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!

The Peekaboos!

Some Good Market was back in town today. Hillary Simpson, Because I Felt Like It, had posted her newest product: The Peekaboos, on Face Book! She is making these in collaboration with Pottery With A Purpose.

Her cute pincushions caught my eye on Face Book and I just had to see them. Did I get one? Yes! Two of them. One for me and one for Gale. Gale has a gray kitten and her favorite colours are pink and purple so you know which one is for her. Me, the bright red pot caught my attention.

, felti

Here's a few of the items Hillary had today:

Work in Progress - Continued

I finished adding decorative threads, yarns and slivers of fabric to the unfinished piece I showed you yesterday. To keep everything in place, navy tulle was put over the whole thing and then free-motion stitched with Sulky Sliver thread. This thread adds more glitter. Now the fantasy fabric is ready to use in a project.

The bright bits are pieces of bonded Angelina Fibres leftover from stitching out Shimmer Ornaments. Nothing goes to waste!

I also did some stitching to the felted piece. However, that one isn't finished yet.

Oh Christmas Tree

Welcome to December (one day late)! It seems that people are putting up their Christmas Trees earlier every year here in St. John's. As I was driving home last evening, I could see brightly lit trees through the windows. Many houses had the outdoor lights on last week. My house won't be decorated until the master bathroom renovations are completed. That will hopefully be tomorrow. The flooring is going on today. The other bathroom will not interfere with downstairs decorating once the new  tub and surround are removed from my main hallway. We had to open up the wall between the bathrooms to remove the old tub in one room so two bathrooms had to be renovated.

I have been working on some felting as you can see from the photo. The colourful background will eventually become felted tree ornaments. Usually I do several felted sheets and put them aside until they are needed.

To get into the spirit of Christmas (very difficult to do when things are topsy turvy around the house), here are some trees for future projects. I don't know about you, but I like to collect things for reference later as you never know what new ideas emerge.

Many of these projects are quick and easy to do so you might get one done for Christmas!
Enjoy!

• Tree Skirt Poppyprint
• Wall Hanging  Barb Creations
• Advent Calendar Quilt
• Penny Rug Les Petits Points de Boute
• Patchwork Christmas Tree Softie Sewn Up Teresa Down Under
• Mod Tree Wall Hanging May Chappell
• Tree Pouch
• Modern Christmas Trees  Christa Quilts
• Tis The Season Patchwork Pottery
• Christmas Tree Quilt Projects Fave Quilts
• Christmas Tree Package
• Ruffled Ribbon Christmas Tree Tutorial
• Patchwork Navidad 
• Oh, Christmas - Fat Quarter Tree Patchwork Posse

Inspiration

Sometimes it's just nice to sit back and view something a bit different. I like to work on small projects. Here's two examples of my 3-D art pieces: Garden Sewing Box and Treasure's of the Sea.

Below you will also find links to some wonderful 3 - D art work by other textile artists. Enjoy!

Links for some 3-D projects

Jackie's Art Quilts
Erratic Needle
Kathy York's Central Park (amazing video scroll down to the end)
Mad Tea Party
3 Dimensional Flowers by Barb Forrister
Fiber Art by Nancy Schlegel
Textile Artist Village, Lisa Call
Artisun
Evolution of a Teacup
Quilted Vessels of Kay Khan
Fabric Vessel

Books to Inspire

Exploring Dimensional Quilt Art (book review)
Fantastic Fabric Folding by Rebecca Wat
Three Dimensional Applique by Jodie Davis
More Fabulous Flowers by Sharon K. Barker
Fabled Flowers by Kumiko Sudo
The Art of Manipulating Fabric

Projects for Valentine's Day!

If you need a project for Valentine's Day, check out below:

Heart Shaped Zippered Pouch
Mug Rug (So Sew Something)
Hand  Embroidered Heart from Mary Corbet
Lap Quilt
Wool Felt Valentine Tutorial
Valentine Cup Cozy
Valentine Gifts
Heart Themed Patterns

You will also find lots more on my past Valentine posts:
2010
2011
2012

Enjoy!

Book Review # 2

Art in Felt & Stitch - Creating Beautiful Works of Art using Fleece, Fibres and Threads by Moy Mackay, is another one of my Christmas gifts. This book is visually stunning! Moy Mackay (Scottish artist) illustrates how to create beautiful pictures using felt and stitches. She takes you on a journey from start to finish, including the materials and tools you need, in making felted pictorial art. You, too, will end up been inspired to make art!  One of my favorite pieces in the book shows how she makes her sheep - they are delightful!

