More Felty Loveliness

For some reason, I thought that I had already written about this topic.  But whatever, you can never have too much felt loveliness! 
I phoned in to the shop --Periwinkle South, as it were.  (Since I am north at the moment).  Deb and Patti are awash in felt balls.. 
They have unpacked our recently arrived shipment that I ordered from the folks in St.Louis, via Houston at Quilt Market. 
Now they are trying to make a nice display at the shop. 
When I ordered the stuff, I did Not sit down and say, please send  3 of this and 6 of that... NO.  I said to the lovely lady.  "I would like an order in the amount of X,  could you please send us what you think would be a good selection for that amount?"  She said, "Sure".  And that was that..
Except, I wanted to hang around their booth!! 
It was so colorful and inviting....

Nice little felt balls with acorn tops... wouldn't they be lovely in a bowl on the coffee table?

 This is a jewellery board..  It has brooches, and necklaces, and even earrings! 

Yes, I did get a pair of earrings to take home.  Mine are light blue.

 

 Don't they blend well with glass beads, and with other kinds of flat felt and stitching?
 And here we see a version of a Christmas tree!

 And why not make a felt picture to put up in a child's room, or anywhere you'd like a splash of color and softness?

 Those things on the bottom are pin cushion on spools.  I think I need one of those.

 You can see how happy people can get when surrounded by felt!

So now you can see why I call it felt-love. 

some Felty Loveliness

Ready for some felt-love?

Yesterday (and a few other moments here and there) I finished up a few felt projects that I had wanted to do for a little while.  I love working with felt!
First up was a bracelet kit I had purchased in Houston.  I made it primarily to use as a sample at the shop, since I placed a substantial order with the company.  This is a teaser-- you will go bananas when you see it all arrive.

The bracelet was not too hard to make, assuming you have a couple of basic jewellery making techniques, such as opening and closing jump rings,

The main difference between the felt balls made by this company and the previous felt balls we had from the Artgirlz company (which seemed to go out of the felt ball business to pursue other endeavors), is the absence of a hole drilled through the ball.  Instead, you use a large, flat needle that separates the felted wool fibers and opens up a temporary hole for you to poke the wire through.  It took a few tries to get the hang of it, but then it was pretty clear sailing. 

The wire is strung with a couple of other beads, and then the straight end you coil into a spiral.  Then you attach all the little beads, about 50 of them to the bracelet's main chain with jump rings. 

This is my finished bracelet in a tray along with some other felted goodies that I'm gathering together for the display when the order arrives.
After that, I pulled out some green felted wool fabric, and wrapped it around some cardboard cylinders that I happened to have around.

I decorated them quite simply with some scraps of ribbon, and a few felt beads.
And what is that little animal you may be asking???
That little puppy is a needle felted dog!

 He is my first attempt at making a three dimensional figure out of wool roving and a basic single barbed needle.  He took about an hour of poking at the wool, and I only jabbed myself about 3 times.  You have to be really really careful about that!!  He is a bit stumpy, but I like him!
 Finally, do you remember the time when I started to knit a sweater and then had to stop because I couldn't buy any more wool to finish it?  Well, I did NOT rip out the sleeve that I had knitted.  Instead, I have turned it into a purse.

 I added a bit of crochet along the top edge, and sewed up the folded up sides.  There it languished for a month or two --( how time passes!).
 I decided to use this lovely turquoise silk to line it, also adding an iron on interfacing to give it a bit more body.  The lining is definitely necessary so that the bag does not stretch all out of shape>

 When I picked it up by the handle, of course it slumped.  So I merely cut a piece of wood dowel a little shorter than the width, and encased it in another piece of the lining and slip stitched it across the top edge:

 Did you notice the strap handle????
I love it!  It is by Sang Woo company, and it is Detachable!! Yes, you can buy one handle and use it interchangeably on more than one bag.  Brilliant!

 And that concludes Felt Friday for michelle!

Felt Balls

 I have been making felt balls on and off for a while now, as you can see!  They are part of my use up all the tiny little ends of wool project. 

 It is actually sort of meditative to sit and roll yarn into little balls.  And some not so little.

 I did a bit of stitching on this big blue one.  I plan to take most of them to the shop to sell, because not even I need 400 wool balls.  (Or do I?)

 The bright colors do look sort of cheerful against the SNOW outside.  Yes, snow.  However, i plan to leave for Houston in 2 days, so I don't care.  Ha ha .

 Toad still thinks it's autumn.