WIP: introduction to felting

The week before last, I travelled to the lovely little town of Gimli Manitoba, to take a class at the newly opened Leidsla shop with Cathy from Nepenthe Studio. Cathy taught me how to felt wool.

I've read about how to felt dozens of times, but had never actually attempted it until last week. We started with selection of colours of merino wool roving...

merino wool roving

about 2 inch lengths; second layer

With about 2 inch long lengths of roving, we layered. And layered.

the final layer; before beginning the felting process

Then we began the several-stage wet agitation process. More quickly than I had imagined, I had a piece of felt!

Once the wet process was complete, we tried some needle-felting. If you look closely, you can see the tiny holes left from my needle.

after some needle punching

I will wet this piece again... to close the needle holes. I think I will frame this one.

Below are images from my second attempt. 

I'm not exactly sure what I will do with this piece. 

The class was excellent. The process is tactile... therapeutic and calming. 

WIP: postcard for Judy's Studio Million Miles postcard challenge

Finally, I've made some time to participate again in Judy's Million Mile postcard challenge.

Judy's theme for June is "Hit the Road". Even though we do have a professional baseball team in Winnipeg named the "Goldeyes", I do love to travel to MLB games as much as I can afford to do... so hitting the road in the summer, very often means travelling to a baseball game. 

Baseball conjures the voice of James Earl Jones, memories of playing scrub on the farm, watching the World Series (once harvest was finished) with my Dad, playing softball with my friends, and enjoying "a dog and a beer" with my honey.

This was a very quickly done fabric postcard. It is playful and simple, not planned, not contrived.

This post illustrative. The images below show my progress.

fabric selection

WIP: architecture/travel quilt

The  architecture/travel quilt was first featured in my finishing touches post.

As I worked on the finishing touches to this quilt top, I allowed my trimming to get somewhat out of hand. First, I placed some grey trim along the edge of the top.

And then I wanted to add some red. The off-white will be the border. I couldn't find another colour that matched well (One of my favourite readers recommended I use the bluish-green colour for a border. That would have been a beautiful addition. I tried hard to find that colour, but gave up. My lesson learned here is to plan my quilt better (i.e., buy border and/or sashing fabric) when I am buying fabric!).

So I added a strip of red trim. And wanted more grey.

The border is now on and my quilt sandwich is made. It is ready for the quilting process. I'm going to try to quilt this one by hand. Wish me luck!

Posting this week to The Needle and Thread Network's WIP Wednesday link-up!