Monday, November 15, 2010

My sweaters are trying to kill me

Okay, so they aren't.  But I do have a story about some sweaters.  A couple years ago. . .  I honestly can't remember when it was, but it wasn't last year. . . I bought some wool sweaters at the thrift shop.  My intention was to felt them, cut them into squares, and make a quilt.  I got this idea when I quilted a quilt for a lady who did this.  She might have used suits instead.  Her quilt was huge and heavy, but it was SO cool.  I loved it.  I stitched it in the ditch, and I don't like stitching in the ditch AT ALL.  For this quilt it was PERFECT!  I couldn't find enough sweaters cheap enough at my thrift shops, so I asked my mom to pick some up for me in Arizona.  She brought me a large garbage bag full of wool sweaters.  Oh yeah! 

The sweaters all got felted and then they all got put into the storage room.  They have been moved around from time to time when the storage room gets cleaned.  But that's all.  I guess they got tired of that because wool ganged up on me last week.
First, a friend of mine, Lisa, was giving a presentation at a guild I attend.  I knew Lisa liked to play with wool, so I knew her presentation would be interesting.  What an understatement that turned out to be.  It was so inspiring and so fun.  Here are some pictures:


As you can see, she showed us how to make Christmas stockings.  She also made a cupcake pincushion (on the cake platter above) in about 5 minutes -- no sewing machine, no hot glue gun -- just a little whip stitching.  So fun!  She brought a book by Betz White called Warm Fuzzies.  It is now on my wish list. 

Warm Fuzzies: 30 Sweet Felted Projects

The blog address that you may or may not be able to make out on the table above is http://blog.betzwhite.com/.  She, Betz White, must be the queen of wool.  I spent quite a bit of time looking at her blog.  

And that was day one of attack of the sweaters.  Stay tuned for day two -- after Block 2 -- which comes out tomorrow!

5 comments:

By Hoki Quilts said...

OMG what a talented lady - now where are all my old sweaters?
hugs
Miche'le

Michele said...

I love the stockings...Amazing! I'm looking forward to the block tomorrow :)

Cori said...

I am not giving away sweaters, I am ready to start cutting them up. Thanks

Amber said...

Thank you Konda for posting this info. I had forgotten to write the website down and had questions all weekend...and bought some sweaters of my own...and made two cupcakes already! You rock.

Pauline said...

Konda, your woolies must be worth a fortune- it's so hard to find cheap wooly jumpers here in Australia, everything is polyester! And all the 2nd handshops seemed to have been swooped upon by mad felters!

Now if only I hadn't thrown out that cute little jumper of my son's that I accidentally felted one day...what was I thinking, I *know* how felt is made, and drying a pure wool jumper in a dryer *will* felt it...How would have thought felt could be so much fun!