WIP – Textile Artist Trading Card Swap

Being without sewing machine I’m having to put a few projects on hold for now…boo hoo! So no Bloom Bloom Pow this week which I’m a bit sad about (you’re probably thinking what a relief), just hoping I don’t lose …

WIP Wednesday – Progressing with Piecing

I can’t believe how quickly the time goes, it only seems like yesterday that I was last writing this.

Amazingly I’m still going with the Bloom Bloom Pow and I have also been working on some more of the felted balls I mentioned last post.

Up to now I have completed the first Bloom Bloom Pow piecing stage which was surprisingly pain free and actually quite therapeutic. I now have a beautiful pile of patchwork pieces. The starch is a revelation making everything so much easier. Also I could really notice an improvement in my control of the fabric and machine which makes me very happy. I can now stitch fairly fast without the fabric going all over the place…. woo!

Birthday Bags

This month is a month of birthdays so it’s the perfect excuse for more makings …..whether people want them or not!

So far I’ve completed a makeup bag for my boyfriend’s mum, I’m on to yet another purse and trialling some felted things.

This is said make up bag….

I was pretty pleased with this as it’s the first time I’ve been able to make a purse type thing without having to consult the instructions every five minutes.

UFO no 2 – felted purse

UFO, WIP, NFO whatever you want to call it, it’s finished!

To be honest this one hasn’t been in the queue that long, but still it’s good to complete it especially after a poor start.

As usual things didn’t go to plan. I sat down this afternoon with a couple of hours free, thinking that it would be done in one, but it wasn’t to be (no rhyme intended..ha ha).

My intention was to line it, stitch the sides, make the button hole and add the button. Simple no? Well, no.

Lining the felt was fine see…….

I also reinforced the top and bottom edges using the freehand embroidery foot and zig zag stitch. I don’t know if there is a better way of doing this. If there is please let me know.

Experiments in Felting

So………………you know I said that I was going to concentrate on felting for a while, well, I have done some, but concentrating on one thing isn’t something that comes naturally for me, my brain doesn’t like it. You can guess what this means, yes this week I have been mainly sewing…again!

Anyway let’s get to the felting as that’s what I promised. Following the two prefelts I discussed last time I made a few more, this time I managed to keep them plain. I didn’t really know what I was going to do with them as my only real inspiration was the colours themselves which came from watching my daughter doodling the other week using the same pink, green and yellow. I was struck by how beautiful the colours looked together.

Prefelts

Although the last post was sewing again, I did say I was swapping to felting for a bit and mostly that’s what I’ve been doing this week.

As I mentioned in my ‘About’ page felting reignited my passion for making. I love felting because it is so hands on. I love the feel of the felt, the colours, the fact that you can cut it to shape and then layer it up, you can add fabric, needle it, dye it (although I haven’t much tried this) and even mould it into 3D shapes (again something I haven’t really experimented with).  So whilst sewing fulfills my desire to produce something functional for me felting offers freedom and versatility, the activity is an end in itself. Nevertheless, there is no reason why sewing and felting cannot meet both those needs so in the following months I hope to attempt this by combining the two in more experimental pieces.

This week I have been making prefelts to be used once I’ve decided exactly what I intend to do with them. Here are a couple of prefelts prior to felting. They were meant to be plain, but I can’t help myself!

Mmm…..yummy just like clouds of candyfloss.

Sunrise wool tops

Dusk wool tops (bit of a horrid photo, sorry)