Whew! 3 months since I posted!

What have I been doing!  I had no idea that it had been so long since I updated the blog. Some days I feel there is not enough hours in the day.

So since I have last posted...my daughter had surgery, my senior dog got sick, hubby went into the hospital and I have been trying to keep up some sort of normal by doing daily paintings and daily walking.  Most days I don't sit down until 8pm!

Here is the good news, I got published in Sew Somerset.  It has taken some time for the publication to come out.  But for all the nay-sayers about Etsy, the magazine found me on Etsy and asked me to to send in some of my work.  I sent in 5 different fiber art pieces and they are all being published!  Very exciting.

I have not received my free copy and my artwork back yet, but I did find this on the shelf at Barnes & Noble.  I think the lady next to me thought I was a little strange to be taking a picture of the magazine on the shelf.

My article is on pages 56-59.

There is a little bonus on page 137 too.

Although right now I am not working too much with the fiber, I still have some on my Etsy shop.

I will try harder to update this blog, but you are more than welcome to follow me on Instagram https://instagram.com/judy_applegarth/ to see what I am working on daily.

Judy

Day 29 - Felted pendant

Day 29 of 200, can you believe I have been at this daily creating and posting everyday?!

Today I was busy wet felting.   This is one of the items I finished.  There are 3 more pendants and two art pieces that I worked on but didn't get finished.  I had to wait for the bigger pieces to dry before I could stitch them with my sewing machine.

So tomorrow you will see the more of the black and white, along with me posting a few pendants on the shop.  I have several to list.

On another note: my mind is swirling with my event next Friday and I was also contacted by an editor of a magazine because they would like to see some of my works in their publication.  Pretty scary stuff there.

Have a nice night. ~ Judy

Day 22 & 23 - Catch up post

Day 22 & 23 of 200....I have had very busy days and I'm trying to catch up.  So for my catch up post I created several pendants.  They are very addictive.  BUT I NEED COLOR SUGGESTIONS!!!

Love how the purple one came out.  The were made with wool and yarn scraps sandwiched between water soluble interfacing.  Once I had them trapped I stitched like crazy and then wet.  It made this beautiful lacy fabric which was laid onto purple wool and needle felted.  Lots of work but so much fun.

And these were made with coral wool as the base with chiffon and lace needle felted.  The colors just jumped out at me.

But I need to keep this post short as I need to work on day 24 (today) and get these photo'd and added to my Etsy shop.  

I would love to hear what other colors to make these in.

Happy stitching ~ Judy

Day 21 - Felting stones

Day 21 of 200...Playing with felted river rocks.  I have seen felted rocks and I have seen them embroidered but have never tried it.  Thought it would be a good challenge.

Stitching is a little different as every stitch has to go sideways for me.  Of'course I could use some practice on my stitching and what a great way to practice.

With this second stone I was going for under the sea...coral.  Not sure I accomplished that, but I can't wait to stitch some more tomorrow.

See you tomorrow! ~ Judy

day 5 - Two felted flower pins

Day 5 of 200...I did two felted pins.  They were supposed to be circle pins, but the edges got a little wavy.  My family thinks they look like modern flowers.

I think I will go with that.

Fun to just play and have fun with fiber. 

I did take a beading/wire wrapping class today to get away from my hubby playing his online game with is buddies.  Maybe tomorrow I will show the finished product from the class.  It's art - right?

Wishing you a safe Memorial Day tomorrow. - Judy

day 4 - wet felted pin

Day 4 - painting with wool and thread.

Today share of the 200 painting in 200 days is a wet felted pin that I actually created last night.  The thing with wet felting you have to make it one day and let it dry over night before you can stitch or bead it.

I really like how this pin came out and I hope you do too.

I used a local Shepard's sheep wool for pin, except for the lime green which is silk.  I love how it adds a pop of color.

If you are interested in purchasing it, I have listed it on my Etsy shop.  Over the next month I hope to make several for my show in June.

I hope you are relaxing this holiday week-end. - Judy

Well it's a Happy Hump Day!

Lots has been happening around the Applegarth house here.  I got this crazy idea of moving my sewing room, which meant moving hubby out of the office and then I got the great idea of moving the guest room downstairs. That will have to be another blog post by itself!  Let's just say the house has exploded...mess.

 But on the good note I have squeezed in a little felting around the mess, or should I say out in the kitchen!  Who needs food when I can felt?  I have a few felty projects and products for the shop!

So today I thought I would share a sunny sunflower today.  Sunflowers are a happy flower.

Actually I made two!

My girlfriend who I met in Alaska saw the first one on my Facebook page and called dibs.  I told her to wait to see the other one before making the decision.  Well these lovely flowers did not make it to my Esty shop.  They are SOLD and are going to make the way to Virgina. 

