Bangles and Baubles ....

I make no apology for using a similar header photo from last time, as I have been continuing with the felt work this weekend. Refining the process of creating the bangles is a delight, as more and more ideas emerge. I have been feeling a bit under the weather, both meteorologically and physically, lately, and have needed the 'colour fix', and felt has certainly fitted the bill!

So more pincushions have arrived, giving opportunity to mix colours and create texture with chunky stitching and appliqué.

Ideas buzzing in my head for decorating the bangles. Still debating to bead or not to bead!

A change from the bright primaries, more of a 'woodland vibe' with these, and using a smaller core.

Also I have designed another large angel panel - it uses a LOT of felt but I love the effect of the layers.

I start with a design on freezer paper. Then I colour the outline of each layer so I can see which one to cut in which felt. This is the 'master copy'. I then trace, again on freezer paper, each layer seperately, and cut them out, iron onto the appropriate colour felt, and cut out.

When I layer the felt pieces up there are often minor adjustments to make. I'm starting to think now, about how each piece will be embellished, and time is spent very happily making my selection of threads.

Here you can see the start I've made on the wings. I try and do as much embroidery as possible on just two layers, to avoid trying to get the needle through too much felt.Also, it's easier to manipulate smaller pieces.

I also finished the Wingèd Heart which you saw as cut pieces in the previous post.

So there it is. And I shall be stitching today as well. Though I wouldn't want you to think I have been neglecting the shopping / housework / mum stuff/ ironing .......oh, well, perhaps I have neglected the ironing, but there's no change there! I hope you have kept yourselves warm and happy over the cold weekend.

Feltastic!

I hope you are going to enjoy a burst of colourful felty fabulousness to brighten up this miserable November morning! I am suddenly consumed by a passion for felt, and have been stitching away for the past few days and no let up in sight! My threads are tangling again ......

.... but as it is Work In Progress I think I'm excused. I'm heavily into a tactile and colour sensory overload and it's brilliant! Of course, I've been working on the pincushions for a while now, so there's nothing new there, and you will remember my Angel and Wingèd Hearts  (need to make some more)

Gloria was begun at a Madeline Millington workshop quite a few years ago, and of course, as it is more or less a Madeline design I cannot sell her, nor copy her for sale. But I have been working on some designs of my own and hope to get round to making them up some time soonish. (Oooh, can you spot something rolled up at the back there? I have rediscovered my rag-rug work!)

The Wingèd Hearts are my own design - well, an adaptation of a very old image really, it's been around a long long time. I know one went to Penny  and Victoria bought one ...I must have sold them all so need to replenish.

But something else has been nagging away at the back of my mind for ages. I've been interested in African wrapped and coiled jewellery for some time - again, texture and colour, very attention grabbing. And lately I've seen a lot of jewellery made from felted wool; I love the effect of felted wool but just don't want to go down the wet-felting route, or even the needle-felting route, come to that. So I had to devise a way of utilising my felt and wool felt to make the coils I wanted. So, remember those felty worms from the last post? This is what they were destined to become!

I have to say I am pretty pleased with them. It took a while to work out how to make the base coil, and the 'faff factor' is quite high. But each one I made I refined the process and think I have just about got the hang of it now.

The embellishment part is the fun bit - but even here there are improvements to make and different effects to discover.

I shall be experimenting with various embroidery, and am debating whether to add beads. I do have the odd bead stashed away, as you might have guessed! The bangles are less chunkier looking when worn than it appears from the photographs, but I might experiment with various size cores.

So there you are, last post's mystery solved! I'm chuffed with them, hope you like them too!

Thread Drift

Hello again, I hope your weekend is going well and you haven't suffered much weather-wise. We had a tremendous wind-storm last night I'm surprised the tiles are still on the roof! But today is chilly, windy but SUNNY! Hoorah, I can bear it if the sun shines.

Right, I'm afraid after the quilty loveliness of the last few posts this is going to be sadly disappointing, but it does come to you from the vasty depths of my sewing room, which is a little tidier than when you last saw it. Not much, but I am making an effort. Part of that effort was Sorting Out my Threads. This delightful displacement-activity, the kind us procrastinators just love, has occupied my time for a whole afternoon. And look! I saved a whole bucketful of thread scraps! Oh come on, don't tell me you don't too - long enough to come in useful but not long enough to wind round a skein. Any way, my current thread storage was getting past it, and I needed to tidy things up as well. My stranded embroidery floss is in one of those purpose -made plastic folders and is staying there. I'm not going to show it to you because .erm .......it's a bit messy. But it is sorted. Ribbon thread, slubs, metallics and oddments are in plastic boxes. But the rest I had been keeping in zippered plastic envelopes. This had worked for years but the zips were going and the plastic looks old and faded. (I know the feeling)

DMC Perle 5 and 8

Hand-dyed mostly variegated soft medium cotton.

Hand-dyed silk

Hand-dyed variegated 4-ply cotton - mostly from 21st Century Yarns (some from when they were 20th Century!)

          A mixed bag here - I can see silk, soft cotton, and some interesting twisted threads in there.

                   More silks and soft cotton here - why they are in the same bag I don't know.

          Oh my goodness  these gorgeous jumbo silk threads - I will use them one day, I really will!

