Wool Swan Pillows

Here are three wool pillows I am selling on Etsy. They have been finished with wool borders and backing and stuffed with pillow forms. The pillows are each 12 inches by 16 inches and would be great for holiday decorating.

Gray Plaid wool backed with burgandy.

Navy, black and red wool backed with cotton print of black and red.

Charcoal gray wool backed with vibrant red and green plaid.

Ironing Board Makeover

This is the new to me ironing board I got for $3 at the Salvation Army thrift store. It sits on a table and has a raised base. It looks pretty rough here, but is in good shape except for the worn out cover.

Here it is after a makeover. I used spray adhesive to attach a new layer of cotton batting to the board. Then I chose some sturdy fabric from my stash and laid it out on my work area. I cut around the ironing board shape leaving several inches to overlap.

I made a channel for cording and threaded through some jute string using my handy knitting needle. (This needle has no mate and is only used for threading elastic and the like and for turning out sharp corners and narrow tubes of fabric. I imagine at some point in its life it had a mate and was used for knitting. I got it in a box of assorted sewing notions from a yard sale and saved it thinking that it would come in handy for something and it has.)

Then I laid the new cover on, flipped over the ironing board and pulled the cord until the cover was tightly stretched. I am sure I will break it in soon pressing some blocks. (It is not going to get much use ironing clothing!)

Swan Wool Appliques

Found a nice free pattern for the swan cut from cream felted wool and hand appliqued to festive plaid wool background. Holly is cut from overdyed green wool and berries from red wool. The stitching is done with perle cotton. I used a variegated perle cotton for the detail on the wing.

This one is stitched to a background of charcoal gray wool. These have not been finished yet-- I am thinking throw pillows.

All the wool came from thrift store garments washed and felted by me.

Snowman Wall Hanging

First attempt to use the snowball block to actually make snowballs!

I like his sideways orientation and jaunty air!

Quilted and bound and ready to hang!

Snowball Pumpkin Quilt

This block is called the Snowball, but I made it into pumpkins by adding a stem and quilting rib details on the pumpkins.

The pumpkins were quilted with orange thread and the background was stippled with navy.

2 photos of the back (one with flash and one without) so you can see how cool the pumpkins look among the "vines."

Wool Applique Stockings

Repurposed fabric--they used to be dish towels. I thought the homespun fabric would make nice stockings. The wool tree and ornament shapes come from thrift store garments felted here at home.

These are fully lined with a linen blend fabric in cream color.

If I make more of these I will slightly enlarge the pattern. Once the lining goes inside the stocking, it is quite narrow. Makes it hard to jam your hand down into the bottom to reach the last few goodies hiding there.

Wool Snowmen Ornaments

I made these using wool fabric from a felted cream colored skirt, some Warm and Wonderful batting scraps, scraps of felted wool, raffia and perle cotton floss. The circles are cut with my Sizzix machine in four sizes which I have paired up to make the bodies of the snowmen.

I emboidered the faces and the buttons through one layer of wool and one layer of batting. The batting was added to make the snowmen more plump. The eyes and the buttons are french knots. The mouth is backstitched.

Then using cream colored perle cotton I used the blanket stitch to sew an additional layer of wool to the other layers. I added a wool scarf to each one, tacking them into place.

Using the largest darning needle I have, I threaded the raffia through the layers to create the arms. I finished the arms off with a knot for each hand and then trimmed the raffia. This was the most challenging part because I had to get the raffia through the layers without snagging on the cotton batting.

These tiny snowmen are made into lapel pins. The heads are about one inch.

Here you can see the difference in sizes. I used a couple of strands of perle cotton to fashion a hanger for the ornaments.

Applique Flower Blocks

Conner hanging out in the fresh air and new fallen leaves.

I used wax paper patterns for these blocks. I traced the shapes on wax paper and ironed them to the back of the fabrics I had chosen. Then I cut them out and pinned them to the background fabric. I did not use fusible web this time, just pinned the shapes in place and used the satin stitch (zig zag) to sew them into place.

I sewed the petals first, then the stems and leaves and saved the center of the flower for last to cover up the exposed edges of the other pieces. The batting is used as a stabilizer so I can do the embroidery with the sewing machine. When I finish these into a quilt, I will need to add some more batting along with the fabric backing.

This is my first successful attempt at machine applique and I am very happy with how the blocks look so far.

Wool Christmas Trees, Stockings and Mittens

These are made with hand dyed green wool. I cut the shapes using my Sizzix machine and embellished them with buttons before stitching 2 layers together. The buttons make them very heavy and the wool is not quite stiff enough to lie flat under the weight of the buttons. I had planned on making ornaments to hang from the Christmas tree, but will probably use them to embellish some other project like a stocking or a handbag maybe.

These are made with hand dyed felted wool from 2 different sweaters. They are composed of 2 layers of wool blanket stitched together with perle cotton and finished off with more of the perle cotton so they can hang from the tree. I also made some smaller versions into lapel pins.

Snowman Mini Quilt

The trees and snowman are cut out with the Sizzix machine using cotton quilt fabrics. I fused them onto the background using Steam a Seam and then machine embroidered the shapes for a permanent fix. The quilting is free motion using my machine. The binding is the same fabric as the backing. The details on the snowman are hand stitched using perle cotton and some craft buttons.

I mailed this out last week to a swapbot partner.