Friday, June 21, 2013

Wonderful Wool

I am in love wool. It feels so rich. It reminds me of warm, fuzzy sweaters on a cold Wisconsin day. It holds color as deeply as silk. Best of all is its versatility. It comes in so many beautiful forms. I love hand painted wool fabric, wool roving, needle felted wool, wet felted wool, wool wool wool! Its so wonderful. It inspires so many creative dreams.

Here are my latest wool lovelies. The braids are beautiful Merino wool custom hand-dyed for me by Edgewood Garden Studios. Their Etsy shop is so amazing! She hand dyes many types of high quality wools. I told her what I was using it for and gave her a list of colors I would like. She sent me a shipment of wool so beautiful I oooooh and aaaahhd for hours. Each and every time I begin to work with this wool I think of more ideas I'd like to try. I had a custom order for Kelli to fill. She wanted some exclusive designs for the History Museum of Olmstead County's gift shop. I kind of got a little carried away and created 6 pincushions for her. I hope they sell well.

My favorite of all is a little wren I stitched up. I used cotton embroidery floss and needle felted the background and the bottom layer of the embroidery. Isn't she sweet?
























Here are some of the floral designs.
...and the wool that inspired them-

Here are some on my wish list-
Wisteria
Imperial Throne
Cnaterbury Bells

I've shared these other shops with you, but they are so good, they bear repeating.
Lovely silk silk sliver mulberry from Woolie Bullie called Tutti Fruitie
Lovely Intense Pink Corriedale from Purple Moose Felting

One of the newest shops on my list provides me with great felted balls I use for my pin assortments from Crafty Wool Felt
I wrap them in wool roving in assorted colors and do a little embroidery.

I also ordered some lovely heathered wool sheets for some needlebooks I'm working on-
So many ideas! So little time to play...

I can't forget another shop, Chad Quilt which also provides beautiful silks. I love this pink felted wool. Its a dream to work with

I also the felted wool bundles I get from Misty Pond Primitives. They are the basis for the pincushions shown at the beginning of this post.

And last but not least, Hands and Notions which has some really fun wool samples you can order in small quantities.

I know the weather is warm and there is not need for warm woolens, but give these shops and wools a try. I'm sure you will be as addicted as I am to the soft, colorful goodness which is wool.

10 comments:

margaret said...

you have some wonderful colours here can see why you gushed for ages over them. Thought you had made the pin cushions from scratch, that is a good idea to get the balls ready made have not seen them about before.

Anonymous said...

Fantastic wool and gorgeous colours.Your pin cushions are lovely, I love the swirl flower ones!

Three Sheep Studio said...

Your pictures are eye candy !
Always an inspiration.
Rose

Bev said...

Just scrumptious! Your work is so amazing! You are truly talented and, well, just gorgeous! Thanks for sharing it! It's so inspiring!

Cheery wave from
Bev

Gayle said...

Absolutely beautiful! Are the balls totally made of wool? Or are you needle felting into a styrofoam ball perhaps? Just wondering......

Acorn to Oak said...

Your needle felted and embroidered pin cushions are wonderful and so unique! Wow! Very impressive! I like them a lot.

Claudia R. said...

I do admire and love your very unique work! Thank you for mentioning Crafty in this post and for always being such an inspiration for me and others ♥

Claudia =)
~ Handmade Revolution ~

Fiberluscious said...

Thanks for all the wonderful comments. They so much to me!
The balls from Craft Felt come in so many beautiful colors, but I choose white. How boring of me! I do juice them up by wrapping and needle felting each one with multi-colored roving. Now that I know how wonderful Crafty's felt balls are, I'll be ordering many different colors from her and saving myself the extra work!

Kim said...

Jill!!!
Love your blog and all the lovely cushions, that little wren is so very sweet!!! Birds are not that easy to do, but you did an awesome job!!
Thanks for sharing all the shops you buy from, I will be checking them out.
Thanks,
Kim

Laraine said...

I love the wool balls Jill and the colours of the rovings. Your style is unique.