Helter skelter vase

This felt wrapped vase reminds me of the helter-skelter rides I used to go on at the fair when I was a little girl. I can still feel the excitement of climbing up the dark interior and the prickly coconut mat they gave you at the top before you whooshed down the smooth metal slide.

I felted a thin layer of lilac wool directly onto the bottle, until it just started to hold together, then, still wet,  I wrapped a strip of Sellotape in a spiral around it all.  Over this I layered some white Icelandic wool, and felted it using my hands and bubble wrap.
When it has sufficiently shrunk around the bottle, I could feel where the sellotape resist was, and snipped along it with sharp scissors, and pulled it out. I pushed back the cut edged as it dried to reveal the lilac under felt.
It looked a bit plain, so I decorated with toning beads.

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. 

Tea time!

I needed a large tea cosy for our house in France, and was really pleased with how this simple, bold poppy scene turned out. 

I used some dyed merino in soft greens and blue-lilacs, and then added some wisps of  silk. The poppies were cut out of lightly prefelted red merino, and the stems were knitting wool. The whole thing was made around a plastic resist cut from a supermarket bag. It seemed huge, but I worked hard rolling it in a bamboo blind until it had fulled and shrunk down to the right size. It's lined with purple cotton. 

Felt is the perfect material for a tea cosy as it insulates so well and I know I am going to get a lot of pleasure from this one. 

Here is the other side - 

Round my house

Some pictures I took around my house this evening.

A vase of flowers

I came across this painting by the French artist Odilon Redon (1840-1916) and something about it made me wonder how it might transfer into felt. 

So I lay out a background in blended colours and lightly needlefelted it to hold together. I cut out the vase from a piece of black prefelt and needled that in place. I then "painted" in the flowers and leaves by needling in wisps of coloured wool. I had to blend together colours to get them right. Then I covered the whole thing in gauze and gently wetfelted it between sheets of bubble wrap. 

Now it needs some stitching highlights. 

Et voila!

A card with love

Well everything seems to have happened last weekend - the marriage of our son, and the birth of a little girl to my godson and his wife. I made this card to welcome her. The machine quilting puffs up the heart in the centre.I was not very creative in thinking of a baby motif, but the softness of the felt makes it seem appropriate.

Bunting!

Happily busy sewing miles of bunting for Adam (my son) and Hilary's wedding, which promises to be very colourful! Sewing a prayer for their happiness into each triangle. 

This is the template I used.