The (not so) Secret Confessions of a Stitch Chick

Whimsy & Whatnot!

My youngest Kate was studying for a spelling test last night and Amanda was helping her. Kate had to write definitions for the words, one of them being whimsical. Amanda replied something to the effect of just use Mum in a sentence. My daughters have grown up with a mom whose studio space holds garden gloves with chicks peeking out, bears cuddled in a chair and happy faced bugs crawling across the wall. Always in progress is the next cute character. I have always loved creating fun little creatures with happy personalities and sharing them through my books, magazine and fabric designs.

So today's whimsy is dedicated to my darling daughters, the cute chicks who rock my world everyday. So here is the wee whimsical needle felted foam chick who peeks out of the garden gloves on my studio wall over the bright blue watering can with the stuffed wiggly worm peeking out! Oops, perhaps I have gone too far into the land of whimsy & whatnot......oh well my daughters will retrieve me I am sure, throw me a rope of rainbows or something!

Looking to create your own whimsy, several of my designs with how-tos are on the Creative Homearts website!

Woolfelt is from National Nonwovens  and they have a great new site for needle felting and whimsy enthusiasts!

The glowing globe high in the blueberry sky sings spring, melting mud puddly adventures await for JOYful spring flings! To a whimsical flavored kind of day!---Debra----

 

Sweet Spring Things!

With my trip out west only a week away I am busily putting class kits together and other fun little needle felting kits. The weekend's jaunt into whimsy resulted in a duo of cuteness, a fuzzy bunny peeking out of an Easter egg and a little yellow bird. The magnetic ceramic back makes them ideal for either wearing without making the dreaded pin holes or using as a fridge magnet when not wearing them. I came upstairs wearing them both, love my daughters' reactions to things I conjure up and the oldest's boyfriend cooking in the kitchen wisely says nothing just smiles. So ta dah for today! cute and fuzzy creations.

March is National Craft month or I am thinking it should be International Craft month! The creative adventure, frees the mind to wander through mountains of colorful materials, wade in deeply through a sea of paints, finishes and glues and emerge spirit fulfilled from the journey with a creation to enjoy and share!

The latest issue of Creative Homearts just arrived in my mail! Spring is blossoming all over in this issue! On the website lots of project extras for a creative spring fling! So to crafting, soaking up the sunshine of creativity enjoy, indulge you only live once! Debra---Inspiring the JOY of Creativity---1 GREEN Stitch at a Time!

 

A Whimsical Winter Farewell

March roars in wildly and snow swirls through the air yet March brings with it the promise that Spring is to come. So my official farewell to winter is my Noah inspired needle felted snowman joined by his two reindeer. In the background is the view from one of my living room windows. I am teaching needle felting in a couple weeks at the Sewing & Craft show in lovely Victoria BC where there will be definitely no snow and delicious signs of spring everywhere.  

The reindeer are cut from foam from a simple pattern I made. Covered in National Nonwoven's natural wool roving and needle felted. Use a snowflake Clover template to needle felt pink snowflakes. What can I say I have an affinity to pink always! The snowflakes remind me of filling recycled detergent bottles with food colored water so the girls could paint the snow. It was like having a yard full of sherbet! (had to avoid yellow though dog took care of that color)

To celebrate the change in seasons to come I have a give away compliments of Creative Homearts Club a booklet of 13 Seasonal Creations, Crafting Through the Seasons with a couple goodies thrown in! Two of the projects are mine, a winter one big surprise! and a recycled sewing project, ok so I am predictable what can I say. The question is...What do you love about Spring? Random drawing for this but lucky me I get to read all the wonderful responses. Next Monday 9th winner announced!

Hearting these Links!
Kiva A good friend Michelle brought me this site where you can make small loans and help individuals all over the world help themselves, building and expanding  small businesses. Once the loan is paid back you can reinvest in someone else.
Adopt Shoppe Being the Mum of two darling daughters who came through the wonderful gift of adoption, this is the place to find those special books, cards that speak to the heart of all involved, birth families, adoptive families.

