Before You Say I Should Not, it is too late

I know that I do not need another hobby. I hardly have time to do everything I enjoy doing. However, I went to King of Prussia, PA to take a machine felting class with Paula Scaffidi, www.fiberella.com. She is a textile artist that strives to have her students tap into personal creativity. On Saturday, 4/21, she had a lecture, demo and trunk show on how to Spark your Creativity with a Textile Sketchbook. Basically, she wanted you to just doodle in your sketchbook and then use those doodles to create textile art using free motion, quilting and machine felting. I was inspired but felt that I could never create anything close to what she was showing us.

The actual class was that afternoon and all day on Sunday. We were to bring a sweater, that fit, and we were going to make it over with machine felting. She came loaded with yarn, ribbon and roving of all colors and textures. There was no way that you could leave with out wanting more than what was in the kit that we had paid $40 for. All doing the class, she was opening her packs of yarn and telling people to take some over and above the kit. She also had silk dioponi pieces that she told us to take some of.

Okay, I will show you the sweater that I redid but first I have to explain how I came home with a Babylock Machine Embellisher. I had been looking around the area for one and the cheapest I could find was $699. I thought that was too expensive for a machine that could only felt. I have joined several Yahoo groups and just lurking had made me want one. I had decided on the Babylock because it comes with 7 needles and you can change one needle at a time. I will tell you now, you will break needles. I am also embarrassed to say that I was the first to break a needle in the class. However, before the day was over, almost everyone of us had broke at least one.

The class was held at Steve's Sew and Vac http://www.stevessewandvac.com/. It was announced that they would sell the class room machines for $349. I called my daughter and she agreed that I should buy it. I was the first one to get a red bow. The store put a red bow on all the machines that where purchased that weekend. My used classroom machine was only used by me. He opened the boxes and set the machines in front of each of us. One lady called her sister in Chicago and she brought one over the phone. Okay, here is my first embellished sweater....

This is the front. I had wanted to make a bird of paradise flower, however I was not getting that so I just used the colors. I also combined all the colors to put a roving band around the bottom of the sweater. That was not what I planned to do but the cutting looked too much like fringe. The only other thing I need to do is make a polymer clay buttons that is a leaf for the top 2 buttons that will blend in.

This is the back..I made leaves coming around the back of the neck and a feathering of the roving that was in the color of the flower thing.

I am not sure if I will ever wear it..However, I like it.

I also had agreed to do a 8 1/2 x 11 fiber page for a Yahoo group I am in. Now that I had the Embellisher, plenty of roving and the silk dioponi, I wanted to incorporate all in my page. I used roving to make the tree, Silk dioponi for the leaves, as well as used the left over leaves from my sweater on the flower. The dragonfly is Free Standing lace embroidery in 3-D.

I have to put a binding on the page tonight and get it in the mail by the weekend.

This weekend I am dying yarn. I have a maroon, teal, purple that I want to use.