Brown and Blue Felt Project

Well, I went to cut out squares of stitching fabric for TAST and I had to move my brown and turquoise felt project to make some room on the table.  Once that felt project was in hand, there was no letting go!  I just had to try that technique from "The Art of Felt" book.  (see previous entry for more info)  The one where you felt a separate piece of wool, do a gathering stitch around it and then pull the thread to gather it.  I did my stitching and gathering in small circles and not around the whole piece!

I gathered up a few strands of turquoise wool and laid some vertically and then horizontally and then needle felted them.  This is the result:

The best way to get those needle marks out of the felting is just to iron them out.  I used steam but I tested the iron first to make sure it wasn't too hot and then gently pressed.  This is what I got.  The piece was about 10 inches by about 5 inches.

I then took all 6 strands of DMC floss in a matching colour and started stitching circles.  You are looking for texture so the circles you stitch do not have to be even.  In fact the more varied the stitches, the more varied the texture and size and shape of the bubbles!

After each circle, I would pull the floss gently and then anchor my floss at the back with a knot and then make another circle.

I was surprised that I was using up almost the entire piece of felt that I had made.  When I stitched my first circle, I found it was too small so each circle became larger and then I varied the size of the circles.  I was so excited to see how my finished piece would look like on my brown and blue felt project that I didn't use up all the blue felt but cut a bit off.

I wasn't sure how I was going to felt this onto my brown background but just started needle felting around the edges and then I felted in between my bubbles or circles.  If you find that you have too big of a bubble, well, it is easy to fix.  Just needle felt at any point within that bubble!  You can see my felting needle in the middle of the bubbles.

In the big scheme of things, I have no idea right now how I am going to continue, but I confess I love the dimension and texture that this adds to my piece!

This is a close up of the textured blue felted onto the brown.

Now, back to getting that fabric for TAST!