Felting fun day!

My mom/mother-in-law and sisters/sister-in-laws and I have been trying to get together for a felting fun day, but ALL of our schedules have been so busy this summer that it has been difficult to find a day that works for all of us. So, I called kind of last minute last week and told them that whoever could make it was invited over on Saturday to felt some purses. My soon to be sister-in-law, Patricia, and my sister, Cristen, were the only two that could make it - but we had fun!

Here is Patricia working on hers. They were making fun of me because I would explain how to do something by first saying "ok, you aren't supposed to do this, but this is how I do it". I don't know what I do differently, but unfortunately my techniques were causing Patricia to break needles. She only broke two and that is pretty common for beginners, but I still felt bad.

Here is her finished bag. She wanted a tree or branches with a crow on it and I think she did a great job! She also put a pocket on the inside that I'm sure will come in very handy!

Here is my sister working on her purse. She didn't put a pocket in hers and just zipped right along, so we were making her felt extra long to make sure it would REALLY stay. She put a flap on the outside with a magnetic closure.

She is due in November and I was beginning to wonder if she was really pregnant because she still wasn't showing 2 weeks ago. She has a little bump now :)

The colors she chose compliment each other nicely.

Hopefully everybody else can come over next time.

My two worlds have collided!

I feel like I have two different worlds at times - my fiber and my photography. Both of these endeavors give me the freedom to stay home with our son and I feel very fortunate to have this flexibility. This summer has been very busy for my photography - I took over 7,000 photos in August at various dog events!

I took a few of my felted bags to the events and the response has been wonderful - resulting in a lot of custom orders!

Irish Wolfhound - still available

I had a couple orders for Rhodesian Ridgebacks.

A gal ordered this bag for one of her friends. It is an Australian Kelpie watching over his little sheep.

This is an Ibizan named Dina. She is such a pretty girl...

and here she is in felt!

Here is an Italian Greyhound that I am currently working on and still on my list to do are a long-haired standard dachshund, tan and white whippet, scottish deerhound, borzoi, black and white silken windhound, another ibizan, pharoah hound, and a blue merle aussie with a couple sheep.

I have created a Custom Tote Bag page on my website and you can see other bags and ordering information there.

Creative juices are flowing :)

I have had several new ideas come to me this week and they have been so much fun!!!

I want to send a special 'thank you' to my mom and grandma for giving me the gift of creativity. They have always been so inspiring and I have many memories of the items they made for us growing up. I will never forget the Cabbage Patch Kid sized horses that my grandma made for all of us kids for Christmas. I think it is still one of the best presents and I have vivid memories of the surprise.

I always have ideas running through my head, but this last weekend when I was home by myself I was able to listen to some of the ideas ;) I was playing around with a necklace idea - unfortunately it was a total flop - but it got me thinking and I took the piece of glass that I was working with and wet felted around it, much like you would felt a bar of soap. It had possibilities... then later when I was at my parent's house, my brother had a wire wrapped necklace on that got me thinking. He helped me and below is the result. I have ordered some wood discs in circles and squares and am looking forward to working with them.

The next item isn't fiber related, but part of my other life - photography. I am taking pictures at a lure coursing trial this weekend and I am really excited to be able to offer collage prints.

I'm not sure where this idea came from, but I took two different items that I have made and combined them. I took the felted sheep balls and the flat felted sheep from the bags and made these little guys.

They have a front and a back and are stuffed with a little bit of wool. My plan is to make them into sachets with lavendar and eucalyptus scents. They can also be hung or turned into magnets - so many choices ;)

This little birdie pillow spurred another thought...


little birdies, just like the little sheep. Unfortunately, this one didn't turn out very cute.



Here is attempt #2. Now, when I look back at the first one, it looks like a nasty crow :)

I hope some of these ideas have created some ideas of your own!

We have a winner!

I think everyone's weekends sound wonderful and I hope you get to indulge soon! As for my weekend - I chose to do the fun stuff and the important stuff and left the laundry for later. I got the electric fence fixed in the ram pasture because the last thing I wanted to be doing was chasing rams around ;) I then read, felted, watched a couple movies, ate dinner whenever I wanted to, went over to my parents and had some wonderful homemade peach ice cream, went for a couple walks, and felted some more!

I'm glad I didn't announce a winner this morning, thanks to the late entries - it's good to see you here!

The winner, as chosen by random.org, is Emily at Dreameyce - congrats!!! Send me an e-mail with where to send it and what option you want.