meet one of the new girls...

well, yesterday i hinted at our new arrivals and here's one of them! we now have 4 hens, woody, buzz, hamm & lightning (i had no hand in the naming of these chickens, can you tell?) i have no idea which one this is a photo of. to be honest i'm rather scared of them. i mean, look at that expression, she looks like she's going to peck out my eyes *shudder*! i have said many times that i'm a rubbish farmer's wife and this is just another damning reason. i'm much happier in the studio......which is where i had a slightly frustrating day making this little bag. it has an embellished felt front, with screen printed lining in teal weave, which i must say looks lovely! i made lots of bags a few years ago, you can see them here, but i couldn't remember how i did them. it led to lots of unpicking and swearing but i got there in the end, and now i keep looking at it and getting a nice warm feeling of accomplishment and happiness!

colour it in number 2 & mod felt

hmmm, catchy title, not!

after all the excitement of buying my embellisher, i've barely used it in the last couple of weeks. after i finished colouring in my second colour-it-yourself poster (now available in the shop,) i was inspired by the colours i used to create a little 'try it out' piece with some gorgeous coloured felt from wonderful etsy seller kirsty of fuzzyfelt. i'm so happy with how it turned out, it was a real trial piece where i learnt a few things about the capabilities of the machine and how much to allow fabric-wise for shrinkage etc...now off to try another idea before dashing and picking up youngster arth (who was 4 the other day, how time is whizzing!)

i've got other news farm-wise (cluck, cluck) but will take pictures and show you tomorrow.

adventures in needlefelting

so, yesterday i had a great day out at my cousin marie's gaff in the wilds of norfolk - great weather, wonderful company (marie has two boys and a HUGE garden with a ton of great stuff so my boys were in heaven.) the only trouble is, marie's husband mike sells sewing machines for a living. and so i came home rather poorer than i started because i bought an embellisher. if you don't know what that is, it looks like a sewing machine but has 12 needles but no thread. it meshes fibres together to make a solid fabric. most of the needle felt work i've seen incorporates lots of fluffy fibres and threads, and is a bit 'flouncy' for my tastes, so i wanted to put my own spin on it with strong simple shapes. check out this out to see the machine website. i'd been thinking about buying a machine for a while, and this is such fun to use, i wish i'd bought it sooner. the above 'tiles' are my first little foray into the needlefelting world, do you think i might have possibly had my 'scandi' design in mind when i did it?!