Different Woolly Inspiration

I saw this in a post from one of my Jacob Sheep Digests… Someone had post the the link and I almost didn’t go check it out. I am thankful that I did now.

I am amazed at the imagination and thought behind this Shepherdess’ dress! Isn’t that incredible? She is a 38 year old bride who obviously adores her sheep. She had wanted them to be a part of her wedding and this is what she came up with, with help from some seamstresses too. I believe she is located in England somewhere.

So incase you were looking for some woolly inspiration today, here’s a food for thought. Not everything has to be ordinary… and wool can be used in a variety of ways!

Cleopas Has Issues…

But she has a handycap – she’s the first stuffed toy I’ve made let alone the first thing I’ve made with a sewing machine that isn’t flat.

Cleopas is a stuffed horse, completely free of buttons or removable choking hazards – obviously I have infant toys on my mind.

I think that making baby toys and items would be a lot of fun. Who knows where that will lead – atleast baby showers will be more fun with handmade items!

Petunia – The More to Love Sheep

Petunia has been grazing a bit long in the pastures lately and has rounded out her perfectly sheepish figure.

 

Her colorful body is made of washed Jacob fleece and displays unique markings on her own.  Her head and legs are made of corriedale roving as well as her pink bow.

Her body is completely needle felted so there is no harmful pieces and thus is good for a playful toy for infants!

She stands on all fours just barely enough to lift her belly off the ground.  She has a white fuzzy tail right in the middle of her little round rump.

I believe her bow is my favorite part – Petunia is ALL girl.

A picture I've been searching for for what seems like an extremely long time -- now, thanks to Google and their Picasa photo program, I've found her! Just very excited over here at Mud Ranch.

Sewing Re-Charge

I've been staying away from Joanne's fabrics for a while, not necessarily out of wanting to avoid it but actually having Hubby in the vehicle, extremely hot weather, or having Annie in the vehicle too has kept me away. This past Sunday I talked my mother-in-law into stopping by -- she found a shady tree and while Annie napped and she listened to Narnia on the CD player I got to shop. I had purposed myself to look only for yarn needles, straight pins, a tomato, and some wool felt but yes, I did get a little distracted. Most of my time spent was seeking out the wool felt (found it!) but I did run across this fabric.

I have been seeking the perfect fabric coordination to make Annie a knot dress with an apron on front. Eureka! I've found it! I'm pretty excited about my selections and am hoping for plenty of scrap to make a few more things -- maybe a tote and possibly my own personalized tomato.

This is called "Ribbon Dance" and it is by Donna Wilder for Fabric Traditions. I love all the different "flavors" there are and the colors are so pretty too. It was the aqua color that really captured my eye first then the little dahlias and the big blossoms. From those, it was easy to figure out what I wanted to go with them.

I also re-stocked myself on my straight pins and a yellow tomato (much more my style than the traditional red.) I had given my sister-in-law my other tomato with straight pins for her birthday along with a check (which she spent at Joanne's!) So I was definitely needing these items. At that time the sewing baskets were on sale and I had been eyeing them for a while because I hate having to dig through things to search for small, miscellaneous items. I'd rather have them all collected and sitting in one spot, ready to go. I found my basket and the cool buttons on sale -- the buttons 50% off and the basket 30% off. Not too shabby!

I am looking very forward to using the large black carved looking button. For what, I'm not too sure yet, but I'm definitely thinking it has to belong to something wool.I've also got my yarn needles so that I can do that really cool blanket stitch on my felted projects.

And last, but certainly not least, the top of my pretty little basket. I love that green and the pattern!

Hopefully Wednesday I'll have my dress going with help from my sewing tutor. I'm looking forward to getting back into it and an apron dress is just the thing to whet my appetite.

Pick Pick Picking

I fired up the ol' picker today and was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't as noisy as I was lead to believe. I actually grimaced as I flipped the switch and expected a roar like from a shaper (wood working.) Thankfully, none such thing made me jump and all ran smoothly.

I started inserting the wool in the backside and it quickly grabbed it and spit it through the rolling drums. I can definitely tell that this machine was built quite a long time ago as anyone nowadays would have a fit over how dangerous it is with it's nip point between the two small rollers -- a definite finger grabber and ripper-offer.

Above, the fleece that entered the machine

Hubby and I helped with sheep wrangling at my parent's house today as they've got a handful of Jacobs (mainly culls) that I've passed on to them because they want weed eaters and meat eaters -- they all got shorn. I found two ram lambs who had gorgeous fleeces, so lofty and springy with a very high lustre. You could see them shine as they walked through the pens and when you reached out to touch them it was amazingly soft. These were all sired by my ram, Raider. So my mom had already planned on keeping their pelts when they got butchered but I talked her in to letting me shear them and keeping them until their wool grew back before butchering, she easily agreed and now I have their fleece and they have a longer time on this earth.

So as I started picking, the fleece that went through was so fine that it flew around like dust bunnies! There had to be some way to catch the wool as it came shooting out the other side. I promptly put a water trough under the "out" and used a wheel barrow on end (up on a block for height) to sheild the wool from flying out of the trough -- it worked well.

My end product

This is my end product, fine wool gathered and picked. It was not washed before hand but it has been now that I've done this post. I'll use tomorrow's hot weather for drying. Then I may just have to run it through the picker again -- washed!

Looking forward to picking more here at Mud Ranch.

China Town Small Tote featured in Treasury at Etsy!

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=71423

I'm pretty honored to be selected in a Treasury at Etsy with my small tote, China Town. The lady that put it together is actually on my "Favorites" list so I'm pleased she likes my items like I like hers. Go check out the link if ya wanna. I'm pretty pleased!