Rainy Saturday Afternoon

It's been such a long cold winter for many, that I know some are envious of our rain. Some say it beats having to shovel snow, but in the snow you don't get as wet. One dog walk -even with a long raincoat- and I have to hang my rain coat, rain hat and jeans up to dry. So here I am in my Pjs just chillin.

For a change of pace I decided to pull out my needle felting supplies and see what. I came up with. Needle felting is when you take a barbed needled and poke it into wool roving (carded but unspun wool) until it "locks" together forming one solid, compact object.

Today I decide I would make a standing rabbit:

Felted Bowl

here's a finished project - it's a wet felted bowl made with dark purple wool, accented with pieces of silk fibre:

Cream Felt Hats

here are the two wool felted hats that I made:

I used two different yarns to see which felted better. My mom had found a buyer for one and was going to keep the other one for herself. It's possible I might start making a few more of these, although knitting first and then felting isn't usually the best way to go when making a felt hat.

Charcoal Felted Bowler

Here's a photo of the dark charcoal felted bowler I made just before New Year's: 

This was a custom order. Then she changed her mind and wanted a cream coloured hat instead. Back to the drawing board (and yarn shop!)

A finished project - mini matryoshka

Remember the magazine I received in the mail the other day? I've already made something from it!

I didn't have the colours to make the little mermaid that was on the cover (I'm still itching to make it), so I made this little matryoshka instead (their samples are on the top right of that same magazine cover):

Quickie camera photo but you get the idea - not too bad for materials on hand, if I do say so myself. Here's a little gallery of some other interpretations of matryoshkas

That was fun. I think I'll be making more felt-y items. And I learned that I am much better at the blanket stitch (the stitch that runs around the outside) than I thought I was. That's a very good thing.

One thing makes me happy, and one thing makes me sad

This makes me sad: 

What is it? It's the dead trunk of my curly willow tree. It's about 10 years old and it just died. It started out this spring with leaves as it normally does and then suddenly nothing - it just dried up. I don't know if some mole ate the roots or what - we had a pretty normal wet/sunny spring - all I can think of is the six weeks of dry weather we had last summer - maybe I let it get too dry - but then why it leafed out this spring I have no idea. Now, it's dead and I just couldn't stand looking at the brown dried up leaves any longer, so I cut off all the dead branches to lessen the reminder. I had to leave the trunk as it was just so pretty and decorative. I've always loved the curly willow for it's lovely shape - so I guess I'll be on the hunt for a new one. Still, I am sad it's gone.

When we were kids, we lived in some of the more remote areas of British Columbia and people had larger yards and they had willow trees. As kids we loved to play under the canopy of the branches, hidden in a secret world - away from the prying eyes of adults who would tell us what not to do! (kids perception). Several years ago I found out that my brother (the one who's 3 years older than me) also has a fondness for willow trees. I guess he had the same happy memories as I did. Unfortunately since those days it's been said that a normal willow tree should not be planted too close to your house and the roots love moisture and end up damaging your house's foundations and underground plumbing. And most of us now live in city lots where it's much too dangerous to have a willow tree so close to our houses.  Curly willows are smaller and don't have the same reputations so I extra enjoyed this tree in my yard.

Yes I hung a garden sign on it. I'm thinking of decorating the shapely trunk with maybe other signs or maybe a solar light or two. If I can't enjoy the tree, maybe I can still enjoy it's pretty curly/curvy trunk?

*****

Meanwhile, this came in the mail today all the way from England:

It makes me happy. I just love needle felting and sewing with felt sheets. I know - you wouldn't know it, since I rarely make things with felt these days. This magazine lights my fire and inspires me. Maybe now you will see more things from me made with felt.

Normally I buy digital editions of magazines, but I just knew I needed this in the paper format - and boy was I right ( I should be, after all, since it's myself I am talking about! LOL) I want to make, make, make.

Alien Friendship Hat

This is my Alien Friendship Hat  - it's so you can always have your little friend with you - but what's unique is how much of him you'd like to share and who you'll share him with.

 Roll the rim all the way up and he's hidden so only you know he's there...

 or roll it down and let him be visible..

 

If someone sees him and you didn't want them to, you can always roll back up the

 rim and deny he was ever there is the first place... 

What? I don't have an alien on my head. What are you talking about? 

Are you feeling okay? 

The top is crocheted, the ribbing is knit and the alien is needle felted. The alien is stitched on by his mouth and bellybutton (yes, my aliens have bellybuttons, don't yours?). I may consider writing up the pattern, if you're interested let me know. 

