Needle felted Gnome

 

 Having finished making Christmas cards and most of the Christmas presents - I had a bit of "me" time, and played with a gnome felting kit I had in my stash.    There will be more! 😀  Gnomes seem to be very on trend this year!

Needle felting: "Daybreak Poppies"

I haven't done any needle felting for a few years, but decided to try out this landscape by Solway Woolscapes.  I had forgotten how much I enjoyed this craft.

There is loads of wool, and fleece left, so I will have to find something else to make

Needle Felted Key Ring

Not a lot I can say about this.  Just a large key ring that I have done some needle felting on,

Felted Pictures

I promised my granddaughters that I would teach them needle felting the other week, having attended a fayre at Brighton, where there was a workshop being held by the person who taught me to felt.  We didn't have time on the day for them to have a try.  So last weekend when they came across for the afternoon, I kept my promise.

landscape with birds, tree and bush (9 yr old)

autumnal landscape (6yr old)

Didn't they do well for a first time?  - and no stabbed fingers!

Work in progress 

Work in progress 

Easter Egg Tree

 A little arrangement for Easter.   Would have preferred pussy willow, but had to make do with hazel twigs from the garden,  albeit there is only one catkin !    I may add some forsythia later in the week.

Painted with pebeo black ceramic paint and gilding flakes added whilst wet.  and a little flower
added with pebeo relief and Fantasy paint.

Felted Egg (last year's make)

Felted Egg ( also last year's make)

Fabric covered egg

and another

and another.

This is first time I have tried to do an Easter Egg tree - Can see I shall have to make/buy something bigger next year, if I keep adding to the eggs.

Playing with Christmas Presents

A needle felted rabbit, made with a kit my daughter bought me

My first production from my new slow cooker that my son bought me - a loaf of bread

tasted quite good

Had fun with the bread - it rose rather well in the proving stage, and I had to scrape some of it off the lid - the next loaf will be half the recipe - lol!

Felted Picture - Part 2

Well here it is - the start of the needle felting.    I am glad I took a picture as it is easier to appreciate what needs doing "at a distance".  I am not happy with the background trees - so will rework those.  (That's the advantage of needle felting - if you don't like what you have done - you just pull it out and start again.  So I could be working on this picture until I am 90!  lol!)

Felted Picture - Part 1

I decided the easiest way to communicate what I am trying to do was to create this little page in CAP. 

 

On Monday we went to our local Craft Community and learned how to make a felted picture.  We had to take a picture with us as inspiration.  Last night we made the background with the wet felting technique, and we have to finish it at home, using needle felting, once the background is dry.  So it will be a case of watch this space - work in progress!

Revamped Felted Egg

I decided that the "faberge" look egg needed a bit more added to it.  So I sewed some seed beads into flowers and stuck those on to the felt, then added a few pearl and diamante gems.

Felted Easter Eggs

 

A while ago we bought some polystyrene eggs from Hobbycraft, having seen a programme on Create and Craft in felting them, and these are my two attempts.

 

Both eggs were needle felted, and then I washed them in hot soapy water, rolled them slightly and then rinsed off in cold water (so a bit like wet felting). 

 

When dried for the one on left I cut out some flowers with a marianne die and some freehand leaves.   Although I used stick-backed felt, the flowers didn't really stick, so glued them on with some matte accents, stuck on some gems for centres, and made a bow and loop which I pinned on with a fancy head pin.

 

For the beaded one - I started with a double ended thread and made the centre four pearls, then threaded on seed beeds and did the strands.  Again a bow and loop added (different colours) and pinned on with fancy headed pin.  To help keep the beads in place, I also pinned the strand of seed beads at the bottom of the egg with a fancy headed pin.

 

I am thinking I might make some more beaded flowers and glue them on to the egg, and possibly add some random pearl gems to it too.

 

 

Wet Felting

Well I have had such fun tonight.  My daughter and I went on a wet felting course.  (Originally I wasn't going to go - but the numbers were down a tad the other week, so I said I would help make them up - am I glad I went!).

We learned how to make a little bowl:

the pot

When we had completed these we did a bit of needle felting and made eggs:

pot and matching egg

As I had already been on the felting course, I just made one egg tonight, but I decided I wanted to make a little flower to go on the bowl - so did a quick free-form flower.  Jay our tutor was really impressed!  (I actually need to finish "needling" the flower - I think I may then wash it to turn it into a wet felt addition, before "needling" it on to the pot.

pot, egg and flower

Ruffle Scarves and Needle Felting

At last our replacement for our missing order of yarn has arrived, and I was able to make this red ruffle scarf over the weekend.  It is not a long one as my Daughter in law, who will be the recipient, didn't want a long one, so I only used half a ball of yarn.

Random dye red ruffle scarf

I also had a play over the weekend with some needle felting.  The leaves were completely "free form*, but I tried an experiment with the flower, by drawing a vague shape on a piece of red felt, and then attaching the wool to that.  I then cut into the shape slightly to make the petals.  I am probably going to add a brooch back to it.

needle- felted flower

Finally, last night I made this scarf, again using half a ball of yarn.  The yarn has knitted (or should that be crocheted) up quite differently to the red one, and is quite a bit shorter.  This could be because when I weighed the ball there was't quite 100 gms in it!  I also had the problem of a join the yarn - or should I say a tied knot join - however, it fell in just the right place and I was able to carry on with the pattern!  I wasn't looking forward to having to cut the yarn and join it as being random yarn it would have meant cutting quite a section out to get the colours to match up!  Fortunately this one is for me and I am happy with the short length.

Shades of brown and cream

I can't remember if I showed a picture of my original scarf, but am showing it again, so that you can see the difference between the various yarns.  This was made from a 150g ball and I got this long one and then a very slightly shorter one out of one ball !