Christmas Party

Our Felt in got off to a really good start with a lovely complimentary lunch, which included lots of yummy Christmas goodies!

Dorothy kept the day feeling very relaxing and stress free, she showed us how to make a broach using a piece of felt we had made earlier and a piece of Zip!

Dorothy had lots of samples to inspire us.

Dorothy's demonstration piece.

Denise had tacked her zip piece in place and then proceeded to needle felt the design.

Lesley was enjoying herself so much she didn't see the time go in and couldn't believe it was time for home at the end of the session!

Vicki finishing of the edge of her broach.

Some of the finished and nearly finished broaches, as usual a great variety of colours and patterns.

A very pretty broach made by Mandy!

So that is another calendar year over but we will be back in January with a Felt in on using marbles or beads to create bumps in felt. If you would like to stay for the extended felt in apply to Ann our workshop secretary, names will be pulled from a hat if workshop is over subscribed! (see felt in /workshop section of blog) To come to the extended felt in you have to apply, you cannot stay on after the felt in! 

In January there will be an update of our programme for the coming year, with some exciting workshops near Easter and lots of fun with felt at our monthly Felt ins! 

So all that remains for me to say is Happy Christmas to everyone and I hope you all have a healthy and happy New Year!

Fiona Harvey

Christmas Felt in

I kept this photograph especially for this post, isnt it brilliant?! This is Sarah's Santa that she made last month with Cherri, this is her first attempt at needle felting!!!
 I just thought I would remind you that our meeting this month is on Saturday 14th December starting at 1pm with a light lunch and then felting a broach with Dorothy in the afternoon! If you are able to join us make sure you email me to let me know so as we cater for the right amount of people!
email feltmakersnorth@gmail.com
See you Saturday 14th!
Fiona Harvey

Christmas Baubles

Our Christmas felt in was taken by Cherri Conlon, who got everyone in the mood for Christmas. She showed us a great range of felted tree decorations, giving us a some good tips along the way!

Some of the girls listening intently before starting to needle felt their decorations! The atmosphere was very relaxed and all the girls really enjoyed Cherri's gentle manner of teaching!

Donna being careful with her felting needles.

Fiona added some sparkle to her bauble. Despite the risk of injury we were very lucky and no one pricked their fingers!

Cherri's Snowman

As usual a great range of different permutations from the girls of Feltmakers North!

We were also lucky to be treated to seeing some of the pieces made at Catherine O Leary's workshop

Elaine's fabulous piece! 

Deirdre's amazing family tree wrap!

A Detail from another gorgeous wrap, made with Catherine O Leary at Feltmakers North residential week end!

Next month we have a change of DATE and TIME we are having our felt in on Saturday

 14th December starting at 1pm with a light lunch Please email and let us know if you are attending so we can cater for everyone attending! After lunch Dorothy Dinsmore will be taking the felt in and we will be making a beautiful broach, check out workshop/felt in section to know what to bring!

Three fabulous days with Catherine O'Leary

I think this lovely photo of Deirdre sums up everyone's opinion of our time with Catherine!

Catherine brought with her a great selection of samples giving us all so much information and ideas we could not wait to get started!

Dorothy making her nuno prefelt, which later on would be cut up and added to her garment.

After the hard decision had been made as to what to make, we set about cutting the needle felt.

                       Lots of discussions and thought went into the planning of our pieces.

Throughout the three days Catherine gave us lots of advice and tips on how to learn this new technique and also how to improve our felting skills! Catherine is a great tutor and so generous with her knowledge.

                                 One of Catherine's examples of stain glass felting.

                                                      The other side.

So many very different designs made the workshop a tremendous learning curve as we got ideas from each other as well, as Catherine!

The view from the hall was inspiring!

Denise getting her garment fitted at the end of the day!

The group photo, members of Feltmakers North tired but happy with their achievements I hope to include more individual photos on my next post, as the standard of the work was fabulous. So to all the girls that attended please bring your garments to next felt in, so I can get good photos of them.

Next month Cherri Conlon will be taking the felt in and we will be needle felting Christmas decorations, so remember your needles. the sales table will have polystyrene shapes to buy, just bring your usual felting kit and some wool tops and of course needle felting needles! After the morning session you can stay on for free felting to members and a there is a small fee for non members, remember your lunch! Check out the felt in/workshop section for all the details of up and coming events!

Surface Decoration

There was a great turnout for October's Felt in with Maria who had a wonderful range of samples of surface decoration to share with us!

With cords and spikes and bubbles and spheres all competing it was hard to decide which technique to choose to sample!

We learned the basic techniques of using prefelted cords and spheres to enhance the flat surface of felt with some lovely results.

Maria showed examples of how to cut into the surface of felt which had been stitched to contrasting colours of cotton fabric. A particular favourite was adding standing up triangles which looked very impressive.

There was great chat while everyone worked hard to ensure at least one sample piece was completed before the end of the session.

Some of the lucky people who did the nuno scarf workshop in September brought along their finished pieces to the envy of the rest!!

A big thank you to Mary Larkin who very thoughtfully brought along some freshly baked chocolate buns for us all to enjoy!

Gail Cooke.

 

Using the Lovely Tree Tops Wool and Silk

I took the September Nuno workshop for Feltmakers North, using the lovely tree tops wool and silk, the colours are fabulous, so we were off to a good start! Saying as I took the workshop I cannot comment on how it went from a students point of view but I had great fun and was very pleased with the end results. Everyone went home with a very original, beautiful and colourful wrap!

I showed the girls three scarves I had made so as they would see what I was expecting of them, then they set about planning their design.

I was very grateful to Dan Corbett for coming to take photos of the workshop, I am sure you can tell they are taken by a skilled photographer! Its a pity he couldn't come more often!!

I am going to include some of the comments from the evaluation sheets to give you the response of the girls! "Clear instructions, beautiful materials and friendly atmosphere"

"Well run, informative, friendly tutoring, lots of support and great fun."

"Great venue, with free parking and easy to find!"

"Harder than most workshops which was great for the felters who have been felting for a while."

"An excellent topic with great discussion!"

Having a wee chat with some people that dropped in to see what was going on!

"More of this standard of workshop aiming at the intermediate felters!"

I will post more of Dan's excellent photos in the next week, and I would like to thank him again for giving up some of his free time on a Saturday. Also I would like to thank Gail Cooke who was a great help and also kept a constant supply of tea and coffee throughout the day!

 

In October we are having Maria White taking the felt in and extended felt in on bumps and textures, more details on workshop section. The lucky participants for the Catherine O'Leary workshop have been selected and notified, and I hope they are all very excited and delighted that they got on the workshop!