Felted Finery – Floral Rounds

July 13, 2007 at 11:59 am (Applique, Embellishing, Felted Finery, Felting, Fiber Art, Fibers, Roving, Techniques)

My husband gave me a PMP (portable media player) for our wedding anniversary. I love tech toys and this one is no exception. I decided I wanted a special case for it that I could wear as I went about my day. Now I can listen to podcast and music regardless of where I am or what I’m doing. The construction of the case/carrier really falls under more than one category, so I will be dividing this tutorial between Felted Finery and Fabrications.

You can make these little case/carriers any size you like. I think they would make very nice gifts for anyone with an iPod or MP3 player.

For the felted flower, you will need two colors of organza and some wool roving. I purchased a package of organza circles in the wedding section of my local craft store because they are the perfect size for hooping. (Sadly, they are of a lesser quality than organza yardage, but they work okay.)

Organza Yardage; Organza Circles

Hoop a circle of organza in a color that is close to the color of your wool roving. Although it’s not necessary, it helps to mark your small circular flower centers on the organza. Use a color that matches your roving since markings can show on the surface after felting.

Flower Center Markings

Place your hoop under the needles of your felting machine and position a small amount of roving on the outside edge of one of your marked circles. Working in a circular motion, slowly tack the roving down.

First Round of Roving

Pull a little more roving and work around the previous roving circle. When you are happy with the size of your flower, give it a more thorough needle punching.

Second Round of Roving

For the flower center, cut a circle of organza about three times larger than the bare center of your felted flower. Remove the organza base from the hoop and turn it to the wrong side. Place the cut organza circle over the center of your flower and slowly needle punch it, holding the edges of the organza so that it doesn’t bunch up under the needles.

Needle Punched Organza Center (Wrong Side)

Turn your flower to the right side. The needle punched organza should fill the center. If it does not, needle punch it a little more until your center flower is lofty and textural. Turn the piece back to the wrong side and clip off any extra organza. (I felted a few leaves just for the fun of it, but they’re not necessary for this project.)

Trimmed Organza

Completed Flowers

That completes the felting stage of this project.

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Rene
Time Treasured

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Felted Finery – Old is New (part four)

May 29, 2007 at 5:48 am (Applique, Babylock Embellisher, Beads, Couching, Embellishing, Embroidery, Felted Finery, Felting, Fiber Art, Free Motion, Perle (Pearl) Cottons, Roving, Techniques)

I saved my favorite leaf for last. After free motion stitching a center vein, I worked three loops of outline stitches. I then appliquéd the leaf down with a feather stitch. I think the feather stitch creates a really nice edge finish for the wool pieces.

Feather Stitch

The final section of the circular design consisted of a center bud motif, two petals, and two leaves. Using a dark gold embroidery thread and a decorative seed stitch, I worked a diagonal crosshatch pattern on the surface of the yellow bud, something often seen in crewel work.

Crosshatching

I then finished the edge by couching yellow perle cotton with a blanket stitch.

Couched Perle Cotton

Next, I positioned the red petals in place and secured them with a decorative triple-circle stitch down the center.

Decorative Center Vein

The edges were appliquéd in two stages. First, I worked a reverse blanket stitch in a matching embroidery thread.

Reverse Blanket Stitch

I then switched to a green embroidery thread and couched lime green perle cotton next to the previous round of stitches.

Double Edge Finish

The third and final step of the motif was the leaves. After free motion stitching some veins down the center of each leaf, I raised the feed dogs and couched green perle cotton around the edges.

Free Motion Veins; Couched Perle Cotton

I added a simple scroll design below the bird, which I free motion stitched with dark green embroidery thread.

Free Motion Scroll

As the final embellishment, I beaded the bud motif between the crosshatching. I also added beads to several of the leaves and the scroll below the bird.

Beading

This particular design will eventually become a pillow, but I’m sure I’ll be using the same technique to embellish other items with these fun-to-make felted wool appliqués.

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Rene
Time Treasured

5 Comments

Felted Finery – Old is New (part three)

May 26, 2007 at 7:03 am (Applique, Babylock Embellisher, Couching, Embellishing, Embroidery, Felted Finery, Felting, Fiber Art, Free Motion, Perle (Pearl) Cottons, Roving, Techniques)

To define the bird’s wing area, I chose a scallop stitch, which I stitched across the center of the wing and satin stitches to define the lower feathers.

