Whitman Craft Fair December 5

Lots of surprises and two hours of shopping fun on the Whitman College Campus Monday December 5.  We'll be there with our Finch & Leigh wares to share.

11th Annual Mighty Tieton Holiday Crafts and Antiques Bazaar

We're off to our favorite 

Bazaar of the the year! 

Mighty Tieton 

Holiday Crafts and Antiques Bazaar

December 3

Tieton WA

We're bringing lots of good things......

• 100% wool dryer ball sets
• Embellished wool mittens
• Three new series of brooches
• Needlefelted wool ornaments 
• Holiday JOY doorway garlands with beads, balls, buttons and wool hand applique
• Bags and pouches
• Special Wool hand appliqued Angel, Snowman and Dove ornaments

New Brooches

Working on Brooches...no two are a like...having fun....So much to get done.....gotta run!

Hand dyed wool in Fall colors

New hand dyed wool just in time for Fall. Oh the possibilities are endless. Finch is posting these in our Etsy store this week. 

She had tried a new supplier and received natural wool fabric from Dorr Woolen Mills. It has a lovely feel after dying, washing and felting process is complete. 

Repurposed wool over-the-body bag

This over-the-body bag was a special request from a friend who loves sweaters.  She started with re-purposed wool from my felted sweater collection, and then we selected hand dyed felted wool for the body of the bag.  I just love this bag pattern.  I've made it half a dozen times this year.  It's got a pocket on each side, that holds quick-to-reach items like a phone, or key snugly.  Then it's got a zipper pouch in the middle, and one set of inside pockets for even more organizing.  I started originally working from a pattern for a very small bag, and have adjusted and made the pattern my own.  This size is roughly 7  inches by 9 inches.

I I see each pocket as an opportunity to change it up and try something new.  I developed this modern daisy motif for pincushions.  Now enlarged, it's just right for the pocket.  The front pocket features a goldenrod yellow flower, that is reverse appliqued under the felted wool sweater.  Then I added the brown center.  The stitching around the center gathered the fabric slightly  and inspired me to trapunto the center to form a small peak.  I exaggerated the dimensional quality for further stitching and applique.  I love this raised quality.

The second pocket is a more subdued blue wool applique with embroidery embellishment.  I worked the stitches in #8 pearl cotton.  

Brooches

Its always fun to take our work to the Mighty Tieton Antique and Crafts sale in December.  This year we took a large selection of brooches.

I like to make brooches.  No two are the same.  It's a great way to showcase color, and texture.  The mix of hand-dyed felted wool, velvet, embroidery, machine stitching, glitter and beads makes each piece a new opportunity to experiment.  and

This paisley brooch introduces some decorative machine applique, and mixes lavender hand-dyed felted wool with a mottled green  eggplant purple crushed velvet.  The juxtaposition of velvet and wool is complimentary for both fiber types.  I use some Peltex-type interfacing material to stiffen the brooch form.

The glittered white work embroidery houses were popular at the show.  We had fun coming up with different decorative stitching to fit the miniature houses.  German glass glitter lightly frosting the snowy roof line and window trim was the final touch.
In the background, you might see some of the felted ball dangle ornaments we brought to the show.

I had some truly "mod" broaches for sale as well.  Wild colors, ric rac, beads and stitching.  I experimented with the Proddy stitch used in rug hooking for a few brooches as well.  


The striped cat brooches also were a hit.  Cat lovers can always use another cat piece, can't they?

These brooches use vibrant scraps of hand-dyed wool to create stripped tabby cats with attitude.  It was my first time wrapping wire, and using a hammer to flatten it.  I added assorted beads to the tail.  I liked the effect of light-scattering faceted beads with bright wool .  I look forward to trying my hand at more wire work, beads and wool in the future.

Sewing with my niece

My 13-year old niece spent a few days with me over Christmas break.  I had a great time, and I think she did too.  This was her second overnight visit, and she's worked on sewing projects each time she is here. All the sewing aside, we did leave time for brownies, homemade nachos, watching several of the Harry Potter movies again, as well as the animated moves Frozen and Inside Out.

My niece is a cat-lover.  While she was visiting, she received a morning text from home each day with a photo and message about her kitty, Honeybee.  One sewing project she picked to work on was Little Kitty from Melly and Me.  We each made a kitty.  I demo'd each step on my creamy, white felted wool kitty and she completed all the sewing and handwork on her cotton print grey kitty.  I've made this pattern before, and the corners are tight for turning and stuffing.  It's easy to clip the corners to close to the seam line, and have a seam pop out while you are stuffing.   I can tell you that making it with white felted wool was a breeze.  The slight stretch and give resulted in easy construction and stuffing. The cotton print my niece worked with was a bit more tricky. It turned out to be smaller in stature.  We were happy with it as well.

During her stay, my niece primarily worked on a quilted cotton square pillow top using the Candy Dish pattern by little Jaybird Quilts.  She planned it as a Mother's Day gift, but I've since been told it was scarcely out of the car and into the house before it was gifted to my sister...a little New Year's present, I think.  Its a good pattern and I can see it in felted wool as a future project.

Fairy folk encampment

Fairy folk are arriving one by one for the Winter  Encampment.
They bring the glory of autumn colors and they foretell the celebrations of the winter to come.

Mighty Tieton Craft and Antique Bazaar Saturday December 5th.

Wee Folk

I splurged on Wee Folk New Adventures by Sally Mavor this weekend. I have been smitten with her work for several years. 

