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!

Felt Table Runner

Thanks to the hot weather, I have been felting a LOT ;) Doing anything outside besides the absolute necessary is out of the question. This is one of the pieces I made. A table runner made with jacob wool.

I was awfully tempted to keep it, but I think I am going to make another one that matches our kitchen better. It measures 16" x 60"

It is also reversible.

I love the color variations of jacob wool.

Hope you are staying cool wherever you may be!

We did a little bit of everything :)

I knew Joan and I were going to be busy when she came, but we ended up cramming a week's worth of fiber fun into 2 days. We started out needle felting...

this was her very first needle felted item! The horse is one of her beautiful Kigers, Cali.

While she worked on hers, I worked on a gift for a jacob breeder that helped me out by housing and transporting some of our lambs after they traveled from Oregon to Indiana. I hope he likes it!

After we needle felted our designs, we needed a back for our pillows. Our local JoAnns used to carry 100% wool felt and that would have been the easiest route, but they don't have it anymore - so we wet felted! We made fairly big pieces, they started out being 2 1/2 feet by 3 1/2 feet. I kept laughing because most beginners start with something simple, like a flower or a sheep and you certainly don't learn how to wet felt by making a big piece of fabric! We found that we are very much the same - we don't like to start simple ;)

We didn't have a lot of time, so we did a LOT of multi-tasking. We dyed fiber using my new pot and the results were fun.

She dyed some of her washed jacob fiber with a beautiful teal color. The carded results are going to be so pretty!

We also washed fiber. I found this great tub out in my barn! We also found out that my fiber shop has a small water heater. Wet felting and washing fiber takes more hot water then it had! So we moved the washing tub to behind the house.

She brought me some of the wool wash that she uses as a hostess gift and I am really impressed. It has a nice soft euctalyptus scent and did a fabulous job! I washed Wrangler's fleece first and it doesn't have any ram smell left and the white is white!

The weather was beautiful on Friday and the fleeces dried pretty fast.

We finished making our pillows and she learned how to blanket stitch - my favorite!

She sat down and used my spinning wheel (I hope she posts some of her pictures) we laughed quite a bit :) Then she tried out my drum carder.

It was so much fun and very motivating! I have been washing, carding, and spinning since she left. Who wants to visit next ;)