Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Felt a' flying

So I've been on a bit of a bird kick lately. It seems that almost all of my latest crafting has featured a flying friend of one type or another. Today's is a wee little barn owl brooch. I made him of wool that I felted from an old sweater and backed him with some of that felted coat wool I talked about in my previous post. His eyes are the coolest black glass vintage buttons. All in all, kind of cute.

Speaking of birds, yesterday as I was driving to town a Bald Eagle swooped down right next to the road, flew alongside me for a second and then dove for something in the grass of a field. It was the first Eagle I've seen all winter and I've yet to lose that feeling of awe when I see them. I hope I never take it for granted because they really are spectacular animals.

Enjoy your Sunday, everyone. If you have any birds in the works, let me know, I'd love to see them.

Wordless Wednesday

A wooly giveaway

I've been spring cleaning lately, going through the studio and putting excess supplies in my "extras" shop, and through the closets and donating bags of unworn clothing. I found, tucked away in a closet, my wool dress coat. It is several sizes too small (sadly), and not really my style anymore but holding it in my hands it was clear that it wanted to be useful to me somehow. It was begging to be cut up and used for crafting, and that's just what I did.




Because the weave of the coat was so dense, there wasn't really any felting that needed to be done. I cut it up at the seams, pulled out the liner and cut off the buttons, and washed it on hot for two cycles to make sure it was clean. After it dried and I ironed it out, it was a beautiful pile of felt - 2 and a half pounds worth - that was remarkably similar to commercial 3mm wool felt. Making your own wool felt is remarkably easy and if you're a wool lover I encourage you to try it. I'm so pleased with how it turned out that I'm offering a small giveaway to celebrate and share the recycled wool love.



I'm offering a small stack of recycled wool pieces and a little blackbird brooch made from the wool to one random reader. All you have to do is comment here and make sure I have a way to contact you should you be the winner. I'll be randomly drawing a name on Monday and will post the winner here.

Good luck!

Fun with felt

It's been a felty day here. I photographed my latest set of felted stones which, by the way, are my favorite yet; and I finished preparing my new felt made out of my old coat. I'll have that story and pictures this weekend. In the meantime, I'll leave you with a photo of my new stones and a wish that everyone is doing well and finding time to create as well.

Just a little bit

This is my wee project for the week. These little bitty hearts take just a little bit of time using just a little bit of wool but I like them a lot.

I use felted sweater material a lot in my crafting and inevitably end up with lots of scrap pieces, of all shapes and sizes. The teeniest pieces of scrap that can't be easily used in another project are cut up and made into stuffing, but the smallish pieces are sometimes made into these little hearts. (and then stuffed with the teeniest pieces of scrap)

I imagine them being surreptitiously slipped into your loved ones' pockets as a surprise "I love you!".

Wordless Wednesday

Slowly

I've struggled with finding the time to craft since the new baby arrived, so I decided that convenience would be my friend. I've kept a bowl of stones and batts of roving near the sink so that when I have a minute, I'll make up a felted stone and I've also kept a bowl of cut-out hearts and all the neccessary supplies to make ornaments on my desk. By having these little (but satisfying) project pieces ready to go, I've been able to make enough in the past two weeks to actually add them to my Etsy shop. Hooray!

It seems funny considering that pre-baby I was able to whip out full sets of stones and multiple sets of hearts in any given day, but I'll take it. It's a slow road, but that's OK.

Begin again

felted wool heart ornaments - cupid - set of 12

I decided today to reopen my Etsy shop, but on a smaller scale, one that can accomodate my much busier schedule. It feels good, like a promise to myself that I'll be able to handle all the things I want to do, just on a different scale.

Featuring...

I am so incredibly flattered to be the featured seller on Etsy today. When I got the news I giggled the entire day. This is a big thing, I'm not generally a giggler. A smirker, sure, but not so much a giggler.

I've been working hard for the past few weeks to get some items made for the shop while keeping up with life and keeping my feature a secret. Not easy, on both counts. I'm excited the big day is here though and want to thank everyone for putting up with busy self during this time.

