Spring into a Project!

Today was a gorgeous, warm, spring day with the birds twittering in the trees and new growth in my garden. At least I hope spring is finally here as we woke up to an inch or so of snow on the ground yesterday. However, by lunch time it was all gone.

We have had more snow this year than the previous three winters since moving to Nova Scotia in 2017. The up side (if you can call it that), there was no wind to speak of. Of course, coming from St. John's, NL, that is no joke. According to a CBC report a number of years ago, St. John's takes 3rd place for having the most wind on the planet. In fact, I bought my first jacket without a hood when I moved here. 

Anyway, I'm a bit off topic but such is life! In February, I needed a spring like project and settled on Birds of a Feather from Kim Schaefer's book, Cool Cotton & Whimsical Wool Quilts. This book has 12 contemporary folk-art projects using colourful whimsical characters. The largest wall quilt in the book is only 20 1/2 x 20 1/2 inches, so very doable. Unless, of course, you decide to do your own thing! Which I did.

I don't have my Birds of a Feather finished yet and the next photos show why.  I decided to use this piece as an embroidery sampler. In other words, I'm hand stitching every leaf and critter with a different set of stitches. Instead of using felt for the branches, I embroidered them with pearl cotton. I still have a fair amount left to do but I'm pleased with the results so far. It keeps me out of trouble in the evenings.

 

 

Here is  the stitching so far.

 

This will eventually be quilted and hung on the wall for spring. However, at this time, I'm not sure which spring that will be. When it's completed, I'll post more about it.

Have a look at these links:

• Buzzworthy is a cute free pattern using wool felt applique
• Lots more ideas from Pinterest HERE
• Check out the felting HERE.
• Hungry anyone! 
  

Enjoy!

Still Here

No, I haven't given up on blog posting. Trying to keep busy but not necessarily working in my studio.
We've taken up bread baking since been confined to the house. There is a shortage of yeast so bread baking maybe short lived!

 

The clothes line was fixed after it broke last fall so I am enjoying hanging clothes out instead of using the dryer.

 

A pair of ducks paid us a visit after a heavy rainfall a couple weeks ago. This kept me amused for awhile.

A new shimmer has been designed but that's as far as it goes. You will have to wait and see what it is. About a dozen sheets of shimmers have been stitched on my machine this month.

Another Reversible Fibre Lace Scarf was just completed.

I decided to join in with a 90 day insta stitch with Sue Spargo. There are 90 one inch felt circles stitched onto a felted background. I decided to use a bit of boiled wool coat fabric for this. As you can see, I'm about 17 days late starting as # 17 was introduced this morning. It's a cute bee. I have to get busy.

  
Here's the first embroidered circle Sue introduced so you get the idea. Each one will be entirely different.

My first circle is green. I will be using a combination of Valdani and Sue Spargo threads.

Enjoy!!

Road Trek

Friday was a beautiful sunny, warm day. As I was left to my own devices, I decided to take a road trek! My first stop was to Avonport Discount Fabrics in Nova Scotia. I wasn't looking for fabrics but I did spy some 100 % wool felt. Some of my future ideas will be using different coloured felt.

Wolfville was my next stop. This is a pretty little town and the home of Acadia University. I walked along the main street dropping into many shops. Lunch was eaten on the patio of a Greek restaurant. Delicious!!

Windsor was my final destination. The shopping was good there too but nothing craft related.



Bay of Fundy, tide is out!

 



Fabric Flowers

It's suppose to be spring! However, today we had a light sprinkle of snow, then freezing rain and finally rain. Certainly not weather for growing flowers. My poor crocuses! I noticed that one of the houses further up my street set up their Christmas lawn ornaments again - yes, the weather has been that bad.

So, I figure, if the garden isn't up to producing blooms yet, why not make some from fabric.
I found a few ideas to check out.

