American Homestead Pincushion/Ornament Class

This post gives information on my Ornament/Pincushion

Class that I teach to guilds, stitching groups and retreats.

There are many ways to use the projects that you create.

Here are the various ways you can use the ornaments.

You could also embroider a name and date on the back

to make it a special keepsake ornament.  I know people

who make them for their kids or grandkids so when they

grow up and have their own homes, they have a collection

of ornaments from someone they love.

You can also add a little pocket to the back to hold

a gift certificate.

If you decide to make a pincushion you can place them

on a metal candlestand which looks lovely.

You can also frame them, they look great grouped 

in three or four on the wall.

You can also put them on dowel sticks and

add them to a floral arrangement.

You have two choices to make:

1. What pattern do I want to make?  There are 13 to

choose from.  They are shown below.

2. What colorway would you like to work in?  There is 

a brighter group of fabrics called the European Folk

Art Collection and a deeper group of fabrics called the

Pennyrug Collection.  Here they are:

Patterns created in The European Folk Art Collection

Patterns created in The Pennyrug Collection

This is what you need to bring to class: (it's so 

simple, you can bring it in a little basket!)

Scissors: sharp scissors to cut the wool felt and thread

Small pincushion with a few pins

Needles: appropriate to your choice of thread or whatever

feels good for you.

For ornament: 2 - 6'' x 6'' squares of cotton batting (scraps

from your quit projects are great)

For pincushion: a sandwich size ziploc of fiberfill

Floss/Thread:  There are as many opinions on what is the

best thread as there are brands of thread so I let my students

choose their favorite.  I generally use DMC embroidery floss 

and the correct color numbers are shown below.  If you prefer 

another thread or floss then just search for a comparison chart

for the brand you choose.

For European Folk Art Colorway:  Ecru - 806 - 3347 - 742 - 816

For Pennyrug Colorway: 677 - 920 - 826 - 816 - 732 - 742 - 310

Now choose one of the 13 patterns.  The photos show a

European Folk Art colorway example on the left and a 

Pennyrug colorway example on the right.

Here is a video about the class:

I hope to see you sometime very soon!!  ~ Ellen

Grand Isle

This is my Grand Isle tabletopper pattern.  I love how 

changing colors can really change the look of a pattern.

You could make a different one for each season or holiday.

The one with the pumpkin is made from felted wool and 

the ones with the brighter colors are made with wool felt.

There is a funny story about this pattern.  Our relatives

Pat and Jim had purchased a summer home in Michigan 

in a town that started with the word Grand at the time I

was designing this pattern.  I looked on a map and found

Grand Isle and named the pattern for Pat and Jim's new 

town.  It wasn't until later that I found out they moved to

Grand Haven ~  ooops!  I think I should design another

pattern to honor Grand Haven.

www.americanhomesteaddesign.com

The Easter Tree

It is Easter week and one of our little bunnies

will make it home from college to celebrate, the

other one has to work.  Growing up and getting a

job can put such a glitch in your plans for fun...

Today I gathered some branches from the crab

apple tree in the front garden and collected some

of my embroidered ornaments, some decorated 

eggs, some mini blue Christmas balls, a few wreaths

I made as a young bride many years ago and some

prisms from old chandeliers and decorated a tree for 

our dining room table.  Mr. Wonderful  and I rarely

eat in the dining room nowadays, the table seems

too big and empty with just the two of us.  We put 

a smaller table in our family room ~ another sign

of our empty nest honeymoon cottage.

Though it was chilly this morning and we still had

frost, it has turned into a beautiful Spring day.  The

windows in the studio are open and a gentle breeze 

is floating in.  I was able to go out on a hike today

and met up with this beauty.

Yesterday Mr. Wonderful took me out to lunch 

at our new favorite Indian restaurant.

It is close to Trader Joe's so when we eat there

we always stop at TJ's and find something

special.

I left with armloads of flowers and filled the

house with blooms.  For now, we will still have

to buy our flowers but from the look of the 

daffodil bulbs that I divided last Fall, we should 

have a bumper crop in a few weeks.

My New Book!

Yesterday I had a fun surprise!

I was helping a customer and went to the website

of my publisher, C&T Publishing and saw the cover

for my next book is already on their website.  The 

book is not due to be released until July but it is 

available for pre-order right now, right here.

It is filled with lots of projects for wool felt, felted 

wool and quilting.  The book is a Christmas book 

but change up the colors and you can use the projects

for any time of year.  I hope you like it!

A Wool Applique Giveaway

Hey everybody, just a reminder that I am doing a

giveaway on the Wool Applique site on Facebook.

/https://www.facebook.com/groups/399416250167265/

To be accepted into the group you must be someone

interested in our passion for wool applique.

Once you are at the site, comment under the photo

for the giveaway.

The giveaway is a baker's dozen of my ornament/

pincushion patterns plus a few rolls of wool felt

and felted wool.

Good luck everyone!

A Magazine Mention

I recently heard from the magazine, FabShop News.

They said they had mentioned my business,

 American Homestead in their magazine.

They sent me a copy of the magazine and I was 

happy to see American Homestead was included 

in an article about Wool Applique.  I'm so happy 

to see wool applique continues to gain in popularity.

I'm A Cover Girl!

Well, okay, not me... but my design is on the cover

of Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks Magazine - Volume 10.

I just received my advance copy today and I was 

so thrilled!

