I was just reordering some crewel and realized I didn't blog the color number of this piece I am working on. For the record it's appleton 881. My usual vendor was out of the colors I needed so I went with a new vendor, wooly threads, turned out to be a good find as the cost per skein was significantly less — perk!

I can't find enough fabulously supportively perfect words to describe our wonderful experiences with Kidspace occupational therapy. Our therapist Lise has been a dream send. We've love the last year and a half of support, practice, and play. I'm a fan and would recommend Kidspace to anyone — five stars for sure. Max and Viv both have thrived. I love this picture snapped by Lise of the two of them at the end of the obstacle course enjoying a sibling ride on the bronco. So fun!

I had a perfect day skiing with my beloved daddio yesterday. It was an up at five and home by 7 day so lots of highway 80 driving, but totally worth it. There was fresh snow from just days earlier, the sky was blue and the sun shone bright and hot. Dad and I ski well together and enjoy each others company which makes the day breeze by. We both love some challenging runs but also like to chill and feel masterful on more easy glamour slopes. Fun fun fun! I can't wait to do it again. A zillion thank yous too xo!

I didn't exactly need this embroidery basics book since I have the amazingly thorough elegant stitches, but I am a serious sucker for japanese simplicity. I love the sparse and easy to understand illustrations throughout this little book. It's charming.

I've just started another piece as well. Since the sashiko is tedious I find that I need to have a few projects going at once and then decide each time which I feel like picking up. I started this one using the stabilizer method but decided to freehand embroider it once I realized that again some of the elements and line lengths I chose were too small or short for the fuzzy thick felt. I'm actually enjoying free hand more than following and stitching over a pattern. In this case the elements are organic so I think it'll work out nicely. I also adore this earthy lavender color of felt, I'll have to try to figure out where I purchased it or if I can replicate the color. I'm bad about keeping track of these types of things and I've purchased many little amounts from various vendors — oh Etsy!

Technorati Tags: crewel, design, embroidery, felt, felting, wool

The kids had their annual check ups today. Ok so I missed scheduling it near their birthdays by months and the only reason they had this appointment was because Max asked me when we were going and when I said we didn't have an appointment he reminded me that we were supposed to. Oh dear. My son is so grown up in some ways and clearly sometimes more responsible than I am. Kids checked out perfectly as you'd imagine. Vivi is 54lbs and Max is 65lbs. He's 56 inches tall and she's 48." Both have 20/20 sight though Max of course got all correct Vivi was struggling not to see but to identify the shapes. She didn't know some of them like the plus symbol. Max was whispering answers in her ear, see how he is! Both have perfect hearing as well. Vivi got her vaccine boosters mmr, chicken pox and a flu, Max just got flu. On the way out of the office a stranger said to me, your children are absolutely beautiful. I had to concur! Feeling blessed.

I do like the pink palette combo of appleton crewel colors 144, 142, 751, 753 & 222 they work very nicely together. I have the 'handmade felt is precious' disease. I need to get over that! Now that I've completed the project I wish the petals were touching each other and the overall piece was smaller. I wanted the felt to show through the petal design, but I don't think it works as well as I had envisioned. Vivienne says it's a mommy headband, it's not for girls. Her sweet way of saying, I don't like it. It's true it's a bit too big. I ended up whip stitching the edges so they would look nice when viewed from the side edge which is what you see when looking at the wearers face. I haven't been able to remove all the stabilizer either which is quite frustrating. I am worried about washing it since the felt and thread are wool and will shrink. Maybe I'll be brave enough for a cold soak to see if the stabilizer will disintegrate once more time passes and I don't feel so attached to the hours I spent stitching. Hope so! I learned a lot on this one so it's not all a wash.

Happy leap day!

Technorati Tags: crewel, embroidery, felt, felting, wool

I'm thrilled to have received the Old English Appleton crewel wool samples. I will now feel confident about the color choices I am making. I felt insecure choosing from the website swatches. Fortunately I love all color so I figured I'd just collect a bunch and work them into something in the future.

I've had some progress on the sashiko embroidery design. It's a bit tedious and I still have a long way to go. I do like the look of it, though I wish I had made my stitched longer. Short seed length stitches get lost in the fluffy felt. Now I know. I can only hope the stabilizer will tear away easily so that I won't be left picking little bits out. That too is tedious!

