Friday, July 29, 2016

Needle Felting and Bad Dye Job!


I have been taking it easy, not easy for me, I hate sitting still so much but I know I need to rest my back so it can heal. I am able to move more since I got it snapped, so now it is just a matter of building up my strength without hurting it again. I appreciate all the kind comments and concern from all of you.

I wanted to try a new felted piece so I took a design from my Laurel Burch book, Legends. I love this design and plan on making the quilted wall hanging, I think it will look nice over my painting area in the new room, a bit of ocean and a bit of art.

I used a white wool that I got from joannes, I think it was a thick wool felt, but feels more like a batting since it is spongy, but perfect for felting on. I had to trace the design with large black marker and even then I could only see some lines, but I got the general layout and added the rest myself.

This is the base, I have some tweaking to do and adding more fiber and colors for variation, then I plan on wet felting it, then adding decorative stitching for detail on the wings and other areas. I am hoping to make it into a bag or maybe a sewing case, will see how it comes out, how it shrinks up and what I am in the mood for, when it is finished. I definitely need more colors in my roving stash.



I wanted to use a dark red for the background, as in the original quilt but I did not have any dark red that worked, so, I went with black. There is a think layer on and I will add some blues and pops of colors as I go. Soooooo..... I decided to do some dying today. Dying should not be done in a rush, I used white wool and made up a dark red bath but it came out more like light purple gray, maybe a future animal. I also threw in some bright red and that came out nice, hard to see in a photo but it is dark with lighter hints, so a nice variation and will be nice for a santa suit. I need to get out my dye books and find some good dark reds and also just variations, will be good for Christmas pieces.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend. I will be working on my new piece, and hopefully getting out a bit to explore.


5 comments:

Allie-oops Designs said...

It's beautiful Debbie, I love it!

acorn hollow said...

Oh I love it! I have never attempted anything like that.
I hope you are feeling better soon it is so hard to not feel up to moving around.
Cathy

Saundra said...

Very nice; wish I'd get motivated to try something like that. I do have nicely dyed roving and have plenty of colors. Also have the felting needles so don't know what my problem is other than lack of motivation.

Enjoyed your post.

Sandi said...

Lovely piece Debbie, I've only dyed cotton once in a class. Congrats on your colours, I'm sure you'll find you use them both.

Shall we start calling you the mad scientist of dyeing?

Fiona said...

When you are used to being so active it is hard keeping quiet... glad you are persisting at it.. as you say your back needs to heal....

I love the felted birds... so clever

Hugz