Enjoy!

Books

While on vacation, I collected a few books and magazines. Take a look! Actually, the Machine Embroidered Seascapes by Alison Holt, was waiting for me when I got back home. I thought I'd include it too. It's an excellent one for those who are into thread painting. The Complete Feltmaking, More ... Texture with Textiles and Needleweaving were purchased at a second hand book store on North Avenue (Wicker Park area of Chicago). The Christmas with Possibilities is bright and cheerful with easy and quick to do projects. They are also easy to adapt to make other Christmas things and not just the ones shown. The Christmas one was a Joanne's purchase with a 50% off coupon. (Love those coupons).

As you can see, I have a variety of interests! Will I ever get the chance to do all in my 'want to do list?!' I can always try. . .
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! 

Canadian Artists - textile & fibre

Today I'm highlighting some Canadian Artists. Please drop by their sites. You won't be disappointed.
Enjoy!

Quilted Textiles of Andree Fredette
Andrea Graham, Feltmaker - Fibre Artist   Blog
Fibre Artworks of Deborah Milton
Patti Morris Fabric Art Designs
Karen Neary, Nova Scotian Quilter
Lesley Turner, Stitch Artist
Nancy Yule, Fibre Artist
Lesley-Anne Green, Fibre Artist
Quilt Matters, Ottawa, Canada
Pippa Moore, quilter, teacher, designer and writer from Vancouver Island

Grab a cup of something while you look around!

Canadian Talent # 1

I've decided to dedicate the next couple of posts to listing some of our Canadian textile/fibre/stitching artists. I think it would be well worth your while to check them out.

• The Needle and Thread Network is hosted in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.
• Karen Henry
• Bethany Garner
• Valerie Hearder
• Laurie Swim
• Lynne Heller
• Andrea Graham - feltmaker
• Maggie Vanderweit
• Greta Kristiansen-Jacobs - quiltmaker
• Linda Palaisy - embroidery

More to come.
Enjoy!

Felting Web Sites

To follow up on the previous blogs about felting, I have a few sites worth visiting. These were recommended by Caroline Lindsay (click on Gallery).

• International Feltmakers Association
• Wingham Wools
• Polly Stirling
• Sheila Smith
• Funky Felter
• Outback Fibers
• Black Sheep Designs
• Ewa Kuniczak
• The Silver Penny
• Patricia Spark
• Lizzie Houghton

Enjoy!

3-D Felting

A few posts ago, I wrote about felting with Caroline Lindsay from the UK. Well, I finally finished the two pieces I did. On the green vase, I put on decorative yarns and seed beads. The bowl has decorative yarns but instead of using beads, I created some French knots using metallic yarn. I am pleased with the results of these two pieces.

Felting with the Embroidery Gals

Caroline Lindsay was teaching day two of the felting course to some of the St. John's Embroidery Guild members today. I dropped in at lunchtime to see what they were doing. Here are photos of the pieces. As you can see, different threads, ribbons, leaves and bits of fabric, were embedded into the felt. Several already had some hand stitching started.

Felting Workshop

The felting workshop with Caroline Lindsay was quite enjoyable and relaxing. Did I say relaxing? The wet felting method was quite the upper body workout. After laying out the wool roving and covering it with silk chiffon, we then rolled it up in bubble wrap. We had to constantly work the felt inside the bubble wrap with our hands. Of course, the felt had to be unrolled and rolled up over and over again. Check out this video clip from Google as it will show you basically what we did. That was the first day.

We took our felted pieces home that night to wash for 30 minutes in the washer and then dry it. I chose to air dry mine as I didn't want it to shrink further.

The second day we started to embellish our piece. Everyone got lots of individual attention and suggestions as to how to finish it. Needless to say, I have yet another workshop piece to finish. However, I will get it done as I quite like this piece.

Thursday, I'm going to make some bowls and vases with Caroline.

Notice how the yellow and hot pink coloured silk overlays changed the colour of the wool roving. The same coloured roving was used for both samples.

Felting

I spent yesterday at a felting workshop with teacher, Caroline Lindsay from the UK. We used a combination of wet felting and nuno techniques to create rich fabrics ideal for hand or machine embroidery. Today, we will be embellishing our pieces with stitching. Here's a sample of her work: