Whizzing Windmills!

The long hot summer seems a long way off now that the weather has put on its winter coat!

We had a wonderfully warm few days near the Lincolnshire coast in August, however the first day along the prom we were well and truly sandblasted in a stinging gale. 

The pelting sand was like tiny piercing needles.

On our way back to the car on the calmer second day we passed a bucket full of  shiny whizzing windmills whirring and shimmering in the breeze .

I was immediately transported back to childhood holidays by the sea....

These are all made from wetfelted off cuts....

I brought home one of the shiny windmills from the beach shop

....a reminder of  the sea, sand and sunshine!

Happy Birthday!

A very special young lady has a special birthday today

She is a talented textiles student, so her card was made full of colour and texture! 

The back reveals the greeting - rolled and tucked under the bows!

Part of her present is something small and shiny

packed into an extra tiny bag - pass the parcel!

It is made with Blossom stitch from Sarah Hazell's book, packed full of inspiration!

Happy Birthday!

Covering Up!

Several years ago a fabulous and thoughtful friend gave me a Book Journal.

It has been a brilliant resource for recording all those details from most recent reading material that are replaced or confused when new novel excitement kicks in! 

Also it extends the thinking processes whilst recording the raw emotions as the end of a brilliant book is reached.

(This must have started at an early age as I have a childhood copy of Watership Down with an annotated list of rabbit names!)

My mum often makes notes during the books she reads - she had a list of interesting characters from Harry Potter to keep her feet on the ground in the plot! 

For Christmas we gave her a Book Journal in which to keep her notes. Using a hardback spiral bound notebook covered in some handmade felt.

A wet photo! 

Front....

 ...and back

Attached with a loose crochet strap..

 ...and some dodgy stitching...

 the cover is detachable

 ...and intentionally very thin felt to keep the bulkiness to a minimum ..

the silver elastic is an original feature of the book

...its a bit delicate for a cover, but I know it will be well cared for!

Full of memories from crafty projects!

Both Angela and Zed create the most amazing felt book and diary covers, Zed's stitching is beautiful...and there are a wide range of photo tutorials on both blogs....which I am off to check out...

Daisy Daisy...

Earlier this week my friends celebrated their Silver Wedding Anniversary...

I have enjoyed looking back at the photos of their special day and remembering all the happy details!

My friend wore a beautiful lacy dress, 

in our delicate bouquets and hair we had small yellow roses, gypsophila, gentian and ivy.

My Laura Ashley bridesmaids dress had coiled white roses at the back.

The Orders of Service were bound in deep blue sugar paper and inscribed with the groom's beautiful handwriting.

I still cherish the framed coloured pencil drawing of an Ox-Eye Daisy drawn by my friend....

I have sent them my interpretation...

A wet felted background, loomed daisies with needlefelted middles and tiny crocheted gypsophila

Happy Anniversary R and A

Hope you have many more to come!

x

Bits and Pieces!

There have been lots of family events recently,

so a few granny pocket hearts have been hooked for...

...a wedding with Bridesmaids in purple....

....a couple of birthdays....

 

...tiny cards can fit in the pocket pouch...

A new home card also found its was to a family currently surrounded by boxes!

The door, lawn and roof are pieces of wet felted felt!

All contain stashbusted wool or cotton...

30g in total!

Thinking of all the recipients!

x

Egg-spiration!

Really the time for eggy posts has expired, but I do have one more to display, that owes much to two fab felters I follow!

A comment by Zed on one of my posts got me thinking! 

Always up for a challenge, and in the midst of egg making I decided to have a go!

The Felting and Fibre studio have a quarterly challenge, and this year the theme is famous artists.

For the first quarter (which has also eggspired!) the subject was Jackson Pollack.

I am most familiar with his 'drip and splash' style and tried to imagine how this could be transferred to felting a 3d object!

Remembering this flat piece I made last summer and Angela's very helpful comment that I had always wanted to try...

I went ahead with my 'fling and roll' method!

Some colourful scraps (of wool, some acrylic, and cotton,)  from my spring projects 

were chucked haphazardly onto some bubble wrap, 

(on a cloudy day, hence the dull photo!)

A polystyrene egg, with natural shetland loosely needlefelted round it, 

was then rolled firmly through the carpet of scraps 

(using the bubble wrap, a bit like the bamboo mat whilst rolling sushi!)

With many strands sticking loosely to the egg it was stuffed into the doubled hem of some old net curtains, and gently rubbed with olive oil soaped hands to begin to stick the fibres.

When they started to cling, I just wet felted it as usual,

 with warm water, soaped hands, and the occasional firm roll in bubble wrap. 

There were some stubborn fibres that had not stuck quite so well, particularly in the sparsely populated areas, and a few stabs with the needlefelting barb kept them in place.

I am really pleased with the result, it reminds me of all the colours of Spring!

Mr RW appreciated it as his Easter gift too!

Many thanks to Zed and Angela for the continued inspiration and expert advice....

The colourful challenge for this quarter can be found here.....

Egg-citing 2!

Another clutch of eggs has been made,
 for friends and family that we will be seeing over Easter. These are three dimensional light and fluffy!

It all began a couple of years ago with these two characters...

a plan was hatched and below are this years chicken and egg models!

Here are some photos of them in the making!

Each is  formed from a pile of fluff, wrapped round a plastic egg and wet felted.

All the eggs have a secret middle - a contrasting colour with a strand or two of zingy wool!

Sometimes a hint of the contrast migrates through the layers -
making felt is so much fun - the results are always a surprise!

 

Here's the original link for the method..

I based my technique on the hands on method - and added the surprise insides!
 

Some have Wensleydale curls!
 

Once dried the fuzzy shell was cracked (using sharp scissors to form a zig zag shape!)

 

Tweet!

Having found some colour combinations I liked, the fluffy egg theme continued..

Fibre needlefelted onto polystyrene eggs and wet felted by hand...

Believe it or not..these are tiny!

Large ones,
displayed in one of RW Jnrs early egg basket creations - its probably 9years old now, but appears each year replenished with consumable eggs!
 

 

The light blue is hand dyed shetland from Sarah's Texture Crafts..

it has a beautiful bluey green hue..

My hands were lovely and soft as I used olive oil soap from a solid block during the felting process.

The colours look extra zingy when wet!
 

Remember that huge chocolate I had for Christmas?

The contents disappeared very rapidly, and extra deliciously, one weekend  - 

the container is very useful!

Wishing you all moments of thoughtfulness and a very
Happy Easter!