Wing Detail Work

I then satin stitched around the entire wing with a matching gold embroidery thread.

Wing Detail

To give the bird’s neck a little more detail, I chose a decorative stitch.

Neck Detail

The three yellow petals were created the same way as the tail feathers. First, I attached them with a free motion straight stitch.

Next, I finished the edges with a blanket stitch using yellow embroidery thread. Red perle cotton was couched under the stitching. The red and yellow contrast so beautifully with each other in this little motif. I think a full-petaled flower in the same colors would make a wonderful embellishment for another project.

Couched Perle Cotton

Each of the leaves received individual detailing. For the first leaf, I stitched some veins and then gave it a trailing vine. The edges were appliquéd with a decorative stitch.

Leaf Detailing

Using a dark green embroidery thread, I gave the second leaf a center vein and then thread painted a stem base. A lime green perle cotton was then couched down with a dark green blanket stitch around the leaf’s edge and stem.

The third leaf was detailed in gold, beginning with a decorative stitch center vein and an outer border of couched gold perle cotton. For a little more contrast, dark green perle cotton was couched with gold embroidery thread next to the previous couching.

Double Rows of Couching

In part four, this project will receive the finishing touches.

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Rene
Time Treasured

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Felted Finery – Old is New (part two)

May 24, 2007 at 5:29 am (Applique, Babylock Embellisher, Embellishing, Embroidery, Felted Finery, Felting, Fiber Art, Perle (Pearl) Cottons, Roving, Techniques)

As a base for the felted pieces, I choose 100% linen, which I stabilized with a piece of starched craft felt. I attached the craft felt to the linen with a light spray of 505 temporary adhesive.

If you have an embroidery machine, you may have noticed that many commercial digitizing companies use felt as a base for their samples. Felt gives the stitches plenty of substance to wrap around. Several years ago, I experimented with felt as a stabilizer for dense embroidery designs and found that if I starched and ironed it (which makes it thin and crisp), it worked beautifully as a cutaway stabilizer.

Next, I used a standard size dinner plate and chalk marker to draw a circle on the linen. The circle would later serve as a placement guide for the flower and leaf shapes.

Placement Circle

The felted pieces had a little more loft to them than I wanted, so I sprayed them with some distilled water and pressed them with an iron set on the “wool” setting for about six seconds. This resulted in nice flat pieces, perfectly suitable for appliqué. (Lots of potential here!)

After Pressing – Before Pressing

After locating center placement for the bird, I began stitching the tail feathers with orange cotton embroidery thread. First, I free motion stitched each feather in place.

Free Motion Stitched Tail Feathers

I then changed to an open toe foot, raised the feed dogs, chose a blanket stitch on my sewing machine at a 2.8 mm width, and couched a #5 yellow perle cotton around the edges of the tail feathers.

Couching with Blanket Stitch

Next, I positioned the body of the bird and blanket stitched around his head.

I then changed to a dark gold embroidery thread and used a triangular shaped satin stitch to form the bird’s beak.

Satin Stitched Beak

Using the same color thread, I finished the edges of the bird’s body with a perle cotton-filled satin stitch.

In part three, my little bird will get his wings, and I’ll begin filling the chalk circle with some flora.

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N. Rene West
Time Treasured

3 Comments

Felted Finery – Old is New (part one)

May 22, 2007 at 6:18 am (Applique, Babylock Embellisher, Embellishing, Embroidery, Felted Finery, Felting, Fiber Art, Roving, Techniques)

Seventeenth-century “fiber artist” used their creative imaginations, wool yarn, and linen to produce wildly popular crewel work designs. Colonial woman carried on the tradition in the eighteenth century. Crewel work continues to have a following today and even shows up in its high tech form via computer digitized embroidery.

I’ve always been drawn to the design elements: the fanciful leaves, flowers, and fauna. The hand thread painting with its beautiful shading gives us much to emulate in our own work.

Although original crewel work used a twisted 2-ply wool yarn, I decided to needle punch some wool roving shapes and see where they led me. I also choose to needle punch on air rather than using a stabilizer. Usually, I have a definite design plan in mind before I begin a project, but that was not the case with Old is New.

