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.