I'm a huge fan of Etsy, of its community, and of the handmade ideal. If you're not familiar with Etsy, please go check it out and support the thousands of people trying to carve out their creative niche in the world.

Something new

I was working on an ornament project last night, something that had been in my head for some time now, when all of a sudden the project turned into something different. I love when that happens! (I believe in happy accidents) So what had started out as ornament has turned into brooches and I have to say I'm pretty excited about them. They're so..so..me. Ok, so anything with moss and nature is pretty much me, but nonetheless... It feels good to be excited about a new project.

What I've done is made a nest from a piece of felted sweater and sewn in some bead eggs and attached it to a bed of "moss" (wool locks) and sewn in some teeny tiny wool leaves that I made, also of felted sweater. I sewed the moss and nest onto a backing and added a pinback.

I hope to get these in my Etsy shop this week, but am quite certain I'll be making one for myself in the meantime. :D

Wordless Wednesday

Something new

I'm a little short on time to do my Sunday window shopping post today (boo!) but I thought I'd show you what I made this weekend. I guess I was feeling Christmassy when I made up these holly ornaments.

The leaves are reclaimed leather from a thrifted coat. They're a wonderful aged green, and I did a little bit of machine embellishment on them. The berries are vintage buttons from my collection, in a mix of red and gold. I had a hard time letting a few of these go, but they looked so right on the ornament that I eventually convinced myself to give them up. I sewed these ornaments together, without glue, so as not to damage the buttons. The hanging loop is a narrow length of red satin ribbon.

They're a new venture for me, and one I'll likely try again. I hope you like.

holly by golly - ornaments of reclaimed materials - set of 3

Wordless Wednesday

Busy busy busy

Whew! What a couple of weeks it's been around here. Busy, busy, busy, and it doesn't look like my schedule is going to clear up anytime soon. It may be a bit before I get back to "normal" but I wanted to pop in and let you know what I've been working on.

Today was acorn day. I prepared gobs of wool for felting and did indeed get some felting done. I had gathered more acorn caps the other day when our weather was nice, and they've been cleaned and ready to go. I have a few projects in the works that are a slight departure from my standard acorns, and I can't wait to get them finished so I can share them with you.

I was also able to get two felted scarves made this weekend, something I truly enjoy. Yesterday it was a bit colder and the suds from the felting process froze to my work surface. Yikes! I'll get the finished products photographed soon.

I hope you're all enjoying your own projects and busy lives. As a parting shot, here is a photo of my pre-felted acorns on my workbench. Enjoy!

Wordless Wednesday

Brrrrrr

It's a chilly day here in Minnesota. It's almost noon and we haven't quite hit 25 degrees yet. It's a day for staying in and sewing, and that's exactly what I'm doing. Off to stoke the woodstove and make some hot chocolate and then cozy up to my sewing bowl.

The view from my back door.

Working on the weekend

I spent some time this morning organizing the studio area. It's been largely unusable since this spring's floodings. My work tables were piled high with materials of every imagineable type in an effort to save them from the water so I've been doing all of my working in the living area of the house (much to my hubby's chagrin). I got down there early today and started to make it a usable space again and I can't wait until it's finished.

As a reward for my hard work, I treated myself to some sewing time and some of hubby's fresh from the oven soft pretzels (with mustard, naturally). I'm working on some teeny owl brooches today out of felted wool sweater material. They're each about 2" tall and have little vintage mother of pearl buttons for eyes.

What are you working on today?

Treasure

I had to sort through one of my (many) unsorted boxes of vintage buttons today, in search of a specific type of button. I told myself I would go in there, find said buttons, and then put the box away. This never happens, but I was hopeful. Alas, as usual I got caught up, running the buttons through my hands and marveling at some of the more unusual. I'm always excited when I find "non-buttons" in these unsorted boxes. I've found everything from old keys, rings, very old marbles, dog tax tags from 1917, and doodads and oddities of every nature. Today I found a red enameled metal rose, a mother of pearl belt buckle, something that may have been a belt piece, and a little three-pronged doodad that says "victor" on it. TREASURE! I guess it's the small things in life, huh? If I can't go diving for treasure in the deep blue sea, I guess I'll be happy diving for treasure amidst old buttons.