First, I pulled a little wool roving and formed it into a lightweight ball by repeatedly pulling the fibers and then compacting them.

Next, I needle punched the ball with the Babylock Embellisher, beginning in the center and then manipulating the fibers into a desired shape. I found a bamboo stick to be quite helpful in the shaping stage.

Here I am forming some yellow petals.

Here is one of the leaves being shaped and felted.

Here is the bird’s head area being formed.

This is the beginning of the bird’s wing, starting in the center and then working outward.

As the pieces slowly accumulated, I positioned them around an imaginary circle until I was happy with the basic design setting.

In part two, I’ll continue sharing how the project evolved.

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N. Rene West
Time Treasured

3 Comments

Felted Finery – Angel Petals (part one)

May 15, 2007 at 11:31 am (Angelina, Babylock Embellisher, Embellishing, Felted Finery, Felting, Fiber Art, Fibers, Roving, Techniques, Yarns)

Embellishment Village now offers a new crimped “Hot Fix” Angelina in twenty colors. The individual fibers are finely cut and wavy.

New Crimpled “Hot Fix” Angelina

Their website states that the crimped Angelina has a softer texture when bonded and drapes nicely. Additionally, the colors are more intense, adding a little more glitz to your projects. I’m not so sure Angelina really needed more glitz, but someone must have thought more is better at EV.

I received a shipment a few weeks ago and have been excited about using the new product in a project. I believe I ordered all twenty colors!

To make the Angelina felted flower, you will need a few colors of roving (mine drank the Kool-Aid), a few colors of Angelina (regular or crimped), and some yellow yarn, such as boucle.

Angelina and Wool Roving

Begin by drawing a simple four-petaled flower to use as your template. Give it enough of a center to attach other pieces during later stages. Draw around your template on a piece of lightweight stabilizer. I painted my pink so that it would blend with the flower. ( A used dryer sheet would work.)

Template Outline on Light Weight Stabilizer

Pull out a small amount of roving with which to fill in your felted flower. Mix in some Angelina strands, using pulling and folding motions until you have a well mixed ball. Shape the roving mixture to fit within the outline as you needle felt it with your Babylock Embellisher or other needle punch machine.

First Layer of Felting

When you complete the first color, pull roving and Angelina in a second color, mix it as described above, and felt it around the inner part of the petals to add more visual interest.

Second Layer of Inner Petal Felting

Cut your flower out with a sharp pair of craft scissors, removing the outline as your cut.

In part two, we’ll create the Angelina petals and fluffy center.

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N. Rene West
Time Treasured

3 Comments

Fabrications – Gilded Gardens (part five)

March 28, 2007 at 10:54 am (Art Quilts, Babylock Embellisher, Beads, Couching, Embellishing, Fabrications, Felting, Fiber Art, Fibers, Roving, Silk, Techniques, Yarns)

Our colorful garden is almost finished, but a few remaining embellishments are in order. This is one of those projects that says to us, “The more, the merrier.”

With the heavy thread work behind us, we now turn to filling some of our flowers with felted or couched yarns, adding some yarn to a few of our leaves and to our background, and capping it all off with beads or French knots.

Take a look at your work and decide which flowers you would like to embellish with yarns. For visual interest, select several different colors and audition them until you find just the right ones for your project. I used spun roving, chenille/eyelash mixes, and brushed yarns.

Beginning with any flower other than the center, needle felt as much or as little yarn as you like within its center area. On the flowers that I completely filled, I began by tacking down the end of my yarn in the center and then slowly working in a spiral motion until the yarn reached the edges. You don’t need many stabs of the needles to do this. The goal is to secure your yarns but not to completely felt them with the background.

Felted Flower

Spiral Felted Flower

On other flowers, needle felt smaller amount of yarn and leave some of your flower background showing. On still others, mix your yarns so that the flower is multicolored.

Before working the center flower, needle felt some spun roving (or other fiber) in a radiating design out from the edges. If your center flower has leaves, needle felt or couch a special decorative fiber down the center vein. I used wrapped silk cords.

Wrapped Silk Cords

Wrapped Silk Cords

Then fill your flower with various yarns. With a contrasting color, needle felt a colorful center.