These pieces were an experiment for me.  I wanted to see if I could do both needle felting and wet felting.  They turned out nice but I think I like to stick to wet (Nuno) felting.  Although I love being able to free motion quilt and add hand embroidery to them.  The stitching really brings it alive.

I hope Terri enjoys the happy sunflower as much as I do.

Have a Happy Hump Day!

Judy

Felted sheep

Today I thought I would share something I have been wanting to for some time.  It has been in the back of my mind for some time and after I went to a friend farm and saw her sheep, I decided to give it a try.

 

Each time I wet felt I learn something new.  I think this piece could have been worked longer to give it a more felted appearance, but overall I really like the lumpy (not the correct terminology) felt.  It give it dimension and texture like rolling hills.

Here is what it looks like in a shadowbox frame.

I really want to explore this further.

Happy Tuesday!

Judy

New year, new goals

I don't believe in New Years Resolutions, just seems silly to have to start something on Jan. 1st, why not anytime of the year?

But I do like to set some mini goals through out the year, or reflect on last year to see what I can do better.  So last year, I lacked on my blog.  Lots of people say blogs are dinosaurs now. That people don't want to take the time to read them.  So what is the new thing?  Facebook? Twitter? Google+? Tumblr? Pinterest? 

Which one do you gravitate to?  Me? Facebook...like to see everything in one spot every morning, it's like reading the newspaper.  I get to find out what's new with friends and many companies.

This next couple of months I want to explore fiber art jewelry.  I have several ideas of what I want to do, some simple and some crazy.  So my first share of fiber art jewelry is my felted pendants.

They have been needle felted and wet felted, then either embroidered or beaded.  These have been beaded, working on two others last night.

I think they are pretty cool, what do you think?

I have listed them on my Etsy shop (see sidebar) and have several more coming.

Please leave me comments as to what you think, would love input.

Have a happy Thursday,

Judy

Happy Friday!

Well this has been a busy week for me with 3 craft fairs, a blog hop and a Christmas party!  Whew and I wonder why I have been so tired this week.  Doesn't help that we have had the coldest weather, made me wonder why I moved to Reno from Anchorage.  Anchorage was warmer than we were.

First business is the blog hop winner....

Lara!!

  Please contact me with your info. and pattern choice so I can let Terri Stegmiller know.

Today I thought I would share some Christmas ornaments that I made for the Christmas party tomorrow.  We are doing a ornament swap and I can't decide which one to give.

Why don't you help me?

This one is a mix of red and orange.  Anything orange is MY pick, but not everyone like orange.

 It was needle felted, wrapped silk and some sparkly stuff, yarn and a few beads for bling!

So I made two purple ones.

 This one was wet felted, wrapped with tulle and beaded.

This one was made with scraps of roving, kinda my salvage stuff.  Lightly needle felted and wrapped with silk and fibers.

Then I needle felted this blue one, but you can't see the tulle that it is hanging from on the white tree.

Have a happy Friday, stay warm!

Judy

Day 9 - Playing with fibers!

Today for my Pinterest pin challenge, I wanted to learn about carding wool and making some really cool roving for my felting projects!

 I was invited to hang with a group of fiber enthusiasts today.  And they were having such a good time showing me some of their tools.  Oh my I think I could get in trouble!!
 

 This is another way to blend colors together, can't remember what this tool was called, but they suggested this book for me to read.
 

Here is what I pulled

and look at all the goodies I brought home with me.

If you want to read a tutorial about carding wool, go here.

Have a woolly Saturday evening...I'll talk to you tomorrow.

Judy

Day 8 - Needle Felted birds

Since yesterday we tried wet felting, I thought today I would try needle felting a 3-d object.

Let's say it was an adventure.  Such a little bird as this takes about 3 hours of poking the wool and a few times of poking my fingers!!

Jessi sat down with me on this project and this is what we did.

I have to say it would be a good project to do when you are not distracted.  It amazes me on how much the wool shrinks.

Thought it was fun, but not sure how many of the little critters I would do.

I think I might be a better wet felter.

Anyways here is a pin link to a tutorial.

Have a happy Friday and a nice week-end!

Judy

Day 7 - felting stones

Today I thought I would try something new...felting stones!!  Sorry LOTS of photos.

I'm going to say it was a little elbow grease and lots of suds.  But I am addicted!!

Just like potato chips.  My daughter and I had a blast making these and can't wait to dye some more roving (another post).

Here are mine

these are Jessi's

Then we started stacking them....

We are not sure if we want to have bowls of them around the house or stack them.

Me?  I want to embroider them.

Here is a link to a tutorial here.

Wouldn't these be fun to add some color to a guest bathroom, or make some in festive colors for a glass vase for the holidays??

See you tomorrow.

Judy