The felting forum had a fiber exchange and so I sent off a “baggie” of various fibers. This is what I got from Jessica in return. Not exactly a baggie is it? But all wonderful fibers and lots that I haven’t tried, so I’ll have to experiment. Thanks Jessica!

She also sent me this little felted piece with one of her bird’s feathers. Beautiful colors!

These are all my samples from the class I took. It was wonderful, we went over all the basics (most of which I needed) and I learned a lot about different threads, needles etc. which will be a big help since I just was guessing before. The first day we painted all of our fabrics with Dye-na-Flow paints and then we started stitching. The sample above is drizzling stitch.

This sample is automatic zig zag and satin stitches.

This is working on getting a perfect satin stitch.

This is taking an automatic stitch and changing the stitch length and width to make patterns.

Quilting

Quilting with applique

Couching

Free running stitch

Free zig zag stitch

Free running stitch using a hoop

Continuous stitch on a grid

Automatic cable stitch – I had a bit of a problem with this as my bobbin case for my machine had been sabotaged at the factory. Brother decided that it didn’t think people should be able to change their bobbin tension so they put plastic stuff over the screw on the bobbin case. I couldn’t get it off while at the class. But since I got home, I scraped it all off with a scalpel and now I can change my bobbin tension.

Free cable stitch (without changing bobbin tension)

Free machine lace

This piece I did today. It was part of the course but we didn’t have time to complete it while we were there. It is a combination of cut back and on lay applique with free running stitch and cable stitch.

Here’s a close up of the cable stitch. I am so happy I got it to work. Now just need to practice a bit.

Cut back applique sample – I didn’t have contrasting enough fabrics so I colored the darker ones in with a Sharpie.

I really enjoyed this class and so want to continue on to the Level II. That class lasts for a total of 18 months and you go back every 3 months or so and have 5 days of instruction with work at home in between. The next level II starts this March and there is no way with my work load that I can do it. But I am going to work towards doing it in another year to year and a half. These used to be City and Guilds classes but she has stopped getting the certification for these. But they are bases on the same concepts. The plan right now is to practice these techniques over the next three months and take them further into using my hand made felt for base as well as silk paper and other techniques. So you’ll be seeing more machine embroidery on future work. Stay tuned!

My “quilts” were accepted into the Salvaged Threads Exhibition! They will be in the Big Sky Quilt Retreat Show in Billings March 12-14 and then in Toucan Gallery (also in Billings) from March 25-April 25. The quilts will then be offered for sale on the Salvaged Threads blog until July. I still haven’t put a label on the back of these, so I’ve got to do that and then send them off.

I’ve been experimenting with acid dyes, wool and deconstructive screen printing. This screen (which I forgot to take a photo of) was made by using cut pieces of pomegranates. But I think the thickened dye was too thin. Instead of getting the pomegranate impressions, I just got dots of dye puddling on the screen. But it still turned out very cool. This is the wool before I steamed it.

Here’s a close up of the dots.

Here is it after steaming and the one on top is the one I showed you before with the pomegranates printed on. At least that piece looks like pomegranates. I’m still deciding about over dyeing these two.

Here’s a close up of the steamed piece.

I did more dyeing of wool including rainbow for my cat toys, used up the rest of the thickened dye on some merino that I might make into a bowl similar to my silk bowl of the last post. And these are some Wensleydale locks dyed with the exhaust from some nylon netting I dyed purple. These are nice and variegated and kind of remind me of wisteria. We’ll see what happens with these. I have lots of ideas for further vessels and bowls. Next weekend I am off to my Experimental Machine Embroidery class at the Gail Harker Creative Studies Center. I am really looking forward to that. So I probably won’t post until after I get back.

Why Sinful? Well… This is kind of like Wordless Wednesday or Thoughts for Thursday. I got to stay home alone as I sent hubby off skiing again (I went yesterday) and I spent the whole day playing with fiber so it felt kind of sinful to be able to have 2 days this week to work on my projects. This lovely postcard came from Ilse yesterday. It fits in with the blue theme and looks like the snow we have outside. Thanks Ilse!

And this is my green postcard from Wendy, a bit late but nevertheless finally made it. Thanks Wendy!

I’ve started playing with printing and silk screening with thickened acid dyes on wool. These are pomegranates printed on to a wool blanket. I like how these turned out. Now to decide if I want to over dye, put more layers or use as is.

Here’s a close up. I also used these same pomegranates to start a deconstructed silk screen. I think my dye was a bit runny because it doesn’t seem to have worked like the book explained. The screen is drying now so I’ll have more experiments next week.

This is one of the silk fabric bowls I am making. The other is a surprise for later. This one I am going to donate to a local organization I am a part of for a silent auction. I am still deciding if it is finished or if I want to enhance the stitched lines more.

I didn’t do a tight satin stitch on the seams. And they therefore don’t stand out as much as on previous bowls that I made. But I kind of like the feel – it seems more organic this way.

And as it is supposed to suggest a flower. It is sitting on a circle of cardboard. Otherwise it tips over too easily. I am planning on embellishing the cardboard to match. I left all the endings of threads to hang loose from the edge. You can just see them here. Where oh where is my light box? I’ve got to make one soon.

This is my blue postcard. It really doesn’t look very blue here but the camera seemed to turn it very purple. Read purple as navy blue. I stenciled the nautilus on painted fusible interfacing and then stitched. I added the sea weed with the needle felting machine. The nautilus looked kind of lonely by itself. I don’t usually use a lot of blue but that was the theme.

Here’s a closer look.