Center Flower

Center Flower Motif

Now take some green furry yarn and felt or couch it along the edges of your leaves just as you did with the heavy thread in part four, working past the leaf tip and meandering here and there.

Couched Yarn

Look at your work and see whether there are areas that need to be filled. For the look of tiny flower buds, I took small pieces of roving, twisted them into a tight little ball, and needle felted them in place. I also meandered spun roving and needle felted it in place.

For the final embellishment, do some bead work down the center vein of a leaf or two, at the center of some of your flowers, and any place else you would like some bling. As an alternative or an additional embellishment, work some French knots in the center of flowers.

Bead Work

Bead Work

Congratulations! Your garden is now complete. I hope you loved doing this project as much as I did.

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N. Rene West
Time Treasured

11 Comments

Fabrications – Gilded Gardens (part two)

March 23, 2007 at 2:00 pm (Applique, Art Quilts, Babylock Embellisher, Embellishing, Embroidery, Fabrications, Felting, Fiber Art, Fibers, Free Motion, Quilts, Roving, Techniques)

Gilded Gardens 2

In part one, we completed the background for our flower garden. We are now ready to fill our garden with some flowers and leaves.

Any fabrics that have a hand dyed or hand painted look will work well here. Also, commercial prints of large flowers would be usable. The print I used for most of my flowers had a tie-dyed floral design that allowed me to take advantage of the circular centers. I do recommend using several different colors for the sake of visual interest. Since many of these will be covered with other embellishments by the time you are finished, your fabric choices aren’t that critical.

First, back your fabrics with a fusible or with a stabilizer. Which one you choose will determine how you apply them to the backing. Next, cut out some free form leaf shapes in various sizes. The number is up to you.

Cut Leaves

Next, cut out some free form flowers in all different sizes. You may like to vary the shapes.

Cut Flowers

Now, place the leaves and flowers on your background, and arrange them in whatever way they appear pleasing to you. If you used a fusible, now is the time to press the shapes to your background. If your shapes were stabilized, you can apply them with basting glue, spray adhesive, or whatever way you normally apply your appliqués.

Basting Glue

The next step involves felting wool roving onto the main leaf shapes. You can skip this step if you like. I wanted some additional texture on my four center leaves. This step can be accomplished by machine needle felting or by hand felting. (Hand felting tools are available at most craft stores.) Simply take a small amount of green roving and place it on top of your leaf shape. Needle punch around the shape until the roving appears secure.

Felting the Leaves

The basic structure of your flower garden is now complete. Take a second look at it from a distance to make sure you are happy with the placements. If you think more leaves or flowers are needed, this is the time to add them.

Placement Completed

We now move on to the next stage and it is here that the fun begins. Set up your sewing machine for free motion embroidery, making sure the feed dogs are in the down position. There will be two main layers of thread work. For the first layer, I used 35 weight cotton thread. You can use any embroidery or quilting thread you like. Do use several different colors that compliment each other.

Begin with any flower or leaf and stitch around its edges.

Stitch Down Shapes

Continue doing this until every flower and leaf have been stitched down.

Stitchdown Complete

Next, choose one shape at time and think about how you would like to embellish it with stitches. Begin by stitching around its edges a second and third time and then veering out with the needle and stitching some spirals, scrolls, or circles.

Spirals, Scrolls, Circles

Thread Work 1

You may also like to do some echo quilting around the shape.

Threadwork 2

Be as creative as you like. And remember, even little stitches do not apply here. No flower, vine, or leaf is identical to another, so your stitches don’t have to be either. In fact, uneven stitches in this piece only serve to enhance its beauty. Life is good, isn’t it?

In part three, we will move on to the second layer of thread work, using perle cottons and various techniques for applying them to the surface of our work. It will be fun, I promise!

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N. Rene West
Time Treasured

6 Comments

Fabrications – Gilded Gardens

March 22, 2007 at 9:56 am (Applique, Babylock Embellisher, Beads, Embellishing, Embroidery, Fabrications, Felting, Fiber Art, Fibers, Free Motion, Roving, Silk, Techniques, Yarns)

Gilded Gardens

Spring has arrived in the Blue Ridge Mountains and spotted the landscape with majestic purple crocuses, golden yellow daffodils, and soft white cherry blossoms. All of this beauty followed me into the studio, so out came the threads, fibers, yarns, and colorful fabrics.

