Along my way, I’ve tried a craft or two. Or thirty. I’ve origamied, macraméd, quilled, decoupaged, tie-dyed, beaded, book-bound, crocheted, knitted, sewed, quilted, hardangered and cross-stitched my way through life. But until recently, I had never dabbled in the waters of needle-felting. I had made a plan and a purchase though, because the temptation was there. But it took a recent callout from Ms CurlyPops to join the cause over at Open Drawer, to get my itchy stabby fingers moving 🙂
The challenge was to create a hot water bottle cover using whatever textile medium/s took our fancy. For warm and cozy, I thought, what better than some snuggly felt? I set about using a long hoarded piece of nubby green fulled jumper to create my cover. I then got busy with a needle and some roving to add the accents. I pieced the lot together (my sewing machine did not enjoy this part of the process, and shortly afterwards needed a restorative trip to the mechanic), and then foolishly decided I didn’t like the exposed seams, and that a good idea would be to create a faux ‘binding’ with more roving and a whole lot more stabbing. Several long hours later, I wished I had left probably-well-enough alone! But the end result was just what I wanted:
Hottie Cover challenge, Open Drawer, 2011. Front.
Hottie Cover challenge, Open Drawer, 2011. Back.
Barely squeaking in under the deadline, I delivered my hottie to Cam, who in turn delivered a whole lot of them to Open Drawer, where the crafty glitterati (!) congregated a few days later for the opening night excitement. I took the whole family, and we made several donations towards ‘best in show’ (but not one of my children voted for mine, I’ll have you know! Traitors!) I didn’t win, but my cover did sell (to somebody not my mother!), so I’m pleased to have played a small part in raising some funds for an excellent cause.
My itchy-stabby-fingers weren’t sated though! Coming soon – what happened once those felting floodgates were opened…