New Hand Sewing ebook

Interweave has compiled a wonderful series of Quilting Arts articles on handwork into a beautiful new ebook Hand Sewing.

What a nice surprise to find out my article on making felted wool ornaments from the first Quilting Arts Gifts issue is included.

There are also articles by Jane LaFazio, Victoria Gertenbach, Rose Hughes and Jude Hill, just to name a few.

Felted Eggs

Well over the weekend I took the plunge and created a Pinterest account since so many of my friends are on there and see what I've been missing.

While I was poking around I saw quite a few pretty dyed eggs and although this seems a little early, I thought it might be fun to make some felted eggs.

After all they aren't going to spoil between now and Easter :-)

It might be fun to also add some decorative stitching with embroidery floss and adding some cut out wool felt shapes.


If you'd like to make some too, you can follow this tutorial, just roll your yarn balls into oval egg shapes.

This is a great way to use up leftover wool yarn. Rolling golf ball size yarn balls as a base for the ball. Wind yarn into oblong shapes to get a berry shaped ball.

I usually use wool yarn for the center because I know it will felt better, but in a pinch I have used other yarns too. My favorite place to order roving is from Outback Fibers, the colors are gorgeous and the prices are very reasonable. 

Unwind a length of roving, while holding it in one hand, grasp the end portion with the other hand and gently pull off "tufts" roughly 5-6 inches in length. Spread the fibers into a thin flat layer with all the strands going in one direction. Pull off another tuft of roving and layer it on top of the first at a 90 degree angle. Repeat this process several more times, criss-crossing 4-6 thin layers.

When lifting the blanket of roving there should not be thin spots or holes. Changing the colors of yarn in the layers will create a heathered multicolored wool ball.

Wrap the roving blanket you have created around a yarn ball, making sure there is full coverage of fluffy roving with no bare or thin spots.

Close the roving covered yarn ball in your hand and bring it to the foot of a knee hi panty hose. (buy cheap ones at the dollar store, or use those ancient ones in the back of your hosiery drawer that you never wear anymore) Gently remove your hand from around the ball pulling the hose tightly around the roving ball then tie a small piece of yarn to secure the ball in place.

When all the balls have been wrapped in the hose, place them in the washing machine, set the water to lowest level and hottest setting. Add a small amount of detergent, about a tablespoon, the exact measurement is not crucial but soap is important in the felting process. I usually run it on a long cycle, the more agitation the better the felting. Good old fashion top loading washers have the most success with felting.

When you take the chain of balls out of the machine, you will see little fibers have come though the mesh of the hose. Snip the tied yarn between the balls, gently peel away the hose removing the ball and roll the ball in your hands to smooth the fibers.

Click here to watch a video tutorial to make felted pumpkins which start with a basic felted ball.

Making Felted Pumpkins tutorial

To make felted pumpkins you will need:

wool roving in pumpkin colors
left over yarn, wool works best but other fibers will work too
pantyhose
orange and green embroidery floss or pearl cotton
long embroidery needle
scissors.

You can also make Dia de los Muertos skulls too, by making white felted balls. Cut 2 oval pieces of black felt for eyes, then stitch a nose, mouth and decorative designs like flowers and x's with colorful embroidery floss.

By the way, one of my favorite sources for wool roving is Outback Fibers located in the Texas Hill country.

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Felted Wool Ornaments

With the holidays here, I thought it would be a good time to repost my tutorial on making felted wool ornaments.

To make the ornