When it's cold, grey and wet, make felt.

                       

Both the pieces are Nuno felt but the blue piece is made with silk organza and the other with silk chiffon.

I made the mistake of using some Lanarte Sumo wool with the chiffon, not realising it was only 50% wool and so I struggled to get it to felt. Have to say that the texture has turned out really well although it doesn't show it in the photo.  And all this because I went to a bag making class on Saturday with Chris and Barbara. We made a basic tote first and then should have moved on to a more intricate bag in the afternoon. The trouble was that I spent too much time on the quilting of my tote so didn't get started on the second although I realised that it was an ideal project in which to use felt - hence making a start on the felt today. There are  photos of the class and the bags that were made if you follow the link to Chris and Barbara's blog. I have said it before but these classes take you back to the real joy of quilting and are excellent value for money if you live close enough  and if you don't live close enough - travel!

This is the tote, together with a padded heart with hare that I made last week from a Tone Finnanger pattern.  The assistant in the RSPB shop was most impressed when I used it today and everything except 2 x 12.5kg sacks went into it!

... and close up of the amount of quilting I did.

You may remember the book I purchased recently by Charlotte Ziebarth. I couldn't resist having a play with her techniques and made a cover for a small sketchbook.

  

Good fun and it also gave me a chance to play with some of the automatic patterns on my machine.

I joined Dale's Holey Moley class before Christmas but seem to have had little time to get anything done. except a piece from one of the layers classes. I have used the technique before but like the results. I used a heat gun on the right hand side of the piece and a soldering iron on the left hand side. There is virtually no difference except that the soldering iron allows for more precise control of the burning and the heat gun is much quicker.

 

I really should stop enrolling in classes unless I have the time to give them my undivided attention. I also enrolled for Susan Sorrell's Fertile Earth class. I haven't even finished the first lesson yet in which we had to use a vegetable as our source. Mine went from this ...

to this ...

and finally to this, which is still in progress and requires a lot more stitching plus some beads I think ...

Bet you wouldn't have guessed it was celery if I hadn't  shown the first photo.

My only other news is that if it snows again I will be able to get up and down my road and my drive. I got so fed up over the last cold spell that I finally decided to exchange by lovely BMW (sob, sob) for an All Wheel Drive car. I was going to show you a photo but it is black and it is dark outside. My window cleaner was most impressed today that I had bought a "Scooby". (I just need the right kind of baseball cap and drug dealer connections to go with it - only joking, honest!) I thought that I might have made the biggest mistake of my life but I love it - it's fast and fun!

Having bored you for long enough I should now go and try to get some actual sewing done.

Enjoy your creativity.

Maggi