Mo'Man

NO, I didn't misspell the title! My little granddaughter can say 'snow' and 'man' but when she puts them together, it turns out mo'man. She is totally into the snow thing so I decided to make one for her.

I sketched out several images and decided on a front facing one. The black hat is cut from a piece of my 'fantastic' fabric. I used a black base and layered it with different yarns and fibres. Then it was stitched with black Sulky Sliver thread. I also used white felt and scraps of batiks.

Enjoy the links to other snowmen!
Free snowmen patterns from With Heart and Hands
Snowman
Seasonal Series
Quilt Inspiration - lots of snowmen
Snowmen Ornaments
Holiday Patterns for Embroidery - some snowmen
Ho Ho Snow

Before stitching

After stitching

Mo'man

Len's Mill Store

While visiting London, Ontario, I paid a visit to Len's Mill Store. They wouldn't permit any photos to be taken. I entered the shop and didn't know which way to turn as there was everything under the sun, from clothing, food, dry goods, tools, crafty stuff, yarns and fabrics to furniture.

After looking from left to right and all around, I discovered the yarns and accessories / patterns to the right. Yes, I did purchase a few decorative balls of yarn for surface embellishment. Next to the yarns, were the decorator fabrics. A quick walk through this area brought me to the quilting section. All the cottons were arranged by theme such as cats, dogs, coffee, tea, wildlife, butterflies, Asian, batiks, . . . you get the idea. Again, I made a few small purchases of batiks and glittery fabrics.

There was everything you could ever need for sewing and quilting, including tools and other notions (some of the things were very dated, while others were new) - a one stop shopping experience! It was very warm in the building as there was no air conditioning so I didn't linger too long. The outside temperature was 32C and climbing and it seemed just as warm inside!

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! 

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.