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Monday 6 April 2009

Felt like spring.

While blogs everywhere celebrate Spring and show gardens bursting with life, I reflect on the terrible state of my own garden.
The problems are clay, height above sea level, wind, and shade.
And the greatest of these is Shade.
But shade can have its compensations.
You have to look hard but your efforts will be rewarded.


Strange how these two little gems are in opposite complementary colours.


I take no credit for the celandine, they arrived on their own.
The violets were planted by me but have spread like wildfire.
I planted these gorgeous, precious, special snakeshead fritillaries but even though I planted them they have thrived/thriven/throve and come up multiplied each year.

Shade also has its villains.
We will draw a veil over these and their naked brethren for now.



I've been working on my felt. This little piece is a side issue.. made possible by the use of the embellisher.

I made a long strip of multicoloured nuno felt on slate blue cotton gauze
Then cut it up to construct a background and added other bits of felt using the embellisher.


I drew deatil from the back with the embellisher too,

and did a bit of handstitch .

I love the way the colours of the wool come through the gauze and change slightly.
Violet and celandine and fritillary colours, coincidentally.
I may wet felt this again to finish it off.
Yum.

Now go straight from here to visit my new love, Bob T Bear Esq and his friend..sorry fwend, Dilly.
They'll make you smile.
Really they will.

26 comments:

  1. Hi Yep it is an Irish....I'm no expert with the mechanics, but I may be able to help...or find you someone who can!!!!! Whats wrong with yours xxx
    Hugs Lynn xx

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  2. I love this felt project. It is so wonderful. I would like to feel it. The texture looks amazing.

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  3. I too love that felt piece. Really pretty.

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  4. I do love violets and they look beautiful next to the yellow of celandine,natures colours.
    Your felt is looking an exciting piece to work on with the different patterns and textures.
    Great work.x

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  5. Love all the elements that you have going on in your felt piece. Especially the various blue squares with the stitching. Great job!

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  6. Fritillaries are my very favourite of all the spring flowers-the markings are just stunning.
    It looks as if you having great fun with the felt experiments. This newest one is really interesting, and as you say, in violet and fritillary colours. Lovely.

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  7. Your felt piece is beautiful - using the embellisher on it gives an extra dimension. Our garden is full of celandines again and I thought I had dug most of them up last year. I love the fritillaries but have had to buy a few more as lily beetles ate them last year.

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  8. Your felt piece is so lovely Jackie and the colours are perfect...I wish I could do nuno felting. I tried, but I was rubbish at it. Maybe I need to have another go; if at first you don't succeed.........
    Linda x
    PS The wool shop is called 'Yarn'... does that ring a bell?

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  9. Fritillaries are beautiful aren't they? So delicate and that gorgeous patterning! Our garden is overrun with celandines too. They are a lovely burst of colour but they get everywhere!

    I love the combination of stitch with your felt.

    Bob and Dilly are wonderful and I met them in real life yesterday! :o) They are a breath of fresh air when you're feeling a bit down. Great fun.

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  10. I like the colors of the felt...and the scrolls with the squares...Very nice!

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  11. Most of my garden sits in shade much of the day, under old, old trees. I find hydrangeas seem to like it, so that's what we have. Also, ferns.

    I do love that felt piece you are working on. Those colours are just divine.

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  12. Lovely, lovely felt piece. Your color schemes are always divine. I just got an embellisher machine last week, and promptly broke three needles. It is a fantastic piece of equipment.
    Will now go visit Bob, Esq. and friend.
    :-)
    Shelly

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  13. Reminds me of my Cornish garden, in the shade, with fritillaries and other shade loving plants, hostas..If you lived here you would be inundated with the ninja crew(little, bent backed old ladies wearing black) collecting your snails, you can't keep them away.
    Your felt project looks wonderful....

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  14. Yum indeed! Lovely, lovely work. As for those snakeshead fritillaries..... I can't get them to grow here, very little shade in our garden. I guess its the case of the other man's grass..... x

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  15. Your garden is better than mine Jackie - I have a rectangle of grass. That's it. I've done nothing with it yet.

    I absolutely LOVE that piece of work - the stitching, the colours, it's just gorgeous.

    x

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  16. I love your felt piece. What beautiful colours. I have just had a month away so you can imagine what our garden looks like. A little neglected but it was lovely to see all the new spring shoots coming through. Your Fritillaries are beautiful. x

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  17. Fritillaries are exquisite aren't they? A checked flower! There's a water meadow near here, in Suffolk, where they still grow wild.

    I'm loving watching your felt work develop at the moment - this piece looks so tactile and I love the different textures and pattern within it.

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  18. wow, the felt is cool. but now I have to try it :-) your colors, as usual are wonderful. talent galore..

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  19. Beautiful piece! And the colors pop!

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  20. So glad to see you have persevered with the felt and made something which you like- and rightly so, it is very lovely. Will gets paid 2p a snail, shall I send him 'round? x

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  21. your little garden flowers are delightful! and your felt is so bright and colorful! i've never tried that craft but it looks like fun.

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  22. ...this is just beautiful and I love the shades you have used...I would love to see it close u...so much is lost on camera...love and hugs H

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  23. You've taken to felting like a duck to water...which is no surprise. This is a glorious piece! Love the stitched squares....and of course your colour combinations are always amazing.

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  24. Love the felt - it's gorgeous - you must be really pleased with it!

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  25. Ah! I so commiserate with you in your garden frustrations. Clay is the bane of my existence! Next comes the incredible heat and humidity. And I'm afraid I have created a bit more shade than I intended. Who knew I'd still be working this tiny plot 20 years+ later? The biggest problem of all is the STAFF: limited to me and the prodigious digger Ozzie. Sigh.

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  26. Jackie, maybe you need to cultivate a taste for snails. If word got out that you were capturing and cooking snails, they might decide to bypass your garden!

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