WOYWW - Felting sheep...again!

Afternoon all! I'm afraid if you're a regular visitor to my page you're in for yet another instalment of needle-felted sheep! New visitors - welcome,  hope you like my felted sheep!

This week I'm mounting some of my small sheepy pics and also working on a much larger picture combining the sheepy landscape with my flowery fields.

It's a work in progress but you get where I'm going with it, right?

It's been a week of sheep for us this week. Monday's weather was fab so the boy and I went on a little walk with our mum and toddler friends. Ben thoroughly enjoyed seeing the sheep and lambs in the field as we followed the path down to a little stream.

As I type, Ben is down for a little nap, but once His Lordship wakes we're off to our nearest National Trust property, Attingham Park, where you can see deer grazing. Maybe next time you drop by I might have been inspired to move on from felty sheep to felty deer pictures!

That's all for me - got a workshop this weekend with TWELVE members of an Embroiderers Guild group (12...gulp!). They sound like a lovely bunch so I'm really looking forward to it but I've got lots to prepare to make sure they have a fab day!

Thanks for stopping by,

Happy crafting

Max x

WOYWW - Dyeing wool

Hello all, back again I see!

It's Wednesday so that means I'm sharing a shot of my workdesk to mark 'What's on your Workdesk Wednesday'.

This week we've been dyeing some wool in preparation for my forthcoming workshop.

Between us, Twiglet and I have got lots of gorgeous wool but I needed green and what we had was white, cream, beige, baby pink and turquoise. We used a microwave dye and it has produced loads of different shades of green (not quite 'fifty shades of green', but a lot!).

Also on my desk this week are some unfinished sheepy bookmarks I've been working on during the cold dark nights.

Finally I just thought I'd share a little pic of Ben finding an alternative use for nanny's cotton reels!

He's got a lot of concentration and good hand eye coordination so this sort of activity keeps him entertained for a fair while!

Short and sweet today! Thanks for stopping by. Have a good week!

Happy crafting

Max x

WOYWW - Things to do with bubble wrap and a roller blind

Hello all!

I took a brief sabatical last week to look after a toddler with a leg in plaster (more about that later) so didn't manage much sewing.

Here's my workdesk this morning. A bit of everything - a customer order, some mounting and some new background pieces to needle-felt later.

You can see a large piece of wet felting that I made yesterday as a background for a larger sheepy picture I've planned, inspired by the Shropshire Hills.

If you're not familiar with the process of wet felting, essentially it involves layering pieces of wool roving (dyed sheep fluff) loosely on a piece of bubble wrap, squirting it with liquid soap, trapping it between net and another piece of bubble wrap, rolling it round a rolling pin wrapped in a bamboo roller blind and rubbing vigorously. The picture below might give you some idea of this...

It's quite a spectator sport...

My customer order is yet another personalised picture - this time for a lovely little girl called Ligeia. Ligeia loves lions and I thoroughly enjoyed designing this little lion for her picture. Here's a sneak peek and I'll share the whole picture at a later date.

My last share is a picture of my little man who fractured his leg just over a week ago when he tripped over kicking a balloon. He's been a very brave boy adapting to his plaster cast well (though thankfully it will be taken off next week).

Of course, with his football practice on hold, he's had much more time to focus on his reading!

That's all for today folks. I hope you have enjoyed reading about my work. Pop over to Julia's Stamping Ground to meet dozens of other fab artists sharing a snapshot of their workdesk with you.

Happy crafting x

WOYWW - crafty gifts

Hello all, hope you're well and have been spared by this week's stormy weather.

Without further ado, on my desk today I have a pile of lovely goodies I received for Christmas from Twiglet.

There are some beautiful Tilda fabrics, threads, ricrac, spray glue and bondaweb which should keep me busy on the New Year. Also there's a fab thread bin Twiglet has made for me. She's so clever, aren't I lucky?! There isnt much work in progress on the desk at present. I haven't had much time for sewing over the last week - I've spent much of my time watching my toddler explore his new toys and books (and tidying away the carnage after!)

I did promise to share some of the pieces of work I produced for customers once Christmas was over so here they are...

'M is for Marlowe'

'E is for Elodie'

I also found time to make some last minute gifts for friends and family. This little fella is a Christmas present for Ben's bestie, Isabelle.

My final piece of news is that my business cards arrived yesterday and I love them!

I had several different designs made up for each area of my work. I used an app called picolage on my phone to produce the designs from all my photographs then sent them to Moo.

Well that's all for today folks. I hope to have a busier workdesk to share with you next week. I'll be dropping by Julia's Stamping Ground later to catch up with other artists taking part in What's on your workdesk Wednesday - why not join me?

Happy crafting x

WOYWW - Needle-felting fun and a peacock

Morning all! With the bank holiday I feel like I've lost a day and WOYWW has come round mighty quick this week.

I'm delighted to say I've been able to make time this week for a little light dumfing (a.k.a needle-felting). With all the busy book and sensory toy making it's been a few months since my last felting session. I guess it's like riding a bike...you never forget, but I have to say I felt a bit rusty as I prodded away with my dumfing tool.

So here's my workdesk. . .

I've managed to do a bit of everything but not managed to finish anything!

There are some hand-felted mini gardens which I got as far as hand embroidering and beading....

I'll be running workshops on these later this year and early next year so I'm keen to make a range of different flowers to demonstrate.

There's a selection of wet felted background pieces which I have worked on with the dumfing machine (the most satisfying crafting activity I know) ready to add foreground flowers. I've used three different colours to try and steer myself away from just doing poppies, which I love.

Finally there is a long strip of poppies which I have free machine embroidered but not yet beaded. The poppy picture in the foreground is a felters's answer to a crib sheet - one I made earlier!

My last little show and tell is not my work at all but a snap shot of Benjamin's work desk following a little (mess-free) painting activity we did this week.

He seemed somewhat puzzled as to why I was encouraging him to squelch and prod a plastic pouch selotaped to the floor but he stuck with it. Here's his finished piece. Though the poster paint has cracked on the canvas, I think you will all agree it is clearly a peacock in motion!!

Thanks for dropping by. I look forward to visiting a few workdesks today via Julia's Stamping Ground

Happy crafting x