So with Spring in the air and a reality check involved as to full weeks ahead, blog posts will be Sun, Mon, Wed & Fri. JOY and Gratitude to all who stop by! Debra-----

Wintry Inspiration among the Snow Drifts

I dwell deep in the luscious, lavish land of snow, of snow banks, snow drifts, snow blizzards, snow covered trees, snow covered everything! That probably explains my affinity to snowmen of any kind. This winter I was inspired to create several snowy creatures to celebrate our record amount of snowfall! This gentle character was inspired by Noah, a winter Noah with a large sled instead of ark gathering all the snowbound creatures to a safe haven on his sled. I will be featuring some of the other animals in posts coming up. This snowman is created from a foam ball and egg from STYROFOAM TM brand foam. It is then needle felted with so soft natural wool wisps from National Nonwovens. Glitter is added for an extra icy sparkle. Snowflake buttons were created with Clover's flower mold. Pearl pin heads create center of buttons. Black pin heads are perfect for eyes. Brads work well too, just press into foam. Beacon's Fabri-tac holds all the pieces together. Round toothpicks in between foam pieces make it extra sturdy.

After the last blizzard when two more feet fell I took this picture from my bedroom window, the crystal icicles hang between the snow dressed apple trees. 

The shimmering snow dresses the ground with a white shimmery veil.  It softly flows over the gentle earth with a magic caress and each frozen ridge becomes a crystal curve of wintry garment.  The soaring sun eagerly touches the veil and cascades of diamonds sparkle so vivid they light the spirit of the day with JOY! 

Inspired creating!
Delightful & sweet Amanda Soule celebrating four years of blogging. Her Soule Mama blog is a charming mix of the creative life of a young mom and artist. Four small children she lives only a few hours away in Maine that borders New Brunswick so her landscape is much the same. Her philosophy I love, her blog a blissful haven to vist!

The Photographic Dictionary, great resource, even though a picture is worth a thousand words, you still need a really good word or two once in a while!

JOY (hopefully Spring too) is in the Air!

I am the eternal optimist which is why I am writing about Spring going into the second day of constant snowfall. I know I have a deck with railings somewhere under the several feet of white blanket covering it because I have the pictures to prove it from the summer! Looks like the kids will have to shovel the roof this weekend. I do know though JOY does not have a season and so I can celebrate it all year round! I wake up every morning grateful for my life and the amazing people that are part of it! JOY is a feeling, your heart smiles at the world and love wraps you like a gift for the rest of the day! So to celebrate Joy and the snowbound now seemingly distant spring I created a pillow cover. The pillow cover is a fleece center with a bold border. The leaves are reverse applique and embroidered with pearl floss. The branches, bird, Joy, flowers are all needle felted with black and pink wool roving from National Nonwovens. Needle felting on fleece is very easy and gives a cool dimensional look. Cookie cutters, molds like Clover's, making your own mold  like I did here from foam core for the bird  make needle felting a design easy. Just place your mold where you want it and add wool. Needle felt along the edges first then fill in the center. Pencil in words and add thin strips of wool along lines needle felting with single needle. Just be careful with those barbed needles ouch!  More tips on my Needle Felt page.

Creative friends!  Claudine Hellmuth new product line with Ranger, check out her adorable pillows and purse made with the products.Crafty Chica, Kathy, new low sew fabulous sewing book Crafty Chica's Guide to Artful Sewing. Then you need some gorgeous jewels so the marvelous Ms Margot Potter's new book Beyond the Bead along with Bead and Wire Jewelry Exposed coauthored with the talented Katie Hacker and Fernando DaSilva.

So here's to JOY & the creative life! Debra---Stitching up a little JOY in the snow!

Must Have Fashion Accessory- Wrist Cuff

I am off again in a month to the west coastto teach at the BC Sewing & Craft Show. I am teaching a fun needle felting class. Needle felting is an easy craft as it consists of taking loose wool and stabbing it repeatedly with a barbed needle to felt it into designs. My description upon rereading sounds a little violent but the action is actually very soothing. There is not the need to accurately measure anything and it is fun to combine colors into interesting patterns and design. National Nonwovens just sent me some of their newest wool roving colors, absolutely delicious!  

A hot fashion item at present is the Wrist Cuff. This fleece version is very easy to create and stylish to wear. Using fleece that is already embellished with stitching and beads adds a detailed look with no effort.

