I am excited to report that I have sold 2 of my wet felted scarves!  The first one to sell was called "Everybody's Favorite" for obvious reasons.  The second one to sell was the one I called "Bob Marely's Hugs & Kisses".  It was black wool with silver running through it and was a very open weave.  On the joins of the corners, I needle felted x's and used vintage buttons for o's.  I loved it.  It's not something I'd ever wear, but because of the buttons and because it was truly one-of-a-kind, I guess.  It looked like dread locks when draped over your head!

Selling always inspires more creations!

There is quite a difference between the two.  Up until about 2 weeks ago, I hadn't done much wet felting.  I took a class a few years back on wet felting and one of the projects was to felt around a rock.  The whole idea was to create a box with a fun design on the inside as well as the out.  When the whole thing dried, you cut it off the rock and VIOLA!, you have a surprise pattern on the inside of your box.  My rock was such that I could actually make an eyeglass case out of it.  It was a lot of work and I said I'd never do that again.  Yea, fast forward a couple three years and here I am, wet felting my brains out! 

With wet felting you have to layer the wool roving in about 3 to 4 layers, alternating the fibers.  You lay it on bubble wrap and put more bubble wrap over the top of the wool once you have poured hot soapy water all over the wool.  Then you begin to massage the wool!  The friction and hot, soapy water makes felt! 

One example of my work is the Thanksgiving Table Runner in the top left corner of my etsy avatar to the right.  It's the brown thing that looks like carrots laying on it!  Check it out and see what you think.  FYI, this is probably my most "normal" wet felting project so far!

I've had some ideas in my head all summer for felting scarves.  It is past time for my creative juices to start flowing in anticipation of our annual Christmas in the Country Show.  Last Sunday after dinner, I got out some large terry cloth table cloths, bubble wrap, wool and hot soapy water.  The resulting combination was SOOOOOO fun!  I haven't taken any pics yet, but when I do, I will post them here.  This is wet felting.  I've not done much of it, but I am having a great time.  I've made 5 scarves and/or table runners and I am working on a pointsettia candle mat.  One thing's for sure, it's hard on my shoulders, wrists and arms!  Lots of twisting and turning.  I've gotta slow down, but when the mind gets going...............look out.  The problem is that while I am working on one, I get an idea for another and I get impatient. 

Off to dye wool!

One more little chick dead this morning.  :-(  I still have 25 though!  That's not uncommon, as I have said before, but I still hate loosing any!

On a lighter note, I finished a needle felted bird I have been working on.  As with most of my creations, I've had the notion rolling around in my head for a while now.  It's fun to see it come out in true form!  I am talking about a Magpie!  Click on my etsy shop to see the pics.

I know I mention my Tasha Tudor friends a lot.  The are a continued source of encouragment and inspiration and for that I am thankful.  It's hard to put into words the connection with these people, some of whom I've never met.  We all have one thing in common and that is Tasha Tudor. 

We had an Easter Ornament exchange again this year, but just did a one-to-one exchange.  With Easter so early, we decided it would make things simpler.  I had Janice's name and since I know she's received the ornament, it's safe to post a picture here.

Here's the chicky side of the ornament.

Here's the other (bunny) side.  His whiskers are from the pony's tail.

As I sit here looking at these little ducklings, I just have to smile.  I do feel better when I am creating or making something with my hands.  It's just the kind of person I am.  Even sitting here typing this I feel like I am creating something to share with others.  Often times you get in those moods, you know they kind I've been writing about because I've been in one, and you don't even feel like crafting or creating.  This time I forced myself to make that little chickadee for my Annabelle doll.  One thing led to another and I decided to make some ducklings for Easter.  With the fog clearing in my brain and me feeling like the funk is gone, these little ducklings represent more than just creating.  I feel better and feel like my ducks are back in a row! 

I seem to be talking a lot about Tasha Tudor on my blog lately.  It's because of the list I belong to and the good friends I have made there.  We share so many fun things, I just HAVE to blog about them! 

In Tasha's book A Tale For Easter, she writes about possibly finding a basket of ducklings next to your bowl of porridge on Easter morning.  I wish I could post the picture here for you to see, but I am sure there are copyright laws I'd be breaking!  If you have the book, take a peek.  Tasha's daughter Bethany used to raise ducks, so I am guessing that page came right from their lives.  Can you imagine finding a basket of live ducklings next to your bowl of porridge on Easter morning?  I can't imagine anything more fun than that.  Well, maybe baby bunnies!  I did that for my kids one year.  I love animals anyway, so I think I loved them as much as my kids did.

If you like these little ducklings, look for them in my Etsy shop.  Click on the badge to the right.

We had a busy weekend around here!  On Saturday we had a Fall Open House at the shop.  Cheryl and I each made scarecrows.  They were promptly dubbed "Ole and Lena".  She "Lena" to the left!

The market was small, but nice.  A nice selections of locally grown pumpkins were available for sale.

I didn't have a lot of time for crafting, but I did manage to get these two pillows ready for the shop.  They both sold right off.  I found the new pillows at the thrift shop and tan dyed them.  They were stark white.  Then I took a plaid cotton towel for a backing and vintage linen for the stitching and stitched the quotes on.  I needle felted the bee, bee skep and crow and ironed them onto the pillows with stitch witchery.  Then I did a large running stitch around and added the "corn" beads to the crow pillow.  I've been wanting to combine the stitching and the needle felting for a while now and finally got it done!

My Dad had come up from Wyoming to pick up a pig we raised for him, so he arrived Sat. evening.  We had a couple of projects for him to do while he was here.  We spent the next afternoon under the house in the crawl space replacing the outside spigot and another shut off valve that had both been leaking.  All of this required plumbing work with soldering copper tubing, so I was glad he could do it. 

