If you've been following my Linda's Blog for awhile and my The Book Review Corner Blog then you know that among a million other things I LOVE crafting with wool felt and wool felt kits.Whether it's making wool felt penny rugs, or needle felted penny rug pictures, or ornaments I just LOVE wool felt.
And, it doesn't have to be limited to penny rugs or ornaments. Over the years I have made hundreds of cloth dolls using wool felt, brushed felt, shaggy felt, etc. I have found that it is especially useful for making animals, but the uses are practically limitless.
I was introduced to penny rugs during a shopping trip with my Mom to Sturbridge many, many years ago. There were several wonderful primitives shops out there that we liked to visit that carried primitive doll kits, wool felt kits, punchneedle kits, and penny rug kits.
One store in particular specialized in wool fabric. And, boy, did they have wool fabric. Some of the most beautiful wool fabric you'd ever want to see. And, boy, was it EXPENSIVE.
This store, in particular, would put together wool fabric bundles, maybe 10-15 wool pieces per bundle. I just loved looking at the color combination's and would imagine what I could make out of them. Then, my Mother would snap me back to reality by turning the price tag over. YIKES! Beautiful wool is expensive. Alas, all I could do was dream and save my pennies.
During the last couple of years there was a store out there that we liked to visit that put together penny rug kits. It, too, is no longer there. However, during our last visit I bought several penny rug wool kits and have been trying to find the time to make them during the last few years.
As usual I had many, many kits that I wanted to buy. So many, in fact, I asked my Mother if she would carry a few to the counter. Well, when she saw how many I had she said, "LINDA, one or two would do! Look at how many you have!" I, of course, just laughed at the numbers I was carrying and decided to put a few (just a few) back.
That year I had decided that I wanted to try needle felting and wool felting as it seemed like everyone was having so much fun with it this year. I don't mean wet needle felting where you are actually creating a needle felted object from the wet felt. I'm just not that adventuresome!
I started with three wool felt kits where one was a penny rug type decoration that needed to have some sheep and tree decorations needle felted. The other two kits were more like wool felt embroidery kits to create primitive wool decorations which could be hung on a wall or placed on a table top.
Well, last Spring I finally had an opportunity and a small window of time that I could use to create some more of the penny rug kits I had bought. I had already created 3 of the kits back in 2009. During this window of opportunity I was able to finish two more of the penny rug kits I had bought. One of those was a pumpkin patch penny rug picture that I wrote about in a Linda's Blog post entitled "I Just Love This "Pumpkin Patch" Penny Rug.
The other was a penny rug kit to create a holiday candle penny rug. The kit was put together based upon a Lakeview Primitives "Holiday Light" pattern #423. The finished size of the penny rug was 16 1/2" x 13 1/2".
The pattern was very easy to follow and I had no problems with it. It contained the pattern pieces, supplies list, and directions for creating the Holiday Candle penny rug decoration. As penny rug decorations are usually put together using a blanket stitch the pattern also included an illustration for how you stitch a blanket stitch. The pattern also calls for pre-felted wool - which, in my case, was already provided in the kit. However, if you don't have a kit and buy wool the pattern contains directions for felting your wool. And, it also contains instructions for creating French knots which were used in the pattern.
Like all the other wool kits it was nicely put together by the store and contained plenty of the wool and DMC floss needed for the pattern. In fact, once again, there was plenty of wool scraps and DMC floss left over that I could and would utilize for another design if I wanted to.
With all the other penny rug wool kits I created I had placed a piece of cardboard in between the front and back sections of the penny rug to give them some rigidity and stability. However, the "Holiday Light" pattern had three layers of wool felt and, as a result, I didn't need to add cardboard to the middle to give it some stability. It seemed to be rigid enough as it was. I had decided to hang this off a hook so I created a small hanger on the back of the "Holiday Light" out of DMC embroidery floss that I could use to hang it.
The result is shown in the picture at the beginning of this post.
I still have a couple of penny rug wool kits left from that shopping trip with my Mother. Maybe in 2011 I'll have another small window of opportunity that I can use to finish the rest of the kits.
And, if I do that, well - I'll just have to go on another shopping trip. However, as the shop is no longer in Sturbridge this time I'll let my fingers do the walking all over my keyboard and all over the internet. You never know what I'll find but, I'm sure I'll find something I like.
And, I'm sure if I go overboard in the amount I'm buying a little bird will be whispering in my ear, "LINDA, don't you think you have enough of those!"
And, I'll answer, "Just one more Mom. One more!"
