ONWARD INTO THE NEW YEAR

As long as I'm on a roll with my blog posts, it would probably be a good idea to keep up the momentum and bring everything up to date on my thread and needle journeys in a timely manner.  2015 ended with my thoughts on delving into some felting and working with shibori ribbon.  

FELTING

So, a friend and I went on a thrift store shopping spree in February to find wool clothing I could use for felting practice.  I found several sweaters in different colors and wools.  What an experience!!  Most of the websites I visited for simple felting instructions said to wash the items to be felted in with regular wash.  Well, I did the washing several weeks ago and my husband is still picking up lint balls around the house and out of his dark clothes!   Not good.  Most of the items felted nicely after two washings, but the ones that shed the most lint still need a couple more washings.....not with my husband's clothes this time.  Then, I found a wool supplier that sold inexpensive grab bags of wool roving, so now I also have bits of color to work with on the needle felting.  My progress, so far into felting.  

SHIBORI RIBBON

I've made more progress using the shibori ribbon.  I found a wonderful shop on Etsy, Shibori Girl, and purchased one of her grab bags. Nice lengths of ribbon and a beautiful color selection. 

                 

          

 So, here is my first finished project using a short length of ribbon.

A little shibori butterfly heart sachet enhanced with beading, an applique heart, a little hand embroidery and beads.

A little closer look

I am working another little shibori heart piece.  This one I would like to include more hand embroidery and better coordinated use of the beads.  At least in my head the design is pretty.  

QUILTING

In March my quilting friend and I will be making another trip to Asilomar, CA for a quilting class put on by Empty Spools Seminars.  This year I am taking  RaNae Merrill's class on creating Spiral Mandala quilts. 

This is the book we will be using.  I think I will be using one of her templates instead of creating my own design as this is only a 5 day class. 

On that same quilting thought.......last year I started an heirloom quilt, but set it aside as I was not satisfied with the quality of the stitching.  I thought I would try making the quilt based on the book, How To Create An Heirloom Quilt, by Pauline Ineson.  All the techniques used in the book can be accomplished using the decorative stitches on a basic sewing machine.  The author uses several different colors silk fabric.  The center medallion fabric pieces are quite small and I was having problems making nice corners.  Good thing I started with some sample muslin instead of the silk.   So, I am thinking this year I will try to do the embroidery using hand embroidery stitches.  There are many nice stitches used in crazy quilting that would be perfect.  

This is the book I am using and can be found on Amazon

So, in addition to these projects, I am still making a few items to sell in the local gallery and also accepting commission pieces.  My embroidery machine is sitting idle for most of this year again. 

Hopefully, there will be no catastrophes in 2016 to inhibit progress on my endeavors.  But, then one can never predict the future.  Our Super El Nino that was talked about all last summer is turning out to be a Super Dry Winter carrying over into another drought year.  And, my friends, that may translate into another horrendous fire season and less water for our farmers. 

Bright and sunny days to all,

Jan