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.