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Tuesday 5 December 2017

Felting

I have been doing an online class with Fiona Duthie a very talented and famous Canadian felt maker. I am not a felt maker but have admired her work when it comes up on Pinterest and thought I would look into felt making a little more.
What I found out was that I hate the huge amount of rolling that you must do to make felt from scratch and quickly decided that it wasn't for me. I decided to combine some of her ideas and merge them with my dry felting techniques that I do starting with pre-felts and my embellisher or needle felting machine.
An embellisher machine looks like a normal sewing machine but it uses no thread, just 5 barbed needles that meshes or felts the fabrics together.

Here are some of the samples that I made.






They are only samples but I think they could be used as coral in my Coral reef series of quilts.

I used my embellisher machine and then wet them and did some hand felting and rolling to finish them off. They took a couple of days to dry. Here they are waiting to dry.



I have written down how I made the samples and put them into a book so I can reproduce them if I want. The other people doing the class did some amazing work, most of them are very talented felt makers and needless to say I didn't post my meagre attempts onto the forum.

I have been without my main sewing machine, the Bernina 820 for 4 months while the technician sorts out its various problems, mind you he hasn't spent much time on it and I have had to ring several times to get him to keep on with it; it's very frustrating. It's been so long that I hardly remember what was wrong with it.

I remember that it wouldn't sew backwards and it kept saying that it had lost steps and the sensor wouldn't recognize the foot I had attached and kept telling me to put on the correct foot.

It is very annoying and I have kept myself occupied with the felting and hand sewing but I am getting really sick of it. The latest news is that he is going to get me a loan machine while my machine is getting sorted out. I hope I get my machine back before Christmas.

Bye for now,
Linda



4 comments:

Michele Hill said...

Your felting efforts look amazing Linda.....you have way more patience than me! (And what great coral they will make). Hope you get your machine back soon.....I know lots of girls who swapped their 8 over for one of the 7 series.....I love my 720. Hugs xx

Robbie said...

Ditto on the hand work for felting. Did it ronce but with the arthritis/RA it's not for me! Love what you did using the embellisher...some really interesting pieces!!!
4 months without your machine! Geezzzz Good luck on that!

Linda Steele said...

Thanks Michele, I love my machine when it's working but not having it for 7 months out of 12 months is ridiculous. Lucky I have a couple of spares

Linda Steele said...

I agree Robbie, when I read that you roll for 45 minutes, I couldn't believe it, but they are making strong felt for coats and bags. I think I'll stick to pre-felts and my embellisher for wall hangings.