Here’s the nearly completed TIF piece Forest Floor. I have all the pieces completed and I need to make the final decision on placement. I’m fairly certain it will be very close to this layout but if anyone has any comments or suggestions for a different position, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Here are some closeups. It’s a combination of wet felting, needle felting on my Janome machine and hand stitching.

I’ve used some brown silk paper for the pine needles.

And a variety of yarns, silk, threads for all the tiny details.

Here’s the inspiration photo – do tell me what you think.

Here are the pieces I’ve felted so far for the background of March TIF. I am going to add further needle felting, machine and hand stitch and whatever else hits my fancy.

Here’s a closeup which already looks a little mossy. I also finished the three giveaways for my bloggiversary (finally). But I won’t show you those until they have been received. They’ll go in the mail on Monday.

I’ve been trying to blog for several days but I’ve been having trouble uploading any photos. So, I finally got the photos so here we go. This is my workbook for TIF. The subject for March is “look at the details”. I’ve been taking photos of what I’ve been calling the “forest floor” for some time now. I have wanted to start working on a series of fiber art with this idea in mind. So this is the perfect opportunity because I wanted to take a detailed look at the forest floor. So I did some sketches from one of my photos. You may think that the colored part of the page on the left side is some kind of paint technique. Actually, I was carrying the photo in the workbook and it got wet and leaked on my page. Perhaps I should try that on fabric – a new transfer technique invented LOL!

This is a not so good photo of my idea for the piece, which is to needlefelt/embellish a background and then use blowups of the photo printed on fabric and attached to the background.

Here’s the inspirational photo. I have tons of these types of photos and may combine pieces of several different ones. These were all taken in the woods around my house last summer. I love different kinds of moss and fungi. It always reminds me of a miniature world. Do you see the little elves hiding?

This is a finished barrette that I made from felt beads that I blogged about earlier.

Here’s a side view. I am planning on making quite a few of these in various colors to sell at the store. We’ll see how that goes.

Well I made it by the “skin of my teeth” once again, only because we had leap day today. Here is my completed TIF challenge piece that I have titled “Remembering Peace??” The silk background is tie dyed with acid dyes and the peace symbol sheers are printed with Jacquard fabric paint. The peace symbols were then fused and sewn in layers to the background. I then free motion quilted the surrounding tied dyed fabric. I considered adding beads, eyelash yarn and other embellishments but decided I would have to stick with simple. I ran out of time this month because I was out of town and now we have company. It doesn’t look like March will be much better as one of my employees’ mother is dying and she had to leave to go to Florida, plus I have to take a continuing education course for my PT license and I won’t have two of my “Fiber Fridays” off. Oh well…

Here’s another shot.

A closeup of the peace symbols.

A closeup of the center spiral (which is a little wonky but I’m fairly satisfied with it.)

And another closeup. Normally, I would show you a photo of the back but I am ashamed of it. I used the pillowcase method of finishing the quilt. I tried the method from the latest (I think) QA where you put fusible on the back and then iron it down. Somehow, even though I tried to follow the directions and cut the back smaller, I ended up with extra fabric which all wrinkled up and looks awful. Perhaps it was because the back is the other piece of silk that I tie dyed and since silk is so slippery but probably just my inexperience on this process. Anyways, it was fun and I’m OK with how it turned out. Tried lots of new techniques and I keep learning. Now on to March’s challenge. By the way, those of you who won a prize for my blogging anniversary, I am working on your prize and hopefully, I’ll have them ready soon. Don’t give up hope!

I got back home on Wednesday from going to the Buyers Market of American Craft. Bought lots of new stuff for the store, visited with my sister and her family and went out to dinner with Vicki. The photo above is two pieces of Vicki’s hand painted metallic fabric that she generously gave me. Isn’t it beautiful? Thanks Vicki!

I had this beautiful postcard waiting for me from Donna when I got home. This photo doesn’t do it justice. Thanks Donna!

And another thing I found in the mail, these wonderful hand dyed threads from Sharon B. They are gorgeous and I can’t wait to try them out. Thanks Sharon!

I have managed to do a little work while I was gone. These are felted beads that I’m going to make into barrettes. I need to do a few more colors but these were the prototypes. I’ll show the finished product once it’s completed.

Today I worked on TIF for February. This is a sneak preview. It’s what I practiced on to see how I wanted to sew the peace symbols on. I made two gifts from this but I’ll show you later once the recipients have received them. The front of my TIF is completed. Now I think I will quilt it but have to decide how that’s going to work. Again, I think I’ll be posting on or near the last day of the month. Hopefully…