I can't show the design yet but you can be sure I 

will once the magazine hits the newsstands.

If you look inside you will also find a quilt I made

using the applique block I designed.

Stay tuned!

Working With Wool/Felt: Changing Colors

I've been working on making new samples

for my wool applique lecture that I give at

Guilds and Quilt Shops.  This is my Grand

Isle pattern made from felted wool.

Here is the same pattern made with wool

felt.  Wool felt is the easiest way to applique.

And here is another one made with wool

felt.  I love that changing the colors can 

make it look like a completely different 

piece!

I'm using this one in my studio this week

for Halloween.

Wonderful Woolens

The photo above shows the cabinet where I store

my felted wool.  

I have been collecting 100% wool clothing 

throughout the summer.  I cut it up and wash 

and dry it as shown here. This box was filled 

to the brim, I find it is better to save up my 

purchases and felt it all at once, that way I can

separate into different colors and still have a

good amount of wool in each wash load.

This is what it looks like after I separate the

wool after felting.  That's two large tables

filled with wool.

And this is what it looks like after trimming,

pressing and rolling.  I like to roll as much as 

I can so there are less folds to press out when

I want to work with it.  I have now started adding

a paper band around the roll to try to keep it in

place.  In the past, I would just store the rolls side

by side but I found they could unroll and get

messy.  I'll see how this goes...

This is a bin of wool with interfacing still 

attached.  If it is fused strongly to the wool,

I keep it on and use this for backings or

pincushions.

Here is a lucky mistake.  The wool on top is

the original.  A stray piece got mixed in with

the red and pink wool in the wash and look at

the wonderful result on the bottom.  I plan to 

add some tweeds to the red washes in the future

since I liked this so much.  This is a good reminder

of how important it is to separate colors, especially

red!

And now I'm ready to get stitchin' in 

front of the fireplace.

So I have a few questions for you:

How do you store your wool?

How to you keep your wool together (like the paper band)?

Do you do anything differently as far as felting?

How I Felt Wool

I view my treasure hunting for wool or as I call

it, woolgathering to be as much fun as making the

projects.  I feel the same way about it as I do about 

antiquing, I never look in the pristine glass cases

filled with antiques, I love the hunt through the

boxes of old junk.  It is the same with wool, I can

(and sometimes do) buy beautiful already felted

wool but I LOVE to find it and felt it myself.  I 

look at thrift stores and garage sales for wool 

garments. I try to buy things for $1 or less unless

the wool is really something special.

I like to buy 100% wool items but will buy

a blend as long as the wool content is at least

80%.  I try to buy coats, jackets or long skirts,

I stay away from pants because generally they

are not the right type of wool.  I don't buy 

worsted wool.  What is worsted wool?  It is called

worsted wool because of the way it is made.  In 

the carding process, only the longest threads are

used to make the yarn and this makes for a much

thinner fabric when woven.  It is often used for 

suits and pants and some skirts, especially pleated

ones since worsted wool holds a pleat well.  For 

my purposes to use wool for applique, worsted wool 

is not a good choice since it ravels even after the

felting process.  The more you feel woolens, the 

better you will be able to feel the difference between 

a regular wool yarn and a worsted yarn used to 

weave the fabric.

When I get my purchases home, I cut it up

outdoors if the weather permits.  To felt wool

it is necessary to remove the seams and all 

sewing threads since the threads can cause

the fabric to not felt correctly.  The photo shows

a skirt, I cut off the waistband and the hem 

including any seam tape.  Then I cut off the 

seams completely, I find it is not necessary to

try to pick open the seams since there are so 

many folds at the seams.  I then open the 

pleats with a seam ripper, then the wool pieces

are ready to be felted.

This photo shows the process a bit more

clearly.  On the right side I am cutting off the 

seam, then I will cut just below the tape on

the hem.  The area that has the interfacing

will differ from garment to garment.  This

interfacing pulled off easily and left no residue

so that area was fine.  If the interfacing would 

not come off easily or if it comes off but leaves

pieces of the adhesive on the wool, then I would

just cut that area off completely.

Jackets are harder to deal with but I do use them 

because they have such gorgeous colors.  First I cut

off the cuff, then I cut the sleeve off at the shoulder.

I pull the wool part away from the jacket, leaving the

lining attached to the bodice.

This photo shows the 2 pieces of the sleeve with

the seams removed.  The interfacing on this came

away easily, if it hadn't I would have cut it off.  Then

I used the same process to cut away the back pieces

and the side piece.

You can see the front piece has a heavy

interfacing and since it did not pull away 

easily, I discarded the front sections.  I 

did cut off the pocket fronts.

So here is the amount of wool I got from a

99 cent wool jacket.  Two pockets, two back

pieces, two side pieces and the four pieces 

from the sleeves.

Divide the wool pieces by color taking care with

reds especially since they can bleed and turn

everything pink.  Then wash in hot water with

a cold rinse with detergent.  Dry at the hottest

setting.  NOTE:  Be sure to clean your lint trap

since cut-up wool will give off a lot of lint.

This is what a wool piece looks like when it 

comes out of the dryer.  I like it to look neat

so I quickly press it and trim the edges.

This is what the wool looks like after

felting, pressing and trimming.

I stack the pieces on top of each other and

then roll it, I find it gets less wrinkles this way.

And there you have it!

This may not be for everyone and if it isn't there 

are many beautiful felted wools for sale.  If this 

is your type of thing ~ then give it a try!