Ukulele lady #1

Hi, sorry that the photo is a bit poor but I've had to use my tablet to take the photo. This is ukulele lady #1 ,needle felt made on my embellished with a commercial felt backing and stuffing. I even got her to stand up which is quite impressive !

I'm playing around with small items based on  the ukulele for a festival in a couple of months the times where I will be hopefully selling my ukulele straps along with uke themed earing and key rings etc.

What do you think?

more scary decorations

Hi, just a quick post as I have some photos to sort out still from last weekend ......here's the rest of the anti xmas crowd seem in a group shot shortly before being re homed with many of my friends.

anti christmas gifts

                      

                                                            Hehe :-)

Playing again

I seem to have a bit of a dilema, I'm a spinner and I always knit with handspun mainly because I am a slow knitter which sort of matches my spinning speed/time at the moment. Anyway, I am also the co-owner of a knitting shop which stock lots of lovely knitting wool that I don't knit with.....are you beginning to see my problem?
So, it's my turn to write on the knitting shop blog about knitting and the shops yarns...HELP!! I've already written 3 post about spinning as we stock basic drop spindles and small amounts of fibre so now its out into the big world of shop yarns.
So today I've been playing with some oddments from the shop and my embellisher just to make a start and I'm going to make a list of crafts other than knitting that I can use the yarns for. This is where you, my friends ,come in. Any ideas, I've been thinking braids, tablet weaving, maybe lacemaking I would welcome any suggestions.

Todays efforts......

will keep me going for a bit :-)

Ideas of Inspiration Letter B

B for Blanket Stitch Box.



take wool fibres left over from spinning, hand spun thread and an embellisher, result...3 inch square box seamed with buttonhole stitch. May need to find a button for the lid.

Ideas of Inspiration

Ideas of Inspiration, see here for more details. Basically a word challenge is issued every two weeks and it is is up to you as to how you use it, doodle, photo, whatever.
Now I was sure that I had signed up but mistaken so I am still waiting for my name to be added but in the meantime I have had a bash at the first word Winter White





finished size approx 11x6 inch
materials merino and wensleydale wool, silk, Cotton sliver, handspun thread
created on the embellisher with minimal hand stitching

do you do purple?

Wild Woman in Purple

Merino, silk and other assorted fibres, Blue Face Leicester curls and stray beads..
on the way to Bettina :-)

make me something pink

was the request from a friend so out came the embellisher




is she pink enough?

Apology

Firstly I must apologise for not getting back to everyone who has commented on my last couple of posts, I will be trying my best this week to catch up.
Unfortunately my first full week at work doing a full job proved to be difficult than I thought, mentally more than physically so the computer and blogging took a back shelf. However things were helped by a session at stitched up on Wednesday night (thanks ladies)

On Friday, Claire from Pinky and Boo came to my rescue by texting me an offer to teach using the embellisher machine in her class at the textile workshop on Friday night. Needless to say I jumped at the offer and would even have arrived on time if I hadn't got caught up in a cycle demo in town!!
Ths class was great fun with one student finishing her wet felted bag with a large needle felted flower and another who added silk fibres to an existing wet felt piece to make what I think will be a small hanging rather than a purse. Everyone had a go and had some fun and we didn't break a single needle!!!


The postman bought this ATC all the way from Australia, he's so cute!!! Thanks Laura.
I hope my ATC makes the long journey safely.

Just for fun

Hi, since I'm still surrounded by the decorators and the embellisher is still on the table, I decided to have a play just for the fun of it.
This is my doodle for Doodle Day blog



and this is the embellisher version



not my usual style but fun to do and pretty quick:-) ( picture a little darker than actual item)

Update- no heating still, engineer trying to find a fan for the boiler but the newly decorated hallway looks great!!

FibreFantastical Day

The decorators and repair men turned up at 8 this morning so I really had to stay out of their way so I made a nest in my workroom. Remember those lovely soft wool tops and the urge to relate to cave paintings in my previous posts? well today I got chance to sit and work at the embellisher to see what would evolve. I must admit that I don't always start with a design, often the fabric or fibres will speak out.

Chris Gray kindly sent me details of rock carving that she had come across her travels and armed with ideas from these, I plucked out some fibre and went for it.

The base fabric on both of these cylinders, containers, pots or whatever they are, is acrylic felt with wool tops and wool nepps embellisher on top. They are stitched together with yarn spun from the same fibres.





the next one is an experiment on line drawing ie just one needle in the embellisher and worked from the reverse ( the black acrylic felt)

Rock Art Samples

Spurred on by the natural fibres, I've made a start on exploring prehistoric rock art, we will have wait and see where this one goes :-)

Lily and a giveaway (not mine)

Hi, two things to tell today.

Firstly, Biker Ted says he is having a GIVEAWAY!! so if you husbands/partners/sons are into motorbikes and fancy an insight to biking in Europe, check out this post.

Ok, I'm safe from complaints from the small furry one for a while now and I'm ignoring his comments about being him being trapped in my workroom for a few days.

This is Lily who has now found a new home in Wales with Gina.



Felted mohair and silk, stitched with raw silk thread.

I'm afraid the photo doesn't do her justice!

Embellisher - simple boxes

as I said, today is play day with the embellisher and the fibre mountain.
First project is felted boxes, I cheated and made this one yesterday.


merino roving, painted silk fibres and hand stitching.



If you want to know how to do this, I have made a short video and will provide further instruction if required.


did you spot me break a needle :-(

todays title is....

Suspended.


You may recognise these little birds, they seem to still pop up from time to time:-)



handstitched on wool background with embellished silk fibres.

Check out Todays Title is to see what everyone else is doing.

My name is Guzzisue and............

I am a fibre addict.


This is just the tip of the iceberg, I also have bags and bags of coloured assorted fibres.The challenge is to start to use some of this stash.
It all started at my first sewing show when I bought a small bag of this and one of that.The problem is that instead of playing with a lot of these they have been admired then put in the cupboard for safe keeping.

I have already made one small project which will be revealed once it has been received by its new owner.



The degummed silk cocoons are proving fun to pull apart, have been loosely spun with merino with mixed results which I think is more down to my bad spinning that anything else.
Over the next few days I intend to push a selection of these fibres under the embellisher and see what develops.I want to try and work with just these and as little commercially prepared material as possible although I will need to add embroidery threads but I think I have some that are undyed so I can colour those myself.

On a lighter note, my thanks to Acereta for these awards. Another lacemaker but this time in Russia working on a very different style of lace to mine.

sneaky preview

a sneaky look at a small project on my desk, angora wool (goat)de gummed silk coccoons and wild silk thread.

embellisher

The wool at the Textile Workshop in Sherwood, Nottingham is so gorgeous that I just had to make thede small bowls so Susie could show her over customers that you don't just have to knit with it.

TAST revisited, week 18

Whipped and woven wheels,





felted background, stitched with wool, size ATC sorry for slightly shakey photography, ATC is actually correct size not wonky :-)

embellisher practise

I was having fun until I snapped two needles, think I need to wait until I have a bit more control of my right hand.

view from my window at the moment
I think I will grab a cuppa and watch the sky for a while.