"Hats for the Cure" Workshop

Last Friday I was fortunate enough to be a part of a wonderful group of gals who devoted their day to "sewing for the cure". We made a beautiful assortment of about 20 hats which will be donated to cancer patients going through treatments at a local hospital. A huge thank you to the ladies who gave their time for this worthy cause! And also to Randy's Quilt Shop, who was so gracious to host the workshop - a benefit was that we got to shop Randy's great sale! Thanks to all who made this gathering such a success; I've posted a photo of some of the merry stitchers at left.

Winter Quilt Shows

What a crazy, wonderful time I've had in the last few weeks at the quilt shows! Although I didn't really expect things to be quite as "wintry" as they turned out, I can think of worse scenarios than being snowed in at the Embassy in Hampton, VA (^_^) We saw so many amazing quilts, made some wonderful and talented new friends and ran into lots of old friends, and found inspiration everywhere we went. I was especially gratified to see folks from last year's shows who had caught the "felting frenzy" from me, and brought their own magnificent felted creations to share with me...wow! For me, there is nothing better than seeing my students' success. A special thanks to Alby and my family for putting up with me and my crazy schedule.

Wool Beads Bracelet Class

We had such fun in our class at Ben Franklin's yesterday, the girls made some gorgeous bracelets, and one of them even sent me a picture, you can see it below left - isn't it beautiful? Margaret chose rose and chocolate brown for her 2 fiber colors, and with the addition of some Angelina fibers, her finished wool beads reminded me of frosted raspberries, so pretty. The artsy glass lampwork beads she chose as spacers gave a nice Rennaissance feel to her bracelet, a true little art piece she finished in class.

Another bracelet was made with earthtone colors,a creamy ivory and mocha brown; we were thinking how pretty the ivory beads would be if you needle-felted little animal stripes on the lighter beads with the brown fibers, a great way to cover up any little wrinkles BTW. Her bracelet also turned out so pretty with some nice earthtone beads that pulled together both colors. Great job, ladies! And we had fun trading ideas about all sorts of other creative venues as well...a great class!

Wet-felted "Water Lilies"

I've been indulging my passion for felting lately, and recently had a landscape challenge to create for a local group. Why not try wet-felting a landscape? I thought, and so I started browsing for inspiration. I had been fortunate enough to see the extraordinary Monet exhibit at the NC Museum of Art a few years ago, and one of my favorite pieces there was his "Water Lilies" painting; unless you've seen it, you don't realize this piece is close to 6' x 5' in size, it's huge! The richness of the colors and brushstrokes used to create the water and water lilies is just spectacular...hmmm, I thought, that purple is almost the same shade as my Wilton icing gel wool fibers I dyed! And so I decided to re-create this work of art; of course, mine is less than a foot tall, and doesn't hold a candle to Monet's, but it was still fun to do! I used my Wilton purple fibers, some hand-dyed buttercream fibers for the sun glinting in the corner, and silk strands and strips for the plants with fibers to hold them down. I wet-felted the whole thing, and it didn't turn out too bad; I'm thinking to put it on the back of my denim jacket and maybe add some silk ribbon or felted sprites or something for the border. I'm adding a photo so you can see, enjoy!

Holiday busy-ness!

Well, it's happened again...Christmas has snuck up on me and I am counting the hours as I bake cookies, address cards (fewer this year), email friends, and make a few last-minute gifts. I wish I had time to create something hand-made and unique for everyone on my Christmas list! But time does not permit, and so this year I kind of "cheated" on some of my hand-made gifts and let my washing machine do the felting for me! When making a few wooley pin-cushions to sell/display at my next show, I made them big enough to have an extra slice off the top to make a wool geode pin. They turned out so cute, here's a few of them in the photo below right; and yes, I gave some of them as gifts! I'll be teaching this technique a couple of times in 2009, so stay tuned for that.

Hope your Holidays are merry and bright! See you in 2009!

Altered Couture Magazine Project

Only 38 days until Christmas - are you ready? Or are you still looking for that perfect gift for a special friend? If so, you might be interested in my newest designs I created for Altered Couture Magazine Winter 2009. These simple accessories are both trendy and practical, and best yet - they're made from things you probably already have on hand! For a sneak peek, visit their web-site http://www.stampington.com/html/altered_couture_winter09.html My designs are on their home page, the "Coming up Roses" set. My daughter was the inspiration for this sweet set, and I kept it quick and easy to make! Enjoy!

SAFF Fiber Show

In October I attended my first BIG fiber show in Asheville, NC. What a treat! I signed up to be a helper in a class about painting wool fibers, and that was a great experience. The teacher was wonderful, as was the class; we learned all about dyes, painting the wool top, the kind of stove to use to steam the fibers, etc. I even got to join the class in dyeing my own wool fibers! (see photo at left) And it was pretty interesting to be the helper as opposed to the teacher; I spent much of my morning carrying buckets of water from the barn to the little overhang where we did our dyeing outside...good thing I'm a country girl! ^_^

I also made a special needle-felted wrap to wear to the show (see photo at left.) I made the wrap from black wool, then needle-felted my original tree design to the back in Merino wool fibers. I then added silk leaves I hand-dyed with some luscious Colorhue dyes I got from June Colburn at one of the shows - these dyes are great, they're so easy to use! And I love the wrap, I've worn it so much since I made it, it looks great on every body and is so warm and flow-y!