We can rebuild him

This weekend I took a break from my baby photography prop making and decided to do some needle felting. First up was a remake of a past project. And of course with the mention of the past, there is always a story - isn't there? The bear was first made in 2008 - and in order to show you what he started out to be, I went searching through my blog to find the picture. I didn't count on coming across the sad story of my dog Jazz (just skip past that part about her) but it was interesting to see how much better I am at needle felting, at least I think I'm better.

Anyway.... back to the original story. I made the little blue bear for my mom and she had been using him daily as a reminder to take her pills, she'd move him on top of her pill container at night so the next day she could easily remember  if she took them or not  - you know how days can sometimes blend together when you're not working, that's why so many people use those little plastic containers with the days of the week on them (I bet you have one in your house right now).  One day the little blue bear fell off the table where a curious schnauzer investigated it, and next thing you know the little blue bear only had 1 leg. My mom mailed him back to me and asked me if I could give him some new limbs, however when I went through my felting box, I no longer had the dark blue wool. Now what? Well I decided I could rebuild him in an new colour so I covered him with a lighter blue and gave him new legs and an arm. It worked! But I also decided that since his job was to remind my mom to take her pills, he should also hold one, so I made her a little capsule as well:

And a new little tail too: 

And then I decided to make a dog, inspired by the latest issue of Mollie Makes
which just arrived a couple of days ago
 (I love this magazine, I'm so excited every time a new issue comes in!)
 -  here's my new pal with his favourite bone and ball: 

Oh yes, and I taught him to do tricks - hold that bone on your nose little guy! 

Earlier in the week I did finish a baby bee set just in time for spring! There are two sizes of soaker covers since diapers can be deceptively large, so I  made two size options: 

And that's it for now! Not bad - good thing the weather was crappy and I didn't do any yard work.  What did you do this weekend? 

It's Show Time!

Today I snuck out of work a little early to head to Fibres West to see what was new in the yarn world. I did end up with quite a few hanks of lovely alpaca and fine merino wool. I will have to post photos soon.

I was hoping to find something inspiring for needle felting or embroidery but I didn't. There was one table that was doing the traditional rug hooking style which I like, but just can't start on these days. And lots of booth for spinning and weaving, which again I just can't start. I must stick with knitting, crochet, needlefelting and embroidery - that's plenty of hobbies I think!

Tomorrow is the Middle Eastern Dance Associations Grand Bazaar which I have been looking forward to for quite some time. There are performances, workshops and lots of goodies for sale. Don't be surprised to find out that I spent the whole day there tomorrow! My instructor is dancing Saturday morning and I'm looking forward to seeing her performance as well and some others that I haven't seen perform yet.

Today is the start of spring break and for some reason my brain is in long weekend mode, I have to remind myself that I don't get spring break or even a long weekend, but others do. I don't know, it's very strange, I may have a hard time staying motivated at work next week! Or, it might be nice and quite and I get lots and lots done !

Hope you're having a good weekend too, I'm off to get some knitting done, since I just added to my stash!

Have you ever felt a chicken?

Needle felted I mean. Sheesh, what were you thinking?

My one Easter craft for the year, other than some quick crocheted bookmarks I threw my Easter cards to my mom and brother. All projects were made from supplies I already had.

The Easter bookmarks were made from sock yarn - not bad actually, maybe a little bulky(in Ravelry under "wayoutwear") Also, I have a wonderful supply of wool roving for needle felting, which I'd like to do more of - but then I'd like to 'do more of' a lot of things! You know how it is.

HAPPY EASTER!

The End of the Beginning

Hi. Remember me? My name is Jazz and I am afraid of noise. yeah, I know, it doesn't make sense because I'm in the house behind a locked metal door but still, the noises bother me. In the morning it is the woodpecker and in the afternoon and evening it's firecrackers. I don't know where these kids are getting firecrackers in April and May but there are a lot of them. My owner has tried so many things to calm me down when I'm scared - but I still am. I wish I understood what she was saying, maybe I could be more calm.

