Prefelts

Prefelts hanging on a poor, drought stricken honeysuckle. These will be cut into geometric shapes and worked into scarves.

Celtic Cross, Part II

The colors of the prefelt Celtic cross were dulled by the brown fibers that crept through. The embroidery delineates the design, but I missed the saturated colors from the prefelt. I decided to make another cross to put on the other side of the bag.

The handles are once again an upcycled leather belt. The trim on the top edge of the bag is silk tartan upcycled fabric.

Notice the color of the grass in the background. This August has been terribly hot and dry, even for Texas.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/81693657/celtic-cross-wool-felted-tote-bag

Celtic Cross

The inside layer of wool is white corriedale, andthe middle layer is the multi-colored BFL in Redwood Forest. I hope the colors all show through the white to make a lighter colored interior but still showing the lovely shades of blue, green and brown. The exterior is natural brown with a little blue and green carded in.

I made a length of felt out of the BFL to cut up for the design which I will felt in place. After it is felted the plan is to use the green yarn to add the detail to the Celtic cross. The template for the cross was an image from layeducation.org. By the time the felted project is complete it may not resemble the original at all!

A Good Read

After taking a dyeing class recently I started reading up on different pigments and dyes, and ended up reading an absolutely terrific book. Color: A Natural History of the Palette by Victoria Finlay. It's a cross between a history of pigment & dyeing and an armchair adventure. The chapters are organized by color, and off the author goes around the world in search of the traditional source.

Primary Colors

No, not the book! A red, yellow and blue scarf made from merino wool, silk sari threads, bamboo, and bombyx silk fiber. It's hard to even think about wearing a scarf now that summer has come to Texas. The best part of the heat is the scarf was dry in about 10 minutes after hanging it out on the clothesline.

Sandwiched Felt

After weeks of recuperating I am back to felting. Hooray!

This was an experiment that didn't yield the intended result. I sandwiched wool between a floral upcycled piece of organza silk and a green silk yardage from the fabric store. The floral side is heavily textured, which I like. and the green side has a much finer, tighter texture. What I didn't anticipate was how little drape the overall piece would have once completed. A smaller quantity of roving laid out in the middle might have allowed the silk to drape nicely. Aahh, tomorrow's another day, Scarlett!

When You Can't Felt, Quilt

It's been a very long week of trying not to add to my back injury. Since I can't felt, in an attempt to sit still I got out a cathedral window quilt that has been sitting in the closet for ages. It has about a zillion tiny stitches to go unless it becomes a lap robe instead of a queen size, which was my original intention. The fabrics are lovely batiks which are eye candy. It isn't technically a quilt because there is no batting, but with all of the layers of fabric it is quite heavy and doesn't need any.