First a reminder to renew your membership this month so you can vote at the AGM and have access to the Feltwest members site.
Keep an eye out for information on the October Craft Fair at UWA.
It was a delight to see all the clever and colourful pieces made at the retreat by those who brought them along. Here is what some group members had made over the weekend.
Sue Eslick experimented with bags, felting around a basketball and ending up with a unique bag felted in one piece, very neat. Sue also showed off her red hat with long and curly spirals coming from the centre. Liz Odd made a collar from silk hankies and had with her some shibori scarves which had been felted resulting in some interesting textures. Vianne showed off her stunning silk hankie apron dress made on the retreat and also brought in some very loose knit sleeves, each having an end which pops over your head to create a jumper – fabulous. Kim made a purple silk lap short scarf and a small red and gold bag. Mary Ann finished her gorgeous silk paper black and silver wrap. Mary Ann also had made a felted ball for her grandchildren. To do this she cut foam to a rough ball shape and lay wool directly over the foam, wet it and put it into a plastic shopping bag to keep it all together and felted it like that. It turned out perfectly well. Alison Gomes made an amazing set of Pouffe’s at the retreat, such rich colours, they will look stunning when finished. Gudrun made a baby blanket in white, in three layers the first of silk fibres and silk hankies, the second, two light layers of wool and third of tissue silk, all in white, it looked beuutiful. Marie Marshall who always makes colourful pieces decided to do something new this year and created some muted toned scarves. Well done Marie for being so brave. Judi Barkla made a funky wrist band and quite a few scarves, showing us a beautiful one of reds, orange, purple and pinks. Jill Jodrell showed us a colourful sleeveless coat. Katrina spent the retreat working on her felted piece for the Neural Knitworks Exhibition. Great thanks were bestowed upon Jill for showing Katrina how to decrease in crocheting. Judith Shaw made a very warm looking shoulder wrap and a rug made from all her scraps of wool. Judith had sewn over the rug making floral shapes on it, the edge being machine stitched for strength and finished off by hand.
Those not at the retreat had some fantastic pieces to show also. Sherron has been knitting an edge band for a felted jacket, she will attach the felting to the knitted band to get a combined look, can’t wait to see it finished. AiLin brought in an Indigo dyed piece and also a gorgeous shibori dyed silk piece that she had rolled up over rope, pushed up from both ends and tied tightly before dying, this gave it a shimmering snake skin appearance. Ant created an interesting design for a cushion cover, placing painters tape in a grid pattern between two layers of prefelt and then cutting it away once felted, a stunning outcome. Sue Espie has needle felted a sheep very cute and loads of character. Judy showed us what she made while we were at the retreat, a Polly Stirling style sleeveless coat and some very smart flowers for her hair and bag. Teresa also has made some beautiful soft flowers. Dawn has been having fun making samples and trying out which bits and pieces would felt in and which wouldn’t incorporating some needle felting too.
That’s all for this month.
