Couple of cushions

 My husband wanted a cushion for a new leather and tweed armchair. I didn't want it to be too feminine, so I chose a large plaid design, to echo the plaid tweed  on the back of the chair. I simply but some pale grey and green shading on the surface of the cream wool, and them lay on some strands of mohair wool to create the lines, before wet felting.

I had made a piece if experimental felt, using circular resists with holes in the middle, between the brown layers  of wool and the top pale yellow shade. Snipping around the outer line of the circles created fluted raised flower like shapes, revealing the brown layer underneath. I needle felted some circles of dark reddish wool into the centres to create the look. 

The piece wasn't really big enough for a cushion, so I stitched it onto some dark red faux suede fabric. 

A new toy...

I cannot resist gadgets. I have treated myself to an embellisher machine. (It's the Janome 725.) For those who haven't a clue what this is, it is a machine which looks a bit like a sewing machine, but uses no thread. It punches the fabrics that you put under it with barbed needles, and meshes the fibres together. You can use felt, and lots of other fabrics and threads.
Now I have to learn how to use it!

First I played around needling some coloured wool onto a white prefelt background. Also bits of silk, and organza, and scrim. 

Some interesting effects, but it is hard to control exactly where the fabric you are adding goes, as the machine tends to pull it in tight as you needle it. I need to practice. 

Then I had a go using shapes cut from leftover scraps of felt I had made. 

This was easier, as the felt pieces already have an integrity and can hold their own under the needles. 

It does give a slightly different effect to wet felting, and you can build a design up bit by bit, layer by layer. 

The gadget queen is happy! 

Tea cosies and pods

My daughter asked for a tea cosy for her new kitchen in her new flat. She likes polka dots, and a bit of glitter, She wants it finishing with a felt bobble on the top, which I still have to do. 

And I thought I'd make another one for some friends we visited for the weekend. They thought it looked a bit like planets on the night sky. 

I like to finish them with a cotton lining. Felt has fantastic insulating properties, and keeps a pot of tea piping hot for ages. 

I had some fun making these pods.

What are the for? you may ask. Isn't it obvious? Suspend them from the ceiling, and they make perfect little homes for air plants!