OH OH STITCHER: Sheep Felting project finished and yard

Howdy!
Well, I am done with my Moy Mackay sheep project. I am extremely pleased with it.

I had a heck of a time trying to figure out how to complete it or mount it. I was originally thinking of just fusing some steam a seam to the back and then ironing on some cotton that I had prepared first to hold a dowel so the piece could be hung easily. I tried Seam a Seam and I didn't think it would work well because the wool is so fuzzy. And I was right. It left holes or air pockets. I then tried another iron on fusing product and same thing. I was left with a mess.

I've put the end of a paint brush into the iron on fusible stuff above to show you it isn't attached at all in some places. So, I had to rip out all the non attached bits and it looked downright horrible after that.

I decided that the only thing that might work is 2 sided carpet tape. My dear husband was ever so sweet and bought me some that was a good 2 inches wide. I forgot to take a photo of it but I put the tape all around the outside and then a few smaller strips across the middle to make sure it wouldn't buckle or poof out in the centre.

I didn't like the foam core board idea and didn't want to frame it in the regular way with matting and a frame so searched around the house and found a canvas prepared for painting.

I grabbed some acrylic paints that were in colours similar to the sky and the grass colours of the felted piece and starting brushing it on. I found if I tried to paint it smoothly, you could see the brush strokes and so I did sort of a mottled kind of painting. My husband said he liked the mottled the best so that is what I did.

I then took my felted piece and carefully applied it to the painted canvas trying to make it even on all sides. I pressed it down all the way around and I can tell you it is as firm as it can be and there is no way it is coming off! So I love it!

The end product:

Well, probably like most people, I am going to take a bit of a break from blogging. My Mom is coming next week. She is almost 88 years old and gets around by herself with her walker or rollator as they are officially called. She lives on her own in a very large city in Ontario in an apartment and wants to spend some time in our yard. She is still sharp as a tack but her knees are very bad and she knows her travelling days are numbered so is very much looking forward to her visit here. We have alot of gardens and plants and trees and bushes and she really enjoys just sitting in the yard. Always something to look at.

When my husband and I met and I moved in with him over 11 years ago, there was little more on this almost 1 acre plot of land other than a few large sweeping elm trees. There are now numerous flower gardens, a very large rhubarb patch, a vegetable garden and more than 50 and perhaps as many as 70 or 80 bushes and trees, in addition to the elms. There are rhododendrums, various lilac bushes, butterfly bushes, smoke trees, blue spruces, regular spruces, crab apple, various plum and apple trees, burning bushes, etc. etc. etc.
I have not been able to get to weeding the final flower bed and still have a wheel barrow of plants that need planting but need to weed the final garden to plant them!

I need to get the house ready for my mom as she does need some physical aids to get around. When she is here she will need help getting into and out of the house and perhaps moving her walker around on the grass.
As she relaxes in the yard listening to the birds sing and the wind in the trees, I might get some stitching done, but mostly, we will just enjoy each others company. When she leaves, I will be preparing for my felting demonstrating at the Fair in Charlottetown mid August and then it is a bit of relaxing after that.

Some of my gardens.

The L shaped "under the kitchen window garden". That black thing in the back is a solar heater.