I just listed a needle felted Corgi on ebay.  You can copy and paste the link below to see it. 

I will be gathering names for a drawing here on the blog to give one away as well!  If you leave me a message on my blog, your name will go into the drawing!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170141341668&ru=http://search.ebay.com:80/170141341668_W0QQ_trksidZm37QQfromZR40QQfviZ1

Cherilyn had a question for me today via email, which caused me to get out my Mary Jane's Farm Magazines.  Then it cuased me to go to her website.  Then it caused me to make a purchase!   Although I don't have the Primeier issue of her magazine, I think I have the all of the others.  Sometimes I wonder why I hang on to magazines like that, but now I know.  There are just some that are TOO GOOD to get rid of!  I sat down and thumbed through them, quickly looking for a chicken mash recipe for Cherilyn.  I was amazed at how some parts of the magazine looked new to me, as though I'd never looked at them before.  I know that's not the case, I just don't remember every little morsel in them.  So now I know why I don't get rid of them!  It's just too fun going through them again and again.  I am the same way with Countryside Magazine and Sheep! Magazine!  I have to keep them all. 

I have a little-know connection to Mary Jane.  When her magazine fisrt came out, I wrote her via email and requested she please change the name of her "Sewing Room" section to "The Stitching Room".  I explained that while hers was a nice enough name, it didn't encompass all stitching.  She also used a ball of cotton thread and a crochet hook in her picture and that really had nothing to do with sewing.  My suggestion came from years of various stitching and people always asking me, "What are you sewing?"  It's just one of those little pet peeves of mine, so that's why I wrote to her.  Needless to say, she changed the name of that section in the magazine and has recently come out with a "Stitching Room" book!  That's the purchase I just had to make!  Here's the link to preorder.  It's not out yet.  http://maryjanesfarm.com/pfoshop/product.asp?dept_id=174&ProductID=73040003

Mary Jane actually bought one of my needle felted purses a while back!  Very exciting for me!  Here's the purse she bought.

LaVonne

montanacountrypickins.com, click on Serenity Sheep

Tawnie is my little sister through the Big Brothers and Sisters program.  We've been matched for 5 years.  She's now 12.  She came over Saturday and we made needle felted bears together.  It was about a 2 1/2 hour project and she started getting bored towards the end, but it made for a great time to sit on the couch and visit.  She made the parts and I assembled the pieces.  I had intended to work on a bear I was making for an order, but she proclaimed she thought I should keep the one I worked on and they would be Friendship Bears.  How could I argue with that?  Mine was incomplete when I took the picture of hers, but I did get it finished yesterday.  Here's a picture of hers.  Not bad for a first time project!

LaVonne

montanacountrypickins.com, click on Serenity Sheep

I finished another Nativity just before Christmas and mailed it off to South Carolina.  I got creative with the donkey and camel and gave them a little more personality that normal.  Here's a pic.

I also got an email from a fiber artist who uses my wool.  She sent a link to a Bison she'd made with my wool.  I think it's currently on ebay.  I've asked her if I can post a link here, so when I hear back, I'll put it up.

Hello to my brother, Don, in Philly.  I just found out he reads my blog daily! 

LaVonne

montanacountrypickins.com, click on Serenity Sheep

Here's a picture of the Nativity I mailed to ND this week.  I hope they like it.

Here's a sneak peek at Suzanne's teddy bear.  She should be receiving it in the mail today.

LaVonne

montanacountrypickins.com, click on Serenity Sheep

Here's what the snowman looks like in the kit.  I taught it to a bunch of home-schooled children.  It was so fun to see the differences in each one.

$12 + $2 shipping

Feel free to email me at knefla@aol.com. 

LaVonne

montanacountrypickins.com, click on Serenity Sheep

Here is a rather large picture of my latest creation.  I hope you can see some of the details.  He's 16 inches tall.  I didn't set out to make a large Santa, but he appeared anyway!  I sat down Saturday evening about 8:00 or 8:30.  Before I knew it, it was 12:30!  I can't believe how time flies when you're in the middle of a project.  I haven't done that in a long time.  It's a good feeling to have those creative juices flowing though!  I've had a rather long dry spell.

Besides the Santa, I made him a teddy bear for his arm, a felted bag, a felted stick horse, felted doll and a tiny little sheep.  I had the train, horn, apples and oranges.  Don't miss the tiny little basket in the doll's hand!  This project was a lot of fun.

Needle felting is easy and when you raise your own wool, it's very gratifying to utilize it.  I have made up some simple snowman kits for beginners if anyone would like to try it out.  I've tried to keep them reasonably priced at $12.  Everything is included.

I hope you enjoy seeing my Santa. 

LaVonne

montanacountrypickins.com, click on Serenity Sheep

Here's a large Santa Star.  He's got angelina fiber around his head.  It's interesting stuff.  It will heat bond to itself, but nothing else.  You just iron the shape you want between two pieces of tissue paper.  Lots of fun, colors with sparkle.  I am trying to get a few things done for a show we do called Christmas in the County at our little one room school house.  It's the school my 85 y/o FIL attended!

LaVonne

montanacountrypickins.com, click on Serenity Sheep

Here's one of my latest creations.  I've had this idea in my head for over a year and just got it out for the world to see!  It's a needle felted star with reproduction "gold stuff" and an angel decal.

LaVonne

montanacountrypickins.com, click on Serenity Sheep

This is a small nativity.  Most of mine are made with 3 sheep, a camel, a donkey and Mary, Joseph and the Baby.  All stables vary.  $65 for a 9-pc. set, plus shipping.

I do lots of other needle felted things as well, but this I am particularly proud of.

LaVonne

montanacountrypickins.com, click on Serenity Sheep