Felting Fest

It's surprising how much you can get done when you have a few hours undisturbed by male company. Actually got round to lifting out my embellisher and had a felting fest. I finished off most of my UKEmbellisher swaps in one go. Admit to having given them some thought before I started doing any work and had made backgrounds already for one or two pieces. My usual working practise is to plunge right in and see what developes. This is the notebook cover I made for Liz. I got the idea of using a colouring book as a design source then decided to try embroidering out a redwork design using my embroidery machine and colouring it in with the embellisher. I'm quite pleased with the result and will definitely try out this technique again. Should have said that only two flowers were on the actual design and when I'd finished it was too large for the front of the notebook and too small for the whole jacket. So I traced the larger flower onto paper and used it as a template. I sewed the outline of the third flower onto the background and coloured it in with the embellisher. This works just as well, if not better than using the embroidery unit.
This is the book front, I decided to add some ribbon tails to act as page guides. The cover is loose so it can be reused.

Next came the Four Season's swap using background fabric's I made earlier (sounds like Blue Peter) using wool tops and yarns. I tried to indicate the seasons by the colour combination but somehow they just looked wrong. I also wasn't sure what to do with them once I'd finished. I thought of atc but Amanda had already done that, then thought book cover but I'd already done that and so had Ati. Needle cases came to mind. I embellished the backgrounds onto felt and sewed in the needle/pin pages but they looked unfinished. I decided to embellish them further with beads. I was enjoying this so much that I was in great danger of overdoing it, sometimes I find it difficult to know when to stop.


The photos are actually in the wrong order but I doubt it matters, below then is Winter, Autumn, Spring and Summer needle cases.
By then I was in full swing and finished the 3 brooches for the Brooch Swap. Like the needle cases I'd made the background fabric some time before but had no clear idea of what I was going to do with them. After rummaging through some of my stock of bits and pieces for inspiration I found a face I'd printed onto fabric and a lace butterfly I'd made sometime last year. These odds and ends really do come in handy. Behold Butterfly Goddess was born. The others two just developed as I went along. Not sure who is going to get which pin as I will just close my eyes and pop them into the envelope. Hope you will like them ladies.
Keith's MRI scan has been brought forward to Monday, not his appointment to see the consultant but at least he'll get the test out of the way and perhaps he'll feel a bit better about things. He started back to work this week full-time but is finding it difficult. I just hope they can do something for him once they have the results of the scan available.

There is a big bonefire party in the local park tonight put on by the council. It's usually very good and well organised but I think this is one year we won't be attending as it's too far for Keith to walk. Guess we'll watch from the bedroom window. Hope everyone has a good, safe Guy Fawkes night.