A whole week of felting fun....

It seems like such a lot has happened since I last posted here.  Last weekend was this year's Wonderwool Wales, held at the Royal Welsh showground near Builth Wells - about 35 miles from where I live in Powys.  The felting group I belong too, Funky Felters, had an exhibition of our work there over the weekend so I was there for two days. On the Friday we set out our work which took a very tiring four and a half hours, but it was well worth the effort!

The following day I was back again (on very sore feet) to view everyone else's work and all the amazing trade stands.  Too much to see, so little time to see it - which was fortunate as I still managed to spend far too much money on gorgeous items like merino wool and mulberry silk from Adelaide Walker, beautiful buttons from The Textile Garden and all sorts of lovely stash from Oliver Twists. 

This weekend, as it was a bank holiday, we took our touring caravan further north in Wales to Dolgellau. It was only a short trip to see how our 10 month-old Border Collie, Gwennie, got on as a caravanning dog.  She was absolutely brilliant so no doubt we'll be off again on another trip soon.  We went to Dolgellau so that I could go to the Fubky Felters' monthly meeting.  I managed to make a small clutch bag (not quite finished yet) and nuno felted some lovely red organza with black merino wool to make a triangular scarf, which I am quite pleased with. 

The scarf has really got me thinking about other things I can make and I can't wait, now, for some more felting time.

Thanks for reading.  All comments really appreciated!!

Where did the Easter holidays go?

Goodness knows where the holidays went!  They disappeared in a flash.  The house in Staffordshire sold and we finally moved all the rest of our furniture to Wales on a very snowy day.  The words 'quart'and 'pint pot' spring to mind here but it is all squashed in to be sorted out at leisure.  The children, who both moved out ages ago, came and had a massive sort out of all the stuff they had never taken with them.  So now the garage is full of stuff to go to the tip.
It's been quiet on the sewing front since I last posted, but I did have a day with the Funky Felters and finally got to do some nuno felting.  I used an old, black synthetic chiffon scarf and some pink merino wool tops, along with the remains of a skein of Colinette Point5 wool.  The result is a beautifully soft, warm and lightweight stole which is pictured below and I'm very happy with it,  It was a NIGHTMARE to felt and took ages.  I felt like I'd gone several rounds with Mike Tyson to produce it, but it was worth the effort!!

I ended up taking the stole home to complete the felting process, during which I was ably assisted by our beautiful Border Collie, Gwennie!

Our daughter is getting married in October so there are only six months to the big day!! It's very exciting and  I can't avoid the diet for much longer :-(   I seen to have a lot to do over the coming months.  No details as it's Top Secret, but suffice to say I have enough sewing and decoupage to keep me occupied until the big day, added to which is the temptation to make my own Mother-of the-Bride outfit.  The ones I've looked at/tried on so far seem to be horrifically overpriced which really grieves me when I know how much the mark up is on these garments.  Just the very mention of the word Wedding seems to say to retailers "Treble the price - these idiots will pay anything!".  Well not this idiot, except as a very last resort.

Spring appears to have sprung at last.  In fact, I have to admit that today was the first day since the end of October that I wore a pair of shoes to work as opposed to boots.  Don't get overexcited though - I still had woolly tights on!  Let's hope the warmer weather continues - it was almost tropical today as we reached the dizzy heights of 14 degrees C.

Thanks for reading my ramblings!

It's amazing what a deadline can do.......

So today I have been really busy putting the finishing touches to some of my felt pieces.  I'ts a Funky Felters day on Sunday and we have a deadline to meet.  We are putting on a display of our work at Wonderwool Wales which is at the Royal Welsh Showground near Builth Wells on the 27th and 28th April.   I have redone the stitching on the poppies piece I did ages ago, added bits to the underwater piece and finished the piece I did at last month's Funky Felters Day.

Hopefully, between us we will have enough to fill the space we have been allocated.  Most of the felters are much more experienced and creative than I am so I hope I don't let the side down!

The hills are alive......

I didn't manage a Sunday post.  Too busy marking mock exam papers but now I have half an hour to share my news.  Firstly, we have sold our house in Staffordshire (finally!) which is why I have been so busy.  It's amazing the amount of junk you can accumulate in a loft over 30 years - all of which was saved because it might come in handy.  Well it didn't and now it's at the tip.  The removal van is due here next Wednesday so I need to put my mind to the tricky problem of where to put a dresser, a bureau, several bookcases and an almost six-foot long pew. The words quart and pint pot spring to mind here. 

