A nice quilty weekend

I finished up two baby blankets on Saturday--they were sitting there for a week just waiting for the binding to be sewn on.  I love how they turned out!

 This is the back of one:

 And this is the back of the other:

And I made two Pottery Barn style pillows using some linen fabric that I bought at a quilt show recently.  The fabric was $2/yard, and is white, so I dyed it this light turquoise color one day last week.  I sewed a big button on each last night, and now they're finished.

Feels good to finally get some things done!!!

More felting projects

I'm in the final week of my on-line felting class, and worked on some projects over the weekend.  These are felted vessels (or actually vases) that are made mostly out of merino roving, with some other fibers added in  (icelandic wool, prefelt pieces, silk scraps, and even cheesecloth and scrim).

They were all made using the same piece of foam resist, but some of the wools felted differently, therefore the final sizes are slightly different.

 Front and size of this one, showing the lovely textures!

For the vessel below, I used a piece of prefelt in purple that I cut holes in--the piece was quite a bit bigger, it really shrank down in size when it was done.  I felted onto a white merino.

 These are strips of prefelt, silk and some rovings -- all give it such great texture.

And this one I used an icelandic wool to make, it was coarser and very stiff when completed.  The flowers are merino roving, and I added some cheesecloth and silk to make the leaves, and yarn to make the stems.

 I think this piece may have been influenced by these peonies blooming in my garden!

Seems like we're heading straight into summer

Went to NY to visit my daughter & family over Easter, plus she had her new baby (Ethan) April 13th, so things were a little busier than usual.

While there, I took my granddaughter Madelyn to a goat dairy farm near their house where they have tours.  She loved it.  The goats were so friendly, but weren't like goats at a petting zoo that try to attack your hands for food.

And now that I'm home again and back to work, I've been making some simple baby quilts for my niece who had a baby girl on April 16th--

Also, have been doing samples for the Surface Design in Felting on-line class I'm enrolled in.  Felting is such a fun and unusual experience--more different than anything I think I've done before.

 This sample is a piece of silk over some merino roving, with circle resists.

Hot this past weekend here in NC--will probably have to turn the AC on by the end of the week.  Spring is over, summer is here.