Needle Felting

OK, my new obsession is...

 ...needle felting.

I expect many guessed from the little peek I showed in my previous post. If not, then today's post title will probably have given it away!

Last Christmas I received a needle felting kit from hubby and he'd also ordered a book which never arrived. Recently I finally bought my own copy of the book and have since been enjoying a new crafting experience.

The above photo is of my first attempt. I took a couple of photos as I went through the process...

...creating a design, cutting a felt square to the required size, laying strands of different coloured roving across to create a sky effect, then jabbing, jabbing, jabbing! I only have single needles, I think a needle holder for multiple needles will be a useful addition to my needle felting toolkit.

More jabbing. Adding the other colours to create features and details. Lots more jabbing!

I then added some beads and turned it into a little lavender pillow by sewing a backing on and filling it with dried lavender. It was to have been for my stall at the nursery social evening but I liked it so much I wanted to keep it for myself. So I made some more...

 ...one with orange beads and one with blue. These have been filled with a mix of cinnamon and cloves and the odd dash of allspice berries and nutmeg for a spicy Christmas perfume.

 Detail.

Well then, a robin might be a nice design for using with the Christmas stuffing mix?

Here they are all together. All have been sold, aside from the one I'm keeping, and I've had requests to make two more, so it looks like they're popular. I'll be making more for the nursery Christmas fair I think.

 

While I was at it I made two Christmas puddings. For what they are they have a surprising amount of work involved in making them (lots of jabbing!). I've seen various needle felted Christmas puddings around on the internet and indeed have even bought one myself (from Vintage Squirrel) and I now appreciate the time and effort that goes into these.

Another pudding shot, just beacause I like them! One sold at the social evening. I'll make a few more for Christmas if I've time.

I'd also made a couple of non-needle felted Christmas pillows. One with crocheted holly and mistletoe leaves and one with an embroidered felt Christmas pudding. These didn't sell, despite being offered at a cheaper price to the needle felted pillows so I'll be sticking to making needle felted ones for now. I like how you can blend the colours and get more artistic effects with the needle felting. I have ideas for more designs buzzing around in my head, can't wait to get some spare time to get going again!