This multi-layered project is not for the faint of heart. However, if you hang in there, you will be rewarded with a beautiful piece of art that is worthy of your signature and a frame. Mine is actually destined to be a pillow, but you could use the following techniques for a quilt, a handbag, or any number of other items.

Additionally, you could break the project down into smaller parts and use a few flowers and leaves rather than the large number that I’ve included. I also found that each stage of work looked complete in and of itself, so you could stop at any point you desired.

For this fiber play, you will need some flannel and several background fabrics that are hand dyed, hand painted, or have the same look as these do. You will also need embroidery weight threads, perle cottons, roving, yarns, and embroidery floss (silk or cotton).

Perle Cottons

Perle Cottons

Yarns

Assorted Yarns

I used silk cords and beads as well, but these are optional. You may have some other wonderful fibers on hand that you would like to use in this project.

Silk Cords

Silk Cords

The first stage of construction involves building your background. After deciding on the size you would like your finished project to be, cut a piece of flannel a little larger than your measurements. Then begin cutting pieces of fabric to fill the space. You can back your fabrics with a fusible or with a heavy stabilizer. If you choose a fusible backing, iron your pieces onto the flannel. If you choose a stabilizer, attach your pieces by using a little basting glue or a spray adhesive such as 505.

Fabric Placement

Most everything about this project is free form. Relax and enjoy each stage, setting precision aside for another day. If there are small gaps here and there, don’t worry about it. These will be covered with a flower, a leaf, or some other decoration.

When all of your background fabrics are in place, you might like to add one more layer of interfacing/stabilizer to the back. I used a light weight stabilizer that I applied to the flannel with a basting spray. The purpose of the flannel and stabilizers is to provide stability for all the stitching that will cover the surface. Also, if you decide to hand or machine felt some of your pieces (a later stage of this project), both of these backings give the fibers something with which to mesh.

In part two, we will fill the background with flowers and leaves and begin the next stage: thread work.

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N. Rene West
Time Treasured

7 Comments

Quilting – Celtic Moon (part two)

March 20, 2007 at 5:20 pm (Art Quilts, Babylock Embellisher, Embellishing, Fabric Painting, Felting, Fiber Art, Fibers, Garnet Stitch, Heat Gun, Quilting, Quilts, Roving, Stitches, Techniques, Tools)

Felted Quilt

The next stage of Celtic Moon involved felting the land piece. After backing it with stabilizer, I followed the lines of the print and felted wool roving here and there, using three different shades of green. I then positioned the piece on the background and prepared my sewing machine for free motion quilting.

Felting Shapes

There are several items that I find helpful for machine quilting. Of course, good quality quilting needles are important. I also attach a straight stitch plate to my machine, which results in nice stitches on the back of the quilt. Sometimes I use quilting gloves (usually in the winter) and other times I prefer the banker’s tips sold in office supply stores. A newer item that I really like is the free motion slider, a Teflon sheet that allows the quilt to move freely under the needle.

Quilting Supplies

I chose a 35 wt. variegated cotton thread and quilted the land piece, following the general shapes on the print. Next, I picked out another variegated thread for the water and quilted it quite densely. The marble design made the quilting quite easy since it already resembled the flow of water. When the quilting was complete, I stitched around the Celtic garnet stitch design, which gave it the look of trapunto.

The final stage of the quilt made me a little nervous. I had thought of several ways I could put a moon on the surface, but finally decided to use chiffon and a heat gun since it allowed for the background to show through and also rendered the look of the moon’s craters.

Since chiffon shifts easily, I pinned my pattern on top of it and then cut around it, leaving plenty of fabric around the edges. I then sewed around the moon pattern.

Moon Pattern

Next, I repeated the method had I used for the Celtic design, only this time I made my circles much larger. When I completed the garnet stitches, I trimmed off the excess fabric.

Large Garnet Stitches
I took the quilt outside and used a heat gun to melt the holes in the chiffon. As soon as the holes would begin forming, I would move the heat gun to the next area. This is a technique that takes practice and demands careful attention. You can easily burn your fabric if you’re not careful. If you try this method, do a test sample first so that you know how close to position your heat gun to your fabric.

