I'm crazy about Wool!

I recently ordered some lovely hand painted wool from Misty Pond Primitives on Etsy.

I then received some lovely hand painted wool roving from Ingrid Moss.













Its so hard not to feel incredibly inspired when you are working with materials created by another artist. When you realize that so many wool materials available are recycled from a renewable, natural source, well, it is pure joy.

I love wool. It has a lovely hand and is easily sewn, stitched, embroidered, felted....whew! there are so many ways to work with this natural, versatile material. Many of my cashmere pincushions are recycled wool, made from felted sweaters...

I am so excited about my newest creations, I just had to share them with you. I've been so busy with special orders, that I've had to fit these projects in here and there, mostly at 2 in the morning. But, they were worth it.




I had originally planned to create a brooch. However, I was so engrossed in creating this pretty flower, I lost track of how large it was! The flower was a study from a piece I found on Pinterest, (the ultimate place to find inspiration). Here is the link to the website which is in French, so I can't even tell you who the artist is.
Here is a detail of the silk ribbon, beads and stitches I used. I created many straight ribbon embroidery stitches along with big, juicy bouillon stitches with perle cotton. I used gobs of seed stitches using variegated cotton floss. I then added lots of beautiful glass beads.



I also created this fun strawberry in black wool, with many bits and pieces of other colored wools, combined with needle felting and embroidery. I was going for a very dimensional look, like stumpwork. Needle felting makes lifting stitches fast and easy.


Here is a cute little brooch created with wool and embroidery cotton. Very easy, very cute, very "you should try this one".

Just cut, layer and stitch. The hardest part is choosing the colors and the subject matter. I often say I should just sit down one day and create all the little ideas I can think of in wool. I also say I should just sit down and learn patchwork, or just sit down and make more tiaras, or....you get it. I'm sure your life is much like mine. Too many fun things to play with and never enough time.












I have a few more projects to share. here is a fun little pin book. It was so easy to create and very useful for traveling with your stitching. I created it to hold 3 pins from my "stick with me" decorative assortments. I love these little pins and I wish I could send more with each pin cushion I make. (Each of my pin cushions include 2.)


If you like my pins, they also come in an assortment of 10. You an buy one style or mix them up by color, or just allow me to create an assortment for you.

My next post is going to be my little house pincushion project. I promise I'll try hard to get a pattern up and a tutorial. Its one of those things that you think you will hate making because it seems complicated, but once you get stitching, it falls together like magic. Its a great scrap project. It wont use a lot of fabric, but if you are like me, the longest time you spend will be choosing which of your fabrics to include!