Back from Stitch Class

Posted on by under level 2 stitch class

 We made it back from La Conner without difficulty and even though it was a bit cool and rainy, it was better weather than we’re having in Montana. It’s been raining and cold since we got home. I had a great time in class. We worked on machine embroidery. My old Brother machine started giving me a really hard time so when we got home, I went out and bought a new machine. It’s a Pfaff 2170 and boy is it cool. I’m still figuring it out but I think I’m really going to enjoy this machine.

 Here’s a piece that I did for last session’s Kantha homework. It’s of my hubby on his John Deere. Since I put a barn in the composition he said we needed to build a barn so the tractor would feel at home.

 Here’s another piece that I made for last session’s homework. It wasn’t assigned but I wanted to try stitching on felt. I made the felt hat out of short fiber black merino and then stitched the designs with 3 perle cottons. There are shisha mirrors in the yellow circles.

We worked on machine embroidery in this session. I don’t have any photos of what we did but I’ll show a few later. One of the designs we worked on was from a voided shape. Mine was from a photo of a flower that was simplified and then cut out. I’m still working on this piece so more on that later.

I’ve got lots of homework to get done before September and we are off to New York City for a week soon. Then it will be summer time and I’m sure it will be busy, busy, busy. Thanks for stopping by.

On the Road Again

Posted on by under class
I’m off to LaConnor, Washington tomorrow for session 3 of the Level 2 Stitch Course at Gail Harker Creative Studies Center. I thought you might like to see how much stuff I pack for class supplies. This of course doesn’t include any clothing, toiletries or stuff for the dogs so the car is packed to the brim.

 I have everything on this 6 foot table. The clear tub on the bottom is all dyed fabric and the green and pink containers are thread. The briefcase bag on top carries all my art supplies and the white and red bag is folders and homework. I’m not supposed to blog about all my homework so there are some things I haven’t shown here. But you’ll get to see them all in time.

 I have always wanted a set of threads with a range of colors for machine embroidery. These are Sulky threads (#30 cotton) that I ordered since I didn’t have any #30 cotton thread. Yummy! I’m sure I won’t have the color I need though as I always need a slightly different shade then what I have. (note to self – buy more thread)

Here’s the pile of stuff from the other end. Another bag with lots of other supplies such as interfacings, Peltex, soluble fabric etc. We will be working on machine embroidery this time so I am taking my sewing machine as well. It’s not an expensive machine but does everything I need it to do. The fishing tackle box holds all the small supplies and equipment. I am excited about the upcoming class and I can’t wait to see all my classmates homework and how they interpreted our assignments. Have a great week and I’ll give an update about the class on my return.

Felting Slippers

Posted on by under wet felting

 My sister Margaret is visiting me for a week and we decided to felt some slippers yesterday. She hasn’t felted before so this was her first effort. The photo above is the layout for slippers for my husband. I used some fiber that a friend gave to me. It is the broken tips from a merino fleece. They can’t be carded because they are too short. It was a pain to lay out but actually worked out better than expected. I made the slippers really thick because hubby wore through the last pair very quickly.

 Here is Margaret’s beginning layout. We decided that they looked like “Wild Thing” feet.

 Margaret also really liked this Blue Faced Leicester wool so I made her an I-pad cover.

 We tried a new experiment with Margaret’s slippers and put a foot shaped piece of wool blanket in the middle of the bottom layers to provide more thickness and support to the bottom of the slippers.

 I put black short fiber merino as a second layer of my husband’s slippers as I was afraid there would be holes in the gray wool.

 Here’s the I-pad cover after partial layout and wet down.

 Margaret’s slippers after partial layout and wet down.

 She added pre-yarn, silk cap and silk noil for embellishment. The wool used here is Falkland that I dyed with leftover dye from my cocoon jacket dyeing session.

 Here are the wet down and rubbed slippers for hubby. It took lots of rubbing to get the wool to start holding together.

 Here are Margaret’s slippers after a bit of rubbing.

 And the I-pad cover.

 We got really busy after that with rolling and fulling and forgot to take any photos. But here is a photo of me fulling hubby’s slippers on the washboard. Boy am I fast 🙂

 And here are Margaret’s finished slippers. Didn’t she do a great job? She was really pleased with them.

Here are my husband’s slippers and the I-pad cover. He still hasn’t tried them on so there might be some shaping left to do. All in all, it was a great day. Hope you have a good weekend and thanks for stopping by.

A Feathered Visitor

Posted on by under birds

 Look who was up in our tree this morning. This is a tree right by our house with all the bird houses, feeders etc on it. It’s a grouse.

 Usually you see grouse on the ground and I’ve never seen one up this high before. He/she sat willingly to get photos taken and stayed in the tree for about three hours.

The colors of his/her feathers were absolutely beautiful and I was glad I could get some close ups to show all of you.

Cocoon Jacket Class

Posted on by under class, nuno felting

 I taught the second session for the cocoon jackets today. Unfortunately, we had two students that were unable to attend. But Vicki and Diana made two beautiful jackets. Here’s Diana starting on her layout.

 Here are Vicki and Paula perfecting their rolling technique. We did LOTS of rolling.

 Diana is getting her piece warmed up in hot water in preparation for fulling.

 And here she is doing some gently throwing. After lots of work, both of these lovely ladies ended up with absolutely gorgeous jackets. We pinned the shoulder seams together so we could get the fit right.

 And here’s Vicki in her jacket. She added fringe to the ends so the fringe ended up along the shoulder seams and was a great addition.

 Here’s Diana in her jacket. She is wearing it with the silk side out. These are reversible jackets so they can be worn with the wool side or silk side on the outside.

It was a really fun class and we all learned something. Especially about fitting the jackets. Thanks Diana and Vicki for being great students, I had a blast!