Technorati Tags: crewel, embroidery, felt, wool

I'm undertaking a new embroidery project. I love the look of sahiko patterns so I recreated a design I liked. I did a 14x14 inch pattern in illustrator and printed it out so I can embroider it on one of the pieces of felt I've made. I'm using the ashland bay khaki color merino piece I felted with crewel embroidery thread color 984. I imagine this will be a meditative process, ahhh can't wait to sit down and chill. If you find this posting because you were searching for a free sashiko pattern and you like this one, email me and I'll send you the vector file. < I'm big at bunny design dot com >

On another satisfying note, I also ordered myself a bigger piece of pool cover and a better roller. The last of the cheap rollers I picked up at Daiso broke last night — the ol' you get what you pay for story. The pool cover piece I have was a hand me down and it's too small and doesn't have squared or straight edges.

Technorati Tags: crewel, embroidery, felt, felting, sashiko

I'm having some fun being crafty — my happy time! I hand felted some thick black merino and cut it down to size so that Mr. C's galaxy tablet will fit inside. I printed the Avantgarde logo onto some interfacing (you can see the white bits which I still need to cover or pull out) and I am embroidering it with crewel wool. It's fun and easy. I'm looking forward to pulling out the sewing machine and seaming this up. I'll post more progress soon.

Technorati Tags: embroidery, felt

I bought some variated color roving called daffodil a while back and felted it. I wasn't too pleased with the final color striations which was a bummer, though the merino felt is soft and lovely as usual, the piece looks too hippie funky for my taste. To make the best of it I decided to use the piece to experiment with various stitches and see how the combinations look together. I went with a circle motif. I'm not quite done, but I'm finding it quite fun to basically doodle with embroidery.

Here's a close up of the buttonhole wheels and couching stitches.

And this is a picture of the backside of the work. I like it too!

Technorati Tags: crewel, embroidery, felt

yellow felt — scattered seeds design
Stitches are mostly satin stitch with a few french knots.
crewel colors used:
canary yellow 553
peachy 708
brown 184
warm soft grey 181
creamy white 992
I bought these appleton crewel embroidery threads from wool and hoop.

Technorati Tags: crewel, embroidery, felt, textile

This is dry celery fiber over an undyed white. At this stage it reminds me of a Rothko whose work I admire deeply. I really enjoy this first stage of slowly pulling the fibers an laying them criss cross each other. It's slow going and very relaxing.

Here is the same fiber now wetted with warm soapy water. At this stage I roll it over bubble wrap and with bumpy tools to agitate the fibers so they will felt. This stage of rolling and rubbing takes a longer time. I start out softly to make sure the layout stays intact and so that the edges don't roll onto each other. After a while I can really get into rolling quickly and with a lot of pressure. I do a pinch test to make sure the fiber is ready to go on to the fulling stage. I stopped taking pictures at this point. I'll follow through with more another time.

Here's a picture of the felted drab khaki which I mentioned in the previous posting.

Technorati Tags: felt, felting, roving

Doesn't the roving look like paint brush strokes before it's felted. It's really fun to pull the roving apart and gently lay down the layers. I find it very meditative. I just got a new batch of neutrals on Etsy from Eweniquely Ewe Fibers. They are all Ashland Bay merinos in celery, drab khaki, olive green and daffodil colors. The roving above is the khaki. It felted beautifully. I'll share a photo once I am back in the studio as I left it drying there. I've determined I need to start blogging about my felting process and pieces so I can keep track of source data and other bits of information I often over look. I am also keeping track of measurements and such so I can learn to be more predictable and consistent.

These are some of the recent felt pieces I've made. I plan to stitch them up after I find time to draw and paint some of the ideas floating through my mind — such meanderings I tell you! I need the luxury of consecutive uninterrupted hours in order to focus. It's very difficult to get that kind of time when you work and have children. I'd love a make art vacation!

These are the beginner pieces I am working on now. It's been fun to experiment and try different stitches and see what works for me. I need to come back to this posting and add the embroidery colors so I can keep track of what I'm using too. It's easy to get lost in a sea of embroidery floss.

Technorati Tags: art, embroidery, etsy, fabric, felt, felting, roving, wool