Some like it hot.....

A tea-loving friend asked me to make her a capacious tea cosy to accommodate a large teapot. 

I used 3 layers of merino wool around a resist and decorated the final layer with green, shading through grey to lavender at the top.  Before felting I added an elongated tuft of roving to the pointed top which I rolled into a rope. The final decoration was a couple of white silk hankies laid on top to give a cloud-like effect, and some shine. 

The whole was well felted and fulled - a tea cosy needs to be hard wearing. Before drying I coiled the rope at the top. 

I decided to hand embroider some simple seedheads on each side. 

I neatened the bottom edge by curling it in and hand stitching. I then added a cotton lining. Choosing a brownish colour was deliberate, as it does not show the tea stains! 

A few more quick cards....

 I used the embellisher machine to make some colourful, rather moody backgrounds, using mainly merino wool, with some silk and a little sparkly fibre.

Using black thread, I machine sketched some seed heads, without trying to be too exact.

I added a few small beads as stars, for just a touch more textural interest.
Then I used the glue gun to stick them on to the cards. 

I am back again...at last

It has been a very long time since I posted anything. We have moved from Belgium to England, to Suffolk, and spent a year working on our old barn. This has included building an extension, and in the roof space of this I have a beautiful room to use as a studio! What a lucky girl I am.

All this space is so intimidating! I have not done much yet - just a  few little pieces of felt, machine embroidered with seedheads, to make into cards. 

What I really need now is a course to follow, to give me some development, techniques, challenges and discipline. If anyone knows of anything in the Suffolk area, or even on-line, please let me know, 

Miniatures

I am back in Belgium after a wonderful August in SW France.

I am thrilled and excited that a few people have started to follow this blog, and leave comments. I am beginning to realise that there is a whole community of felters around the world, many of whom blog, and we can all share and encourage each other.I've also joined http://feltingforum.com

Penny from Fibrefrolics suggested that I make some brooches based on the seedhead cards I did earlier  , so I did. I made some tiny sunset landscapes - about 4cm x 6cm,  

and then decorated them with machine embroidery, using black and metallic thread. 

I have also discovered that you can draw designs on watersoluble vilene, use that as a guide for free machine stitching,  then just dissolve it away - magic.

I think these are fun, and will sew brooch pins on the back. 

Now with French knots

I liked the little card so much, I tried it again.

Here is the little piece of felt ... a bit boring...

...to which I added machine embroidery, and tried out some french knots. I had no idea how to do them, and couldn't follow written instructions, but found a little video which made all clear. They are quite addictive!
Do they look more like dandelion seed heads?

There - I'm on a roll - I've made three now. 

Cow Parsley Card

I wanted to try out "doodling" with free-motion machine embroidery, so started with this very simple outline, to add texture to a small piece of felt (merino, with wisps of silk). The sunset is a bit cliched, but somehow the naive wobbly stitching  seems to add charm.  I highlighted the flowers in silver. It looked a bit dead at the bottom, so I stitched a couple of green grassy clumps. 

I like the way the stitching gives a quilted depth to the texture. I stitched it onto a card, which I think I will send to my sister.