Can you help?

~~~~

Alright, and now back to me - I have been doing a variety of things this week. First I've been walking 4 1/2 km in the morning with my dawg, and then work has been a bit crazy (it's year end at the end of May) and then I've been gardening and knitting too.

Oh, and I made another needle felted animal, this one's a bear. I forgot to give him eyes, so right now he's my Blind Blue Bear.

And finally, y'all can have a chuckle at this one - but this is the end result of the begining of barbecue season:

Yup. These were beautiful Maui Beef Ribs - from the butcher's, I watched him cut the meat especially for me. Then they marinated all afternoon until it was time for the barbecue. I placed them on the upper rack and had them cooking with only the middle flame on low for about 30 minutes. However, while they were cooking I read in the cook book made by the manufacturer of my grill that they should be on medium heat, so I turned the heat up. I went away for a few minutes, since they were going to have to cook for an hour, but when I checked on them, they were on fire, and by the time I got the fire out that's what they looked like.

Man, the last time I saw them they were looking so good. And JP and I had been waiting all day for them.

I ended up frying some Kielbasa instead.

In all the years I have been cooking and all the stuff I've BBQ'd this has never happened to me! What a way to start the BBQ season. I'm going to consider it a sacrificial offering to the BBQ Gods and wish for a happy cooking season!

Pokey Little Puppy

Now remember folks, I am not an artist. I haven't sculpted or shaped too many things in my life, so this little needle felted puppy is a creative/artistic stretch for me. As you've seen, I've gone from making Easter eggs to pumpkins to a 3 dimensional 'sculpture'. So this puppy - maybe a chocolate lab - isn't so bad for an early attempt - right?

I'll tell you one thing though, as a lover of dogs, it felt a little strange in the beginning to continuously stab an effigy of a dog - but as you can see, I got over it.

Little Felted Things

Yesterday I was talking to my mum and she asked if I had made anything since the weekend, I told her I had made a little felted pumpkin. She reminded me that I was a little out of season, to which I agreed but said the orange wool inspired me to make the pumpkin - now. We don't always have to make holiday or seasonal items just prior to the event do we?

Good - because the other item I made was a technique of felting inside a shaped form. I used a cookie cutter in the shape of a rabbit. I know Easter's over and I don't know what I'll do with it now, but it was more of the experiment to try out a new technique more than anything. Perhaps I'll sew it to something, or felt it into some wool fabric and create a scene with flowers and grass, etc

I'm also working on a felted dog, but he's not ready to be shown yet.

The blue bird of pincushions

I had hoped to get to the Sewing and Crafts Show at the Tradex on Friday, however, crazy crap was happening at work that day and it wasn't a good time to go, so I went on Saturday.

Like a good little housewife, first I made a loaf of chocolate banana bread and made some whip cream so the boys had some snacks while I was gone. Then I went to the show. I had timed it so I could walk around for a while and then take a needle felting class. The title of this show should really be the "Sewing and Quilting" show as very few other crafts were represented. A couple of scrapbooking booths and 2 (maybe three) yarn booths. One ribbon embroidery booth. I was really hoping to see more crafty things as the title implied.

However, the class I took was quite interesting. It was needlefelting around a Styrofoam base. Apparently some people (wool purists) told the instructor that using Styrofoam was not true needle felting and one person even mentioned she had " issues with Styrofoam" (she didn't feel it was environmentally friendly). The class was only an hour, so we had to finish the projects at home. The instructor (Debra Quatermain) was so nice she gave supplies for two other projects - a bunny and a fairy tale cottage. I have not yet made the bunny.

I did learn about all the different fibres you can add to your needle felting, such as glittery pieces and learned about the felting templates you can buy.

Here is the completed bird pincushion. I will have to retake and re post these photos as my camera battery was dying and I had to rush (the colours are off and the photo is not clear):

And the fairy tale cottage:

And now you know where I was on Sunday - stabbing little bits of wool.

And now for my last thought of the day - I spent about 5 years working on trade show floors in the US, selling at Christmas and gift shows. I frequently visited other trade shows operating at the same time and the one thing I noticed is the number of show specials and freebies and information that would be handed out. In the last couple of trade shows I have attended in Vancouver, the last two at Tradex - I have not received any promotional material. I would even have to ask for a business card and prices in the booths were the same as the prices in the store, so there was no incentive to buy while on site. Perhaps I am not comparing apples to oranges, but I think Americans do a much better job at trade shows and Canadians could make our trade shows a whole lot better. Hmm, maybe I need to become a trade show consultant.....

Back to our regularly scheduled programming....

Gee, where to begin? What have I been doing you ask?