• Zipper Flower Tutorial
• 20 Different Fabric Flowers
• Felt Fun
• Fabric Daffodils
• Frayed Fabric Flower
• Embellished Flower Tutorial
• Tissue Paper and Tulle Flower Tutorial
• Felt Flowers
• Rickrack Flowers 
• Rick Rack Roses
• Easy Fabric Flower Tutorial
• Sheer Blooms
• Sheer Blooms ll Tutorial  (check out the other flower tutorials)
• Organza Flowers
• Chiffon Flowers
• Crinoline Tattered Roses
• Wired Ribbon Flower
• Rolled Ribbon Flowers
• Velvet Blossom

Here's a small wall hanging I did a number of years ago called Thistles. It's from Fabled Flowers by Kumiko Sudo. I believe this was my first attempt at Sashiko stitching.

Needle Felting Fun

Now it's time to have a look at what I did with the yarns I showed you on Saturday. The various decorative yarns were laid out on a green sheet of felt. These will eventually become Christmas tree ornaments as you can see in the photo. I have experimented with the yarns going in a straight line as well as in a wavy pattern. Some of the trees made before Christmas also had some beading on them. One in particular, was decorated with the glue on crystals. That was a very glittery tree. I will be experimenting with different shapes in the near future.

Yarn Forward

I visited Yarn Forward on Hazeldean Rd. Kanata, the other afternoon. They have a variety of yarns, knitting needles, pattern books and accessories. I did purchase a couple of balls of yarn that caught my eye! It's called Drake and is made in Italy. I will use it in probably use it in some felting project. I met a very talented artist, Francine Hebert, at the shop. She showed me some of her shawl pins that were on display. Please check out her blog.

From Ewe to You

I was out walking this morning in Lower Sackville, Nova Scotia, and found a great little yarn shop called From Ewe to You. The owner is Rachel Hooper. Her shop has beautiful yarns. Of course I was drawn to the glittery stuff. She also has fun projects and patterns, needles and knitting accessories, books, gifts (some made by local artists), as well as some felting supplies. Here's some photos of the shop. The second photo shows a knitted shawl that has been blocked to the correct size. Enjoy!

Needle Felting

This morning was spent packaging some of my card sets for retail. I also have a new set from the last four commissioned pieces I've done. Those still have to be printed. Now I'm 'playing' around with my needle felting machine. I need to get some felted sheets ready to make some art cards and wearable art pins. HERE's a video on machine needle felting. Tips for machine needle felting can be found on Linda Matthews blog HERE.

• I started out with a piece of dark gray felt which I covered with different colours of wool roving and decorative yarns. 
• Next, I let my felting machine / embellisher do the work! This machine takes the place of doing it the hard way - by hand! 
• Using Sulky Sliver thread, I free motion stitched over the entire sheet of embellished felt.
• The sheet was trimmed and cut into 2 1/2" x 2" pieces.
• Each piece was taped to a blank card, initialled and packaged.

It's difficult in a photo to see the glitz in the Sliver thread but the cards pop! 

Make It In March

I decided to post some Christmas in July ideas for the month of March! It seems I'm always a bit late posting for various holidays. This time, I consider myself the early bird for gift ideas to make for Christmas. I probably won't have time to make anything this early but some of you might be searching for gifts to make.

100 Holiday Crafts

Whimsicals Threads (ideas)
Christmas Projects
Free Christmas Quilt Patterns
Christmas Ornament Tutorial
Felt Ornaments
Wee Folk Art free patterns
Wonky Whimsical Christmas Tree
Festive Felt Christmas Trees

Of course, here's a few links from my previous posts for Christmas stuff:
Here, Here, and Here
Enjoy!

A Gem of a Find!

Bugs and Fishes by Laura "Lupin" Howard, UK, came to my attention today. One of the embroiderers (thanks Jewel) tagged it as a place to visit for a free cross stitch heart brooch. However, Laura's site has lots of other interesting handmade felty things too. Yes, she works mainly in felt.  Laura shares lots of free projects and writes tutorials for various craft publications. I own a copy of Fa la la la Felt in which she has original designs for a Gingerbread House; Star Bright; Cherry & Bright, a christmas stocking and Layer Play, a rainbow of circles ornament. Her own published book is Super-Cute Felt.
Why not drop by her site for a visit. You won't be disappointed!
Enjoy!