kindly shared me some photos. It's always really interesting to see what another designer does with my beads, I think the necklaces have turned out really well! To view more of her work visit: www.cristinasjewellery.co.uk.

Nuno Felt Journals & Bags

Here's a photo of my latest workshop at the end of October, making Nuno felted journal books and bags with 3 talented weavers who were looking to create something a bit quicker than their weaving normally takes. Great results all-round!

Final Summer Workshops

More workshop results to share this week. First Pat (see my post from 4 March 2011) sent me photos of her finished dragon picture which she'd created on a workshop and turned into a wallhanging with extra painted, needle felted and stitched details. Here's her finished wallhanging, plus her design in fleece before felting. Just shows what you can achieve with a finished piece of felt by adding extra surface design on top.

I also made Nuno felt journal notebooks with Jane and Anna, who both made lovely books with interesting extra details (Jane experimented with adding knitting to the fleece and felting that in, and Anna added extra pieces of felt onto her design afterwards for added interest).

Festival of Quilts 2011

Thought you might like to see photos of my first ever art quilt - inspired by the sea, made from hand-made felt, machine-pieced together and hand-quilted with embroidery threads. This is me yesterday at the Festival of Quilts, where I've been going for the last 3 years with my friend Sue. Actually it's all down to her that I made it - after last year she challenged me to enter a quilt as an added incentive to visiting the show. So I registered this April (when the July posting date seemed far away and achieveable!). But with other things going on, not least Open Studios in June, I didn't actually start working on the quilt until July and then spent a frantic week just before the posting deadline getting it finished. 'Never again' I thought, but having been and seen it hanging there I thought it might be nice to try again. So of course I did plenty of shopping at the exhibition for a possible new quilt for next year, which I'm determined to start earlier next time. I'll keep a quilt diary here of how I get on!