Progress on the DWR, felting, a pattern link.

 I'm working, working, working!  Actually, I've been busy in the shop.  We've had a lot of orders this week.  But I've been working every day on the Double Wedding Ring.  I have the red arcs all done- with red squares on the ends of half of them.  Now I'm working on the black and whites.

One thing I've noticed is that the cutting mats will have a lifetime.  Unless I miss my guess, this one will be at the end of its lifetime by the time I've finished with this quilt.  They aren't very expensive, but I expected them to last a little longer than this.  If you have a GO!, what has your experience been with the lifespan of the mats?

It really is mind-boggling.  I've been actively working on this for about 2 weeks, and I almost have all of the pieces cut, and more than half of them stitched... for a king size Double Wedding Ring quilt!  That's incredible!  Without the GO!, this never would have been possible.  Next week all of these pieces will start to come together and I will finally be able to have the fun of placing the arcs and intertwining the colors.  I can hardly wait!

I got a lot of comments on the felted entrelac bags the other day.  Thank you  for all of your kind words. (blush, blush). I'm usually pretty good about citing patterns and giving links but it slipped my mind this time.  I'll go back and put it in that post, and also give it here.  The pattern I used is a Skill-Builder pattern by Knitability.com.

 I also have a few Booga Bags.  The Booga Bag pattern is free and it's a great first felting project!

This one is pretty thick.  I used 2 strands of Cascade 220 wool yarn when knitting this one.  I used solid dark gray, light gray, and purple, alternating, for this.  To blend the colors, I started with
2 strands of dark gray for the bottom.
Then one strand of dark gray and one strand of light gray for 2 rows
Then 2 strands of light gray for several rows
Then one strand of light gray and one strand of purple for 2 rows
Then 2 strands of purple for 2 rows
Then 1 strand of purple and one strand of dark gray for 2 rows
then 2 strands of dark gray for several rows
.You get the idea.  Just keep using 2 of the same color, then one of the old and one of the new colors together for 2 rows.... then 2 of the new color.  It blends the colors nicely.

 

This is just a little one in single stranded self striping Noro Kuryon.  It's thinner and lighter.

I've loved this one for several years- it looks pretty good in this photo but it's far from new-looking these days.  How do you like the little "spooky eyes" fabric under the booga bags?  :-)








You can also take an old wool garment (sweaters are good), and felt them.  Then cut them up and use the felted wool to work with.  Resale shops are a great place to find old sweaters to felt.  Look for sweaters that have holes or are ripped.  They're cheap.

I lifted (with permission!) these photos from another blog.  AMKreations is very creative and has a nice blog.  She made this clutch by felting and old sweater and lining it with a pretty batik.  There's a little felted wallet in there, too.  I think I need one of these. :-)

I'd like to make a felted laptop cover one of these days.  You can get creative with the sweaters and use the ribbing at the waist for the flap of the bag, and use the ribbing at the cuff for pockets.  The possibilities are endless.  Have you made any felted items?  I'd love to see them!

Another thing I'd like to do someday is felt some old sweaters that belonged to my kids when they were little.  I saved some of them... not all in great shape... for this purpose.  It would be one of those "Mom things" to have a felted wallet or laptop case made from a sweater or blanket that my children used.  (My babies are grown men now).

I once made some felted place mats but I don't have a picture.  Just felt an old sweater, then cut place mats out of them.  It's that simple.  You can needle felt pretty designs on it if you like.

The last felting topic is needle felting.  That's a whole different ball game!  One of these days I'll do some needle felting and blog about it.  Gotta clear some other projects off the list first!

I have a wonderful day planned tomorrow with friends.... I'll take my camera.....