The other weekend (seems like years ago now) I joined The Funky Felters who meet monthly near Dolgellau and spent a lovely day felting, chatting about felting and admiring other people's felting.  I managed to produce this:

It doesn't look that interesting at the moment but it was good to do some felting again.  I'm not sure what it will turn into - a cushion or wall hanging, maybe.  Also, I want to add in some hand stitching and possibly some beads.  Someone at school alarmed me by asking if they were cannabis leaves which hadn't occurred to me, but I think it needs a bit of titivation.

The hills are alive with the sound of baa-ing around here.  The daffodils are out.  The days are getting longer.  It's the Spring equinox tomorrow.  This all begs the question "Where is the Spring?"  I'm getting tired, now, of alternately waking up to frosty fields or pouring rain.  Let's hope it improves for Easter when we have family coming to stay.  I was cheered up this afternoon when Russell, our nearest farmer, brought some ewes and their lambs up the lane past our house to the fields at the top of the hill.  I couldn't quite manage a kidnapping so took photos instead:

I forgot to mention, to those who know me, that the finger is on the mend.  For those who don't, I sliced a chunk off my left index finger with a rotary cutter whilst cutting up patchwork pieces to make a quilt.  After an emergency visit to the minor injuries unit, the bleeding was staunched  and my finger wrapped up in what seemed like an enormous quantity of bandages.  Thus, my patchworking came to a halt for a while . An added bonus was that, unfortunately, I couldn't wash up either.  Clouds, silver linings and all that :-)

Anyway, now it's just scabby. So patchworking and washing up duties will resume shortly.

Thanks for reading x 

Wot no blog posts?

Thanks for popping by. I haven't forgotten to blog! I just haven't had time.  House moving is time consuming - especially after 30 years! Maybe tomorrow I will find half an hour to write something.  Come again soon :-)

Doesn't time fly?

It seems ages since I wrote on here, and indeed it is!  Lots of things have been going on lately which has meant that mt time at the blog has been limited.  My lovely mum had her 80th birthday so lots of celebrating with family and friends was in order.  I finally finished the patchwork cushion I made for her to mark the occasion.  I hope she likes it!  

We had my equally lovely mother-in-law to stay for a few days last week.  The weather, which we had high hopes for, was very bleak and cold so there weren't many outings.  We did, however, manage a trip out for lunch to The Lion in Llandinam. And very delicious it was too!!

There have been births, so I have been felting baby booties.  It was the first felting I had done for ages and the first resist felting I had tried, so I was quite pleased with the results. On Sunday I am going felting for the day.  More on this when I get back!

We have finally (fingers crossed!) sold our old house in England, so we need to move out the rest of our belongings.  My husband is there today clearing out the loft.  I have no idea what's up there but I suspect lots of wood and model trains - it's a mystery to me how the ceiling has never collapsed. I can't wait, now, to get all the rest of my things into our house in Wales.  It feels as if we've been in limbo for ages although it's only been a few months. The problem will be fitting it all in.  Anyone want a few hundred books?

The daffodils are out in the garden, shivering away in the cold wind.  I have to say it feels as if we will never have any sunny days again.  The hills have been shrouded in mist a lot of the time, and even Gwennie hasn't wanted to go out in the garden for a good sniff around, although on walks she has been racing through the woods and across fields with abandon.  She has to make the most of it as the lambs will be out in the fields here soon.  There are already lots of lambs on the lower lying pastures but as we are higher up, the farmers are wisely keeping them in at the moment.  It's March tomorrow.  May it come in like a lion and go out as a lamb, as the old saying goes. 

It's dull outside....

... so here are some pretty colours to cheer us up - this is the cushion I made before Christmas as a present for my daughter.  It's got bits and pieces in it from her childhood quilt cover, curtains we had at our last house and leftovers from the curtains she has in her bedroom at the home she has now.  

I had high hopes of the weather yesterday - it was bright and sunny. But now they say we may get snow again.  A good excuse to stay in, do a bit of sewing, reading and watch some Six Nations!!  Currently I'm reading the first Harry Hole novel by Jo Nesbo - The Bat.  My husband has been reading this series for ages so I thought I'd give it a try and it's good.  A bit easier going than the historical novels I've been reading lately, although I couldn't put Wolf Hall down!  Then I began the Philippa Gregory Cousins War series about Plantagenet women and have just finished The Lady of The Rivers and have The White Queen to go at next.  I'm quite excited to start this as I recently followed the programme about Richard III's skeleton being found in a car park in Leicester. As a teenager I read Josephine Tey's book about the princes in the tower and so have always been fascinated by this period.  I better finish The Bat quickly then.  To the bookcase.........