AAA

                                                                        
                                    AAA
       Announcing Applications Available!!! 
I am pleased to announce that the application forms for Feltmakers North's next two workshops will be available from Tuesday 3rd March, Jayne will be sending them out by email, if you do not get one and would like one email Jayne at  burgess.j@hotmail.co.uk

The first workshop is a Two day Residential on the beautiful North Coast and is being held in Portballintrae Village Centre, The tutor is the lovely Jeanette Sendler, some of you will know her as we have had her several times to tutor us. Her calm gentle approach suits all ranges of abilities!The dates are Saturday and Sunday 6th and 7th June!

We will be making a hat with a choice of styles, and there is the option to stay in The Bayview Hotel, Portballintrae, which is a small but friendly hotel with good food! (Good food is important after a busy day felting!!) The cost of the workshop for two days including materials and a light lunch both days is £100 for members and £140 for non members. We are grateful to LAAC and lottery for some funding for this project!

The second workshop the tutor is coming all the way from her home in Australia, its Nancy Ballesteros from Treetop Colour Harmonies! Nancy will be showing us how to make a scarf using some of her amazing silk hankies. The workshop is being held in the Scout Hall in Hillsborough and is on the 31st July and 1st August. The cost of the workshop is £115 for members and £145 for non members, this includes some Treetop materials (no Lunch included)We are grateful to the LAAC and Lottery for some funding for this project.

We are very lucky to have two exciting workshops lined up for the next few months, places are limited so get your applications in quickly to avoid disappointment, the closing dates for applications is 31st March. 
I hope you are successful with your application and I know that if you are you will have a wonderful time, I am really looking forward to them!
Just have enough room to add a wee sheep photo! I couldn't resist this one as I thought it looked like Carrick a rede rope bridge on the north coast but its not!

 Rather them than me! See you soon next felt in March 21st at 10.15!
Fiona Harvey

Busy but fun filled Saturday!

Elaine McCombe one of our committee members took the morning felt in!

We had a busy morning with Elaine, she was showing us how to make holes in our felt, on purpose! She demonstrated two two techniques one using a resist, and she added in lots of interesting fibres to create a textured piece!

Bronwen carefully laying out the fibres, before she made her holes!

Here is Leah enjoying the morning session, while modelling her pink sheep name badge made at last months Felt in.

This is the Chairperson (me) giving out our new Feltmakers North pens which advertises our blog, I was also asking members to suggest names for our exhibition, which we will be holding in October in The Island Arts Centre, Lisburn. So if any members have any ideas you can email them in to me, I was very pleased with the response on Saturday we had some very good suggestions, and some very funny ones too!
After a quick lunch Gail Cooke our secretary took our first "Start from the Start" workshop. The idea behind these workshops is to give beginners good instruction and to learn a good technique, so they can move on with confidence!

We Had twelve every enthusiastic girls, some of whom had done a little felting and some complete beginners! Gail had the idea to make a small collar, rather than just learn to make a square of felt, the girls were delighted with this plan! The workshop took on the form of step by step instruction so no one would get left behind!

A few of Gail's inspirational sample collars.

On this one Gail had made a little zip broach to hold it closed!

Sarah gentle rubbing her wrap, she had chosen a cyclamen pink wool to work with!

Photo above and below shows some of the lovely embellishments added to the scarves! These were inspired by the colourful samples Gail had brought along.

Everyone worked hard and were able to go home with a lovely collar, which they would shape and dry at home. Going by the comments on the evaluation sheets this was an enjoyable experience which they would like repeated, so watch out for our next Start from the Start workshop!

The Year of the Sheep!

Today is the Chinese New Year, which is the year of the Sheep, this gave me a little excuse to show you some lovely sheep I photographed this week! I saw them in a field near my house and jumped out of the car to take their picture, sadly for the poor sheep they thought I was going to feed them and they all came running over to me.This worked well for my photos but not so well for the poor sheep!

They are very cute!

Well I am looking forward to seeing you all at the felt in which Elaine is taking I think it will be a great morning!!! I am also looking forward to meeting all the new people coming to our first "Start from the Start" workshop in the afternoon!

Saturday 21st February, Hillsborough Village Hall at 10.15 am  for the felt in, see you there.

Hello to those of you who read this blog and wonder about coming along some Saturday, please do we are a friendly bunch, its open to everyone over the age of 18 and on "what to bring to a felt in"page there is a list as to what is required if you want to take part. Hope to see you soon!

Fiona Harvey