art exhibit and shop news

This bowl was recently purchase and sent to a gallery in Palo Alto, CA. It will be part of Hold & Carry Interpretations in Fiber, Clay, Metal and Wood opening on Sunday October 9th at Fibre Arts Design and running through November 10th.

Here are a few images of wool plaid ponchos that made it into the shop recently.




I used some of the deep burgundy one to make a bolster pillow for our white couch in the den and I'm enjoying the contrast and the warmth it brings to the room now that we have come upon October.

handmade christmas - part one

christmas morning

Christmas eve we all went sledding. Yes, even me. It was very fun.

Christmas day was nice too. The kids opened their gifts at our house in the morning and then we headed to Grammie's for dinner and well, more gifts of course.

Since then our days have been filled with playing and relaxing.

I thought I would show you some more of the handmade gifts that I made this year but, I'm going to break it down to a few posts. The second one will be devoted to knits.

* Clatter balls from Felting for Baby. I used plastic balls with bells meant to be cat toys for the center.
These are cute for babies and little ones and were not too hard to make.




* A little finger puppet pouch for Ms. S. She loves animals and her finger puppets are always scattered about. Idea from Anthropologie's website.



* A pencil pouch for M who is practicing writing his letters these days.






* And, some needle felted animals. This is a true art and one that takes practice so don't laugh too much at my attempts at a bunny and brown bear.





Okay, back tomorrow with some more.

Hope your enjoying your week resting and relaxing with friends & family.

felted bowls, acorns

I've been doing quite a lot of knitting and felting bowls for the shop.
I plan to bring some to Mackey Blue pretty soon.
Right now that periwinkle blue is my favorite. It reminds me of the Septeber/October sky. That perfect blue...

Also needle felted some acorns.



I love Autumn!

busy bee

Just realizing how many things I make that begin with the letter B.
So many B's.
Here are barrettes, button bobbies, buttons and badges.





Oh and I also like making bloomers and bonnets for Ms. S. I am not joking when I say this.
And, then there are booties. I can't forget those.
Just remembered another one....brooches!

I have been a very busy bee in my sewing room. I've been trying to be neat and tidy but it is so hard.

plant dyed wool necklace

Mama made me a necklace and then my brother was playing peek-a-boo with me which I think is really funny and then he broke the string but, that is okay because Mama can just restring it. You know I'm probably going to pull on it and break it over and over again. It will be a fun game. I break it, Mama fixes it.

-Wool roving is all plant dyed wool from Sunbridge College Craft Studio. I purchased it at NY State Sheep and Wool and it took me over 2 years to use it because it looked so pretty in the box I didn't want to disturb it but, then recently I decided that it was the right day and I just played with a little of it and made some beads.

This had me thinking about the garden and what kinds of flowers I want to plant this year. Too many choices, right? The thing is you can always do it different from year to year.

rocks with sweaters

Let's face it. It's cold out there. Well in the northeastern US it is.

Dear friends of ours gave us rocks as a gift.

A whole beautiful bagful one day last summer. They were moving to London and had already carried them from England to NY and well one of them didn't want to cart them back to England.

They are from Cornwall near the ocean and there are so many stunning ones. I really should have photographed the 'naked' ones for you. Some of them have these great details like there will be a beautiful single white swirly stripe or multiple stripes amongst a shadowy gray or a perfectly shaped oval or the one with the eight on it which happens to be my favorite number.

Someday, I plan to mail some of them back to my friend, who was slightly distraught that her husband gave away their rocks, with a few other pleasant handmade surprises. I think perhaps for her birthday which happens to be 2 days before mine. I am pretty sure they don't read my blog so it should be a happy surprise.

So yesterday, I decided to give felted rocks a try. It's basically wrapping the rock with wool roving and then getting it warm and soapy with warm water and well, soap, smoothing it and then putting it in a stocking and the washing machine. Okay, here are directions

Here are the ones that came out. A few got tossed out of the stocking in the machine... not sure why.

So, there you have it...rocks with sweaters

felted bowls

some new felted bowls have landed in my etsy shop...perfect for gathering small treasures.
hope everyone has a lovely magical weekend.
we will be getting our christmas tree and doing some decorating.

lazy daisy barrettes

These are not hard to make but, require some time- tracing, sewing (by machine and hand), cutting, wet felting. I just like the sound of that word....lazy and the way it sounds with daisy.

He loves me




He loves me not



He loves me a lot!





I couldn't resist.

birds nest

Handmade birds nests and eggs. These will appear in the shop sometime today.
I made 3 brown and 2 white.

I originally planned for them to be egg cozies but then decided I liked them better as nests.

You could really use them either way or even as a little bowl.

Can you tell I have spring fever?

new felted clutches

Here are two new felted clutches I finished up over the weekend and added buttons to on Monday. I love them both so much. I wish I could keep them but, they are headed to work with me tonight at Mackey Blue. If they don't sell by the end of the month I plan to put them up in my Etsy shop. I'm also trying to make some for the shop over the next few weeks and have almost one knitted up. We will see how much I can get done.

cookie monster bowl

Me want cookies!
Doesn't this bowl make you think of Cookie Monster? I just had to go and get some chocolate chip cookies to photograph with it. Too funny. I've made 4 new ones and I'm going to post this one on Etsy and maybe one more but, I might gift it. Two others are going to go to Mackey Blue. They are still drying even though it's been a few days.

knit & felted bowls and clutches

Nesting Bowls




Heather Grey and Pine Forest Bowls



Clutches that are waiting for buttons



Yes, we did in fact go to Grammie's yesterday. The felting went fast. I think it was the heavy duty dishwashing liquid but, I'm not sure.
She fed us homemade organic macaroni and cheese and a good old fashioned salad 70's style for lunch. You know, iceburg lettuce, tomato, cucumber and that Italian dressing that comes from a packet mixed with oil and vinegar. Sometimes, I still like that salad even though I never make it like that myself.
Tonight is my night at the store and I'm off to give Little M dinner. And of course, feed myself and my belly.
See you tomorrow.