Felting Process

     This is a project that I worked on last week and actually took some pictures along the way.

    After pulling my silk hankies out of the fibers box, I chose a bright green piece with some reddish tints running through it; I wanted to make something that looked like Spring  (I know it's still snowing back in Michigan even though the temps in AZ are hovering in the high 80s).  After settling on my color scheme, I selected several hanks of green wool roving, hand-dyed scrim, green, red, and blue yarn scraps, and finally some green organza.

First , I spread three shades of green wool roving across a piece of Rit-dyed cotton batting.

          

     Here is the piece after felting down all of the various selections of fiber.  The left side has been left without embellishment because it will become the back of a journal.  On the right, I have conciously laid out a pattern of red and blue flowers using bits of yarn.  If you click on the photo, you will also be able to see where I have sewn down organza leaves along the vines.  I free-motion stitched across the entire piece using an easy leaf pattern.  It is now ready to be trimmed and edging applied before being stitched into a journal.

And here is the finished journal.



It's Done

      I shouldn't really say it's done since the "hangers" and the leaves are just pinned on, but I wanted to see how it looked before doing the hand work.  This piece is different from anything I've ever attempted.  I started with a pretty vague idea after looking at some photos of eucalyptus trees taken at UCLA last March with my grandson.  I loved the colors and texture of the bark.  Later, as I was reorganizing my fiber drawer I and came across two packets of silk "stuff" that whispered an idea .  . .   I'm calling it "Eucalyptus Dreams."

       The leaves were constructed by sewing leaf shapes on two layers of bamboo batting, cutting them out and then painting them with grayish shades of green.   I hand sewed the clusters together with linen thread.  Puzzling out how to hang the piece sent me to a nearby arboretum;  I came home with several pieces of fallen eucalyptus branches.  (The other pieces are sitting outside waiting--perhaps a series?)