       Hand-dyed perle cotton, form a variety of sources but Oliver Twists and 21st Century probably

And these tangled hanks have been hanging around for years. You buy them at Quilt Fairs thinking you will use them but never get round to it. Because they are in such large hanks. So I unravelled......

......and EVENTUALLY arrived at this nice, usable little collection of various weights of thread and wools.

And then, having ditched the tatty plastic envelopes, I sorted the threads into their new storage place.

So there we are, all tidied away and gone are those big hanks, the threads now sorted and accessible. To any of you who might possibly think this is an excessive amount of thread to keep in one house, I will say that it has been collected over at least a fifteen year period, and it does get used! To the left of the above photo you can see another set of plastic drawers, which contains all my other sewing threads: machine sewing, machine embroidery threads, household sewing threads ..... again, collected over many  years.

So with everywhere nice and tidy I am enjoying using the space again. Nothing wildly exciting at the moment, just a few more wool pincushions on the go, and ..... well, you can see in the lower corner some interesting felt shapes worming their way into the photo. No, I'm not telling you yet. I'm just having some fun with an idea.......

........ watch this space!

Until next time.

Another Textile Jaunt

Some very enjoyable textile stuff has been happening recently here at Textile Treasury. We've had the Kentucky Quilt Collection at Fakenham the other week. Then during my time in Wales came the visit to Lampeter to see Jen Jone's Welsh Quilt Collection with the Kaffe Fassett Exhibition. On my return I went to Swaffham to see Liz Nally's North of England and Welsh Antique Quilt Collection - coincidentally meeting up again with Jane Clarke, whose Open Studios I visited last year. More of Jane's exploits in an upcoming post! And to cap the month off I spent a brilliant day yesterday with Stitch and Bitch friend Yvonne at a very special studio over the other side of the county.

First, though, I'd like to tell you about a Blog Swap I made with lovely Els from the Netherlands. Els liked my wool pincushions and asked about doing a swap for one of her mandalas. I thought this was a Good Thing so the swap was a done deal. I think  the pincushion I sent to Els is the one in my header photograph.

 This is my mandala which Els drew and coloured - can you see the fiddle, and the singing bird - the Firebird, and some folky flowers, and journal flowers. And also a little image of - yes! Me!! So a very personalised mandala which I love - thank you so much Els.

So, back to Saturday's Textile Jaunt. Yvonne belongs to a group of Rug Hookers who meet monthly in a little village over the more easterly side of the county, called Swanton Novers. Meetings are hosted by Jane-Ann at her beautiful home and studio on the edge of the village. I had met her and one or two of the group at Yvonne's Open Studio earlier this year, and had been invited along to a meeting. Now I love rag rugs. You know I do. You've seen my attempts and my two purchased items. I fully intended to spend the day getting to grips with my 'bird' seat cover. I'm so embarrassed to admit - I can't find it anywhere! The bird has flown! However, I was allowed in and permitted to stay, and got on with some other stitching, but oh! I must find that bag before next month's meeting!

I know. Aren't you jealous? I'm so green I could run for parliament on the ecology ticket! Here you see, l-r  Jane-Ann, Yvonne, Red, kettle in hand, and Nadine.

Everywhere I looked there was evidence of Jane-Ann's prolific talent in many crafts, particularly textile-based, but with special emphasis on rug-hooking.

Sorry, this photo does not want to right itself; it is the seat cushion partnered to the next photograph.

This wonderful old hexagon quilt top was purchased by Jane-Ann at a textiles fair recently. Isn't it fascinating? There was much discussion on how/whether to launder it. The brochure reading  "FRAYED" above relates to an exhibition showing in Great Yarmouth between now and March, I'm hoping to get along to see that.

And look what I spied hanging on the wall near the door ...... a genuine Janet Bolton! Yes. and no, I didn't walk out with it!

All in all it was a very productive day for everyone. Much of the talk centred around the forthcoming craft fair "Made in Norfolk" at Swanton Novers Village Hall on Saturday 16th and Sunday 17th November 10-4 and 11-4. The post code is NR24 2RB and this is its third year. The work of the group will be much in evidence, and I think Red in particular was instrumental in getting the fair up and running in the first place. (Correct me if I'm wrong!) I'm under the impression that the craftspeople will be displaying and hopefully selling quite high-end items, so if you are within driving distance, do pop along, you won't be disappointed.

                                        Jane-Ann completed her hooky bird in the day.

                                                            The group hard at work.

                                 Yvonne dashing away at her sunflower - isn't it gorgeous?

And I completed three pincushions to 'stuffing level' and worked on my up cycled cardigan. I've become quite excited by 'altered clothing' at the moment - probably started off by my Boro-style Molly Coat - and I have been embellishing this 6-7 year old cotton cardigan. I think I might change the elbow patches a little, but I'm quite pleased with the felted diamonds. The cardigan is a lovely soft green, which unfortunately hasn't photographed in true colour.

Here it is at home, you can see the shade a little better perhaps. I think it is my habit of mending moth holes in woollens with velvet patches which has led me down this 'altered' path. I've seen some very exciting examples on pinterest. Watch this space!

So thank you Jane-Ann and everyone who made me so welcome, and big thanks to Yvonne for taking me. I promise to be hooking next time!