Needle Felted Wrist Cuff

1. Measure wrist, add 1 1/2". Cut piece of fleece this measurement in length and 3" in width. Cut a lining piece same length and 4" in width.
2. Choose small bits of wool roving to compliment fleece in three colors. I used Clover's flower mold to create flowers.
3.Place fleece on foam block. Position flower mold, fill flower shape with wool roving. Needle felt in place. Repeat for two more flowers and leaves.
4. Use pearl floss to embellish flowers further with embroidery stitches.
5. Right sides together matching edges sew one long side of lining to fleece. Repeat for other long side. Turn right side out and press. This will create an attractive edging on cuff as the lining is wider than the fleece.
6. Press under ends 1/4" and sew or glue with Beacon's Fabri-tac. If using elastic loops to fasten with insert in one end before sewing or gluing shut.
7. Sew two matching buttons on other end to loop elastic over. The wrist cuff can also be fastened with snaps. Wear and enjoy!!!

Be creative, be happy & enJOY your day! JOY is always present in each breath so breathe in some JOY today!  Debra

Needle Felted Fashion

Sometimes we have a piece of clothing that we wish had a little more detailing. I had a pink knit vest I really liked but wanted to add something so it would jazz up the white blouse and pants I wanted to wear with it. I embroidered a branch design stitching small silver heart charms as leaves. The bird is blanket stitched wool felt with a silver charm wing. I needle felted the flower design using one of Clover's molds onto black felt cutting around it and stitching to vest under bird.  I was careful to not embroider over too far on the vest as I didn't want a heart in an "interesting" position!---Debra--A Stitch Chick!

Needle Felt Tools

New from Clover , molds to repeat a design in needle felting consistently. The rose mold also can be used to create hearts or a sunflower. Each design is consistent but also unique as each person using it comes out with a different variation. Other molds include snowflakes, flowers and bunnies. It was fun at the Sewing show to see how creative everyone got with the molds. Snowflakes layered in yellow became a sunflower with an added black center. There were pink, white, brown bunnies hopping everywhere and when the wool got really mixed up near the end of the demos one bunny sported a blue tattoo on his little behind. The new pen tool holds up to three needles. You have to be careful to not hit the sides of the mold or the needles will break. I found I used a single needle with the molds except for the rose. Check out my other blog "my reclaimed life" for my other teaching adventures as the "Green Stripper!"

Needle Felting

The needle felting was a big hit at the BC Sewing shows and especially with kids age seven and up. One Mom came back the next day to stock up answering her cell phone while in the booth with more requests for supplies from her seven year old daughter. Everyone enjoyed trying it out at the booth and in class. See one of my students finished projects on her blog, she brought the cutest needle felted strawberry with her. http://wayoutwear.blogspot.com/

Here is the bird pin cushion in the other color scheme which makes it look totally different. The birds would also make a cute mobile. A simple ball,egg  and cone of STYROFOAM brand foam makes it easy! So many were surprised at the base of the design and how easy it was to work with!

Needle Felting---101

Today raked leaves and cleaned up the garden. After five hours with hardly a dent in the process...it was time to quit. The maple leaves were much more appealing in their glory on the tree than crunched up through the grass. Break time and now a turn to an easier form of exercise, needle felting. Simply taking a super sharp needle with tiny barbs to felt loose wool with a stabbing motion. Using  STYROFOAM TM brand foam as a base is an easy way to try the technique. The necklace and bracelet here began with 1" and 1 1/2 " foam balls wrapping loosely with ivory and teal wool roving from National Nonwovens. The base color is felted first with the pattern added in the second color. Beads are strung in between with a needle and strong thread taking them through the foam balls. This makes a striking fashion accessory plus being very lightweight to wear.

The technique is also very relaxing as long as you watch your fingers. The needle can stab a finger very effectively jolting you quickly from the soothing rhythm. Working on a padded surface or foam pad is required. A small project like this can be created very quickly in not much more than an hour. With the holidays coming up I will be sharing some ideas for simple Holiday touches to create. A good friend's husband once remarked when visiting that it was hazardous to sit and run the risk of being decorated. I confess I love holiday or winter decorating with not one but two sets of snowflake dishes and decorative touches in every room including the bathrooms. Go big or go home is the saying I say Go big AT home!

Creatively yours, Debra   A Stitch Chick---& Restyle Goddess!