Well on Friday, I went to Michael's ("or Mitchell's, or Michelle's..." as my brother likes to say) and picked up multiple skeins of embroidery floss at 3 for $1. Before I left home, I went through my floss box and decided what colours I needed and when I was at the store I picked out my colours, carefully counting in 3's and repeating the total number in my head over and over, so I could tell the cashier. I was so proud of myself for remembering all the way from one end of the store to the other (literally). When I reached the till I cheerfully announced my number of total skeins thinking I was helpful but the sweet girl doing cash said " that's nice but they all have separate bar codes so I have to ring them in individually". Dang, so much for that.

When I got home, I realized that the cute little metal lunch box that my supplies were currently residing in would no long hold my new bounty. JP offered up a wonderful antique metal fishing box. It was wonderful and I set about organizing my colours and winding some onto bobbins. I even added felt feet to the bottom so the old metal wouldn't leave marks on our furniture. I finished my arrangement and carried it to his desk to show him my handiwork. He pretended to care and I closed up the lid to carry it away, when the latch let go and everything spilled on the floor - there I was like a servant girl, scooping up all my threads from the floor. It's happened to me twice since, so I will have to be extra careful when carting it around.

I then decided to do some needle felting. Here is a little chicky - I like how the wings are made- using your scissors to cut a triangular piece (it's hard to see in this photo isn't it?) The eyes are beads and the beak and feet are felt that is sewn on.

I attempted to make a strawberry (from Craft: issue # 2) and an Easter egg, but both are poorly shaped. I think I am too impatient to keep working the roving. Either that, or I need different felting needles however, I am reluctant to blame the equipment.

I think this should be called an Easter Rock because it's certainly not egg shaped: Here is an example of some of my Easter table decorations, several amigurmi chicks are included, along with a chicken kitchen timer, a wind-up chick, some sequined decorations and an Easter tree that I did not make and a basket full of Clementine oranges:

In the collection, you will see an orange coloured stuffed rabbit - her name is Lucky:
Here's Lucky's story: years ago I worked at an importing company and the factories would often send us samples. In one of the boxes of sample stuffed animals was this orange lumpy bunny with pink satin feet, hands and ears. The designer/buyer and the office staff was horrified - they thought she was hideous. I thought (and still do) that she is not. And so I saved her from being thrown in the garbage can and called her Lucky - because no one else wanted her except me.

On Saturday, I gardened and then cooked our Easter dinner, we had: turkey breasts with cranberries, ham with pineapple, twice baked potatoes and Brussels sprouts. For dessert there was a pumpkin pie which we didn't get to, as they boys were most interested in the homemade rice pudding with dried cherries. Yum.

Sunday, was book day at Oscars Art Books on Broadway and lunch at the crepe restaurant up the street - have you ever had a Nutella milkshake? Wow. that's yummy. I'll have to tell you more about that in my next post.

And now, here's a look at some of the sweet flowers already in bloom in my garden:

Miniature daffodils

A flower bed of purple primulas

Hyacinths

Miniature Tulips

Grape Hyacinths

Another Felted Project

I had so much fun with the felted chickadee kit, I was looking for other things to make. While at the show on the weekend, I picked up a bag of multi-coloured roving and so I decided to try my hand at flat felting.

Do you remember this purse? I knit it January 10, 2008 using one skein of Cascade 220 and then washed it in my machine to felt it - it's just little, only 10 inches across the top and 7 inches deep. I posted it here.

I used that purse to embellish it with flowers and a butterfly using the wool roving and the felting needle:

Pretty springy isn't it?

Hmm, now I'm looking around to see what else I can do.

chickadee-dee-dee

Well I finished my needled felted Chickadee kit last night. I think the head is too big, but I think if I keep punching it with the felting needle, I can compact it.I was pretty happy with the kit, but I would have liked to have a photo for reference. Or, if I was smart I would have taken a photo of the one she was selling in her booth (at this weekend's Fibrefest - see yesterday's post). I searched the Internet but couldn't find comparable chickadees. Perhaps, it's good that I didn't have a photo as now it's more personalized and not just a copy - right?

I will be keeping my eyes open now for other needle felting projects, so stay "tuned".

~~~~~

Just when I was back in the groove of walking Jazz in the morning before work, that dang Daylight Savings Time this weekend made it dark in the morning again. Now the sun isn't coming up until 7:20 but I start work at 7:00, so I have to go back to walking her after work. I found that we had a better walk in the morning because the streets are quieter, and I was more energetic during the day because of that morning excercise.

No wonder I'm tired and lethargic today: it's Monday, it's raining, I didn't get my early morning walk, and my sleep pattern was interrupted because of the time change. blahh.

Perhaps I should go do some Jumping Jacks to wake my body up!

Did you have any troubles adjusting this weekend?