To complete the moon, I painted outlines with Lumiere metallic bronze around the burned out holes.

Lumiere Metallic Paint

This certainly isn’t the most colorful quilt I’ve every made, but the techniques used to construct it made it a very interesting project. I hope you will try some of the methods and incorporate them into your projects.
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N. Rene West
Time Treasured

7 Comments

Quilting – In the Eye of the Beholder (part two)

March 10, 2007 at 6:34 pm (Applique, Art Quilts, Babylock Embellisher, Batiks, Embellishing, Fabric, Felting, Fiber Art, Fibers, Quilting, Quilts, Roving, Techniques)

Hummingbird Embroidery

The more I work with the Babylock Embellisher the more excited I become regarding the potential that these types of machines hold for fiber artists, quilters, and artisans. Every thread, yarn, fiber, and fabric becomes the basis for experimentation, producing unique results that cannot be produced by other means. But I digress. . .

In part one I promised to share with you a technique that I call “shadow felting,” since the resulting fabric takes on a suede-like appearance and renders a muted form of the original base fabric. Also, when used as a 3D object on a quilt or other project, it casts a shadow.

For the best results with this process, you will need a batik, a hand dyed, or a hand painted base fabric that has individual motifs you can use for appliqué. Using a one-sided commercial fabric doesn’t work well owing to the pale underside that obscures the original design when needle felted.

Additionally, you will need a very light stabilizer. I experimented with several and found two that worked quite well: Carriff .50 weight and Gerber EZ-liner disposable diaper liners. Here are the reasons why these work for this particular project:

1. They are both very lightweight.

2. The Carriff stabilizer will remain in the project, adding strength and a good foundation with which the fibers can mesh. Its non-woven wispy appearance also mutes the surface ever so slightly.

3. The Gerber EZ-liner provides a foundation for the felting process but afterwards is melted with an iron or heat gun, so it disappears. (If you cannot locate this product, call 1-800-4-GERBER for product availability in your area.)

If neither of these products are available to you, try a very light weight used dryer sheet (some are too dense) or a water soluble mesh stabilizer such as Vilene. I haven’t experimented with the wash-aways because they involve the extra step of removal, but they should work.

Begin by hooping your stabilizer and placing a cut motif on top. If one side of the design motif is more pronounced, place that side face down. Starting in the center, tack the motif to the stabilizer and needle felt the entire motif. It only requires a light felting.

Hooped Stabilizer and Motif

Next, place a small amount of roving on the surface of the motif. Again, start in the center and needle felt roving over the entire design motif. Use a roving that matches the color of your motif. You may also like to mix in other colors that blend well. For example, I added a darker shade of green on one of my leaves.

Roving Over Motif

Make sure you felt the edges of the motif adequately.

Felted Motif

Check the back side (which will be the front side when you’re finished) to see if more felting is required. The goal is a motif with a suede-like appearance. Make sure enough roving has meshed through to produce this look.

Suede Look Leaf

When your motif is completely felted, remove it from the hoop and cut away the surrounding stabilizer. Set your iron on the “cotton” setting. Sandwich your motif between nonstick pressing sheets (or parchment paper) and iron on both sides. Let the pressing sheet cool and then take a peak. The Carriff motif should be ready to cut. The EZ-liner may take a few more seconds to melt.

As an alternative, you can melt the EZ-liner with a heat gun set to its lowest heat setting. Do this outdoors if possible, but always in a well ventilated area. Do not place the gun too close to the motif and keep it moving across the surface until you see the liner begin to melt.

Regardless of which method you use, a quick pressing flattens the motif (to about the thickness of craft felt) and helps to set the fibers. Now you are ready to cut your motif with a sharp pair of craft scissors.

Felted Leaves

I placed my leaf motifs here and there on the surface of my quilt. I chose to appliqué two of the leaves, simply doing a few rounds of straight stitches. When the sewing machine needle punctures the edge of the “shadow felt,” a slight bit of fraying takes place.

Appliqued Leaf

Appliqued Leaf 2

However, on the leaves that I applied as 3D objects (with stitching on the interior of the leaves), there was no fraying.

3D Leaf 1

Notice the difference in appearance between the thread painted leaves and the appliquéd/3D leaves. They all share color and shape similarities, yet they each have unique properties that add visual interest to the whole piece.

