Felting with Heather

Yesterday I had a wonderful day felting with my friend Heather. I drove over to her house in the snow, which I did not mind.  We had muffins and coffee and began felting.  My niece Bethany has written and drawn a book on machine quilting designs and Heather and I made some felt using the designs from her book. "Modern Quilting Designs: 90+ Free  Motion Inspirations"

Heather decided to go with the fern, and I learned a technique from her. First she drew the design onto the resist. Then she wet the pencil roving with an olive oil soap solution and put it down on the resist. She of course is making a purse as Heather loves making purses. You will have to watch Heather's blog  http://woollove-functional-fiberart.blogspot.com/ to see what she made.

The first thing I wanted to try was a prefelt with silk roving sandwiched between and to be made into a lampshade.  This is one of Bethany's easier designs. When its not being lit up the design is not really that visible but with lighting it pops.

Then I liked the fern design also, but not sure what I wanted to make with it I placed the traced design under bubble wrap then using Heathers technique used a combination of olive oil damped wool pencil roving and silk roving to set my design. Then placed a piece of prefelt on top and felted it in. Added a twirl of pencil roving at the bottom.  I am not sure what I will make from this one, but I have some ideas.

Its wonderful having a friend who felts close enough to where I live to spend a day felting and still be able to drive home fairly easily.  Heather is a wonderful person to spend time with.  I cannot wait until we spend another felting day together.