It's a lovely large format book full of colorful photos of Sally's work. But I think at its heart, it's a maker book chock full of patterns, inspiration and how-to's.   As one who loves to embellish, and work with bits of wool and thread, it was lots of fun.   I worked on two wee fairy girls this weekend and once I started, it was hasta la vista weeds - there's fairies to be made. 

 Check out Sally's Website and blog at Weefolkstudio.com. I tracked Sally Mavor down on the web after viewing her piece titled Rabbitat online. And then I found Birds of Beebe Woods, a fiber relief.  I am in awe of her magic with fiber. 

Sally has a thoughtful blog about Artist Privacy and the creative process.  Check it out.

So these are the photos of my first two wee ones.  Their fairy names shall remain concealed to those outside the fairy world, though I will ask my niece for help in giving them a second name for our world.  I feel certain they will be joined by others. 

Carry-all pin cushion freestyle

I was inspired this morning by a blog from Crazy Mom Quilts featuring the Carry-all pin cushion from a new book, Handmade Style. Too impatient to wait until I found the book, and too intrigued by the idea of figuring out the construction, I dived in.  the process was a lot of fun and I balanced the fabrication with time outs for embellishments.  Looking back at the inspiration piece, I think my Carry-all falls in the super-sized category.  but it still packs a lot of function it its six by nine frame.

One of my first freestyle add-ones was a felted wool needle case.  Two round sheets of hand dyed wool tuck in behind the needle case cover.  A crocheted chain of pearl cotton wrapped around a black button holds the case closed, securing the needles and protecting me from sharp points.  Sometimes needles tend to sink down and get lost in big pin cushions, so I'm thinking  this should be a handy way of keeping track of them.   Part of the fun in fabricating this design, was that it evolved as I worked.  I find more and more opportunities to use wonder clips when I sew and I've seen a few new ideas for holding wonder clips at hand, as well as pins.  So I added a ruffle along one end of the cushion, just for wonder clips.  I think its going to work WONDERFULLY.  (Sorry, couldn't resist.)

I filled the pin cushion with polyfil because of the size,  but topped the polyfil with my favorite pin cushion filling - a muslin bagged layer of crushed walnut shells about one inch thick.  I also added a sheet of Peltex at the bottom to minimize the rounding caused by the polyfil. 

There are assorted little pockets on three sides of the pin cushion. I've found a place for my  small scissors, tape measure, pointy chop stick for corners, ruler, seam gauge, seam ripper, stiletto, pin and pins.   And still have two pockets to fill.  

The little scoop pockets gave me another opportunity to embellish with assorted embroidery stitches.  Always happy to find a place to play with a little pearl cotton floss and decorative stitches.

A final picture looking down on my new pin cushion.

Portrait of a Cottage

The neighbors next door have been working on improvements to their charming cottage this year.  It's so pleasing to many in the neighborhood who pass by their home.  In general, fresh paint, beautiful doors and windows, landscaping and even general clean up can make such a difference to the first impressions of a neighborhood.  Everyone who passes takes pleasure when someone improves their home.   I love the new look of our neighbors' home.

 I wanted to express my appreciation in a more permanent way, so I thought a felted wool portrait of their home would be a fun way to recognize all their work.  This was a new technique for me, so I improvised as I went along.    I started with a photo on my cell phone, which I enlarged to my desired size.  Using Photoshop I created a second layer and traced the principal lines of the home that I wanted to repeat.  I also printed out the photo on copy paper and traced a few of the curves for a more accurate black and white sketch than I could achieve with my amateur photoshop skills.  I made a couple of copies of the sketch and that became my pattern.

I appliqued the wool to the backing wool fabric.  Color selection, and shading helped begin to create dimension.  Due to the size of my project, I did have to make edit decisions regarding which details I wanted to repeat because they expressed the essence of the home, and which could be omitted.



I used # 5 pearl cotton to begin embellishments.  I used an assortment of stitches, to suggest the tile roof texture, the bricks on the fireplace, the window frames, and the stained glass in the front window.

The final shrubs are one of my favorite parts.  

Here's a closeup  and the original inspiration.

Modern Bird Pins

Hand dyed wool is marvelous for the pop of color it offers.  These modern birds with pins on the back showcase the wool and a variety of embroidery stitches.  Each one is unique.

The shape is a modern take on a scandinavian bird motif.  The color is hand appliqued on top of black felted wool.  Running stitch, stem stitch, french knots and an open buttonhole stitch fill the body with bold black lines.

Taking these to Mighty Tieton Craft and Antiques Holiday Bazaar next weekend.  Still lots to do before then.

Stick Tree in wool

Prepping for the Mighty Tieton Craft and Antiques Bazaar December 6 and 7.  I'm taking some felt applique pillows.  This is a new technique using strips of hand dyed wool - great for those little scraps I couldn't quite toss out.  Now they're featured in this cozy pillow.


It starts with a few strips pinned in place, and woven together for form a tree.  Using a variety of threads, each strip is hand appliqued down - over and under the other strips.  Pins keep the strips straight while stitching.

And then a red bird topped it off.

Embellished Felted wool leaves

Inspired by Sue Spargo's book Creative Stitching,  I have yet to tire of stitching embellished leaves.  No two are alike.  Texture.  Color.  Mixing cottons and wool felts.  Some repurposed and some hand dyed.  These keychains go with me to The Mighty Tieton Holiday Crafts and Antiques show December 6 and 7 in Tieton WA.