3D Leaf 2

I hope you enjoy playing with this technique and discovering new possibilities for your work. Relax and have fun!

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N. Rene West
Time Treasured

6 Comments

Felted Finery – Sheer Serendipity (part two)

March 7, 2007 at 10:40 am (Applique, Babylock Embellisher, Beads, Embellishing, Fabric, Fabric Painting, Felted Finery, Felting, Fiber Art, Fibers, Noah Cloth, Roving, Techniques)

Pink Felted Flower

Being relatively new on the scene, machine needle felting holds many secrets yet to be revealed. By experimenting with various fabrics and fabric combinations, one can discover some very exciting things.

In part one, I ended with the light green on dark green organza fabric. The first time I mixed the two colors and saw the resulting texture on the back side, I knew I had discovered a technique that could be used in art quilts and more particularly in landscape quilts. The appearance of this new fabric resembles the mossy looking growth on old tree trunks or rocks.

Felted Green Organza

When ironed, it flattens out a little and makes a great fabric for leaves. It can be stitched, appliquéd, or used for 3D objects. Owing to its inherent sparkle, I believe it would also make wonderful insect wings, animal fur, and other such items. Such a promising fabric deserves a name, don’t you think? Maybe I’ll call it “Noah” cloth since the first thing I made with it was an olive leaf.

Felted Organza Leaf

On the piece where I used the Carriff .50 stabilizer (used dryer sheets really do have a similar appearance to this product), I decided to go a step further and see how the Noah cloth handled fabric paint. Using a small amount of pernod Setacolor paint (transparent) mixed with water, I dabbed areas where the stabilizer peaked through. After it dried, I ironed the piece again (to set the color) and noticed that the paint had removed the sparkle from organza, providing me with more options to play with in the future.

As we saw in part one, the nature of polyester organza changes under the needle. In its original form, it is very sheer, unruly, and frays easily. After being needle punched to a light stabilizer, it loses some of its transparency, behaves beautifully, and becomes a non-fraying fabric.

Additionally, organza can be used as a base fabric for other felting projects, which it what we will turn to now for the fluffy pink flower. First, hoop a piece of organza whatever color you would like your flower to be.

Hooped Organza

Place a small amount of wool roving on top the hooped organza. I like to pull it apart and fluff it out so that there are no heavy areas. Beginning in the middle, slowly tack down the roving.

Organza and Roving

After the roving is secured, give it a more thorough felting, making sure you have covered the entire surface.

Thorough Felting

Remove the felted piece from the hoop and cut five flower petals. I cut one and then used it as my pattern for the remaining four petals. (Although we are going to take these little petals to new dimensions, you could use them at this stage for many other projects.)

Cut Five Petals

Returning to your Embellisher or needle punch machine (you could also use a hand needle punch), take one petal at a time and very lightly felt a small amount of roving across the surface. Do this very slowly and only allow the needles to punch the fabric a few times in each spot. The goal here is to have a fluffy dimensional petal. Also, it helps to roll your roving into the shape of the petal before putting it under the needles.

Extra Roving

You will now have five petals with a fluffy loft to them, ready to become a flower.

Five Fluffy Petals

For the center core, I used a small round piece of felted organza left over from the project in part one. You could just as easily use a piece of craft felt. To aide in the flower’s symmetry, dab a tiny amount of fabric glue on the back side of the inner points and positioned them evenly around the yellow circle.

Tack Down Petals

Next, turn the flower over to the back and needle punch around the yellow circle, securing each of the five petals.

Felting the Petals Together

You may like your little flower just as it is at this stage, or you may like to embellish it further; the choice is yours to make. However, if you used a piece of felted organza for your center, observe the effects on the front of the flower. Notice that the organza fibers felted through to the front of your flower and graced it with their sparkle.

Organza Sparkle

To complete the flower as pictured in part one, take a small amount of yellow roving, form it into a little ball, and needle punch it in the center front of the flower.

As a finishing touch, sew some seed beds around the circumference of the center. You now have a lovely little flower that will add beauty wherever you plant it.

There were a few other serendipitous surprises as I worked with various fabrics. I’ll be sharing these with you in the near future so stay tuned.

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N. Rene West
Time Treasured

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