June 25, 2017

More Fun with Felt

 In my last post I told you about the "Fun with Felt" class I will be teaching at the Creative Craft Retreat later in the year. The class has limited numbers so that I can give individual guidance to the ladies. This means they will have a wide range of choice, both of design, and felt and thread colours, rather than everyone doing the same thing.


I am going to encourage them to choose their design before they arrive so that they don't waste the first hour trying to make up their minds which one to embroider!


I was going to email them a dozen or so designs that I have drawn, from which they can choose ... but how boring is it to see a black and white drawing on a computer screen!?!   

I decided it would be much better to show them worked examples, so I've been having my own 'fun with felt' time and been stitching some of them:


We will be working on a small rectangle of felt which can be put on a bag, or Ipad or Journal cover or made into a needlecase or pincushion - ideas only limited by one's imagination. 


I am really hooked on felt at the moment!



Candy from Capetown recently sent me two photos of block of the month projects that she has completed. Here's "Keys to Contentment" from a couple of years ago:


and last year's free pattern "You are Blessed":


Hasn't Candy done a lovely job! Now she is starting on this year's "Hand-picked Wardrobe". If you want to join in this free Block of the Month programme, all the patterns from the last six months are still available and will remain free until the end of the year.

I hope you are having as much fun with your stitching as I am.

Val

June 11, 2017

Free Block of the Month Wall Quilt - Block 6

It's hard to believe that nearly half the year has already gone! That means it's time to give you Block 6 of the Free Block of the Month Wall Quilt
Hand-picked Wardrobe.


So, chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you.  Put on kindness ....
Colossians 3:13


 When you finish this block, the quilt will be half finished!


 The block for this month includes a pinwheel:


The free pattern is in my Craftsy Store here.

I've been addicted to felt the last couple of weeks. I am teaching "Fun with Felt" at the Creative Craft Retreat later in the year, so have been having a wonderful time preparing samples.  


In the bird sample, there are eleven fun stitches which give it so much texture and dimension: Blanket stitch around the edge, Fly stitch on the outside of the bird, satin stitch eye, cast-on stitch around the wing, then chain on the inner wing, Palestrina knot around the tail and coral stitch on the inner tail, back stitch leaves, stem stitch vine, straight stitch feet. Then there are the whipped woven circles on the ends.


 It is so much fun watching the transformation of some lifeless felt into a 'work of art'. I like the folksy feel this sample has. It's a genre I've been exploring a bit more lately. Who knows where it might take me!

Happy stitching!
Val