A Winter Felting Wonderland

springhillside

I love to wet or nuno felt outdoors on a hot summer day. It’s a great alternative to sailing if there’s no wind.  April 1, 2016, would have been a good day to felt even if it wasn’t hot. Spring flowers dotted my garden and the temps indoors and out were identical. Wet felting in my swimsuit was unlikely, but the weather was great. My felting appointment was on April 3.  That same hillside looked like this…
grapehyacinthsnow
At least my faithful feline fiberista was ready to participate, as long as the felting session was indoors.

Studio Assistant

What a delight to open the merino roving that just arrived from New England Felting supply.
roving

Faithful feline assistant approved. She jumped onto the base layer, watching the colors surround her. Covering a chunk of kitchen counter, the layers of wool put up with a lot of tapping, kneading and tossing. At this point, feline fiberista headed to the couch. Soap suds covered the kitchen cupboards.
Feline Felter

I’ll let you see what it becomes later this month…

 

Soap, slap and roll!

Soap, slap and roll!

My wool collection includes yarns, threads, fleece and roving. On hot summer days, the latter two are some of my favorite toys.  There’s something quite gratifying about putting on your swim suit and playing with soap, wool and water.

Alanna Nelson art quilts and feltingNeedle felting is nice, but wet felting just brings out my beach instincts.  In any case, I’m happy to include both in my art quilts.
Several of my recent art quilts use a felted background.  It gives a lovely sense of multi textural goodness that contrasts with embroidery, quilting, applique and beading. For all of the fabric that I’ve dyed and painted, felting gives me a new dimension.

Here’s a background…felt art quilts by Alanna Nelson
That became this quilt…
Arabic Entry Blessing Quilt by Alanna Nelson
Earlier this week, my daughter’s college exploration took me to the Pioneer Valley.  She considered my suggestion to fiber shop audacious. “Oh, no…don’t you have enough projects going now?”

She’s probably right, or we would have definitely stopped by New England Felting Supply in Eastborough to pick up some dyed quick felting merino roving. Felting has been a fun change of pace from my Master Knitter Focus this year.

I recently felted some undyed Shetland fleece and am here to report that merino felts much more quickly (however the end result was fabulous, pictures in a future post)!  The slapping, stomping and throwing were undoubtedly excellent upper body work outs. If nothing else, I love playing with soapy water on summer day.  It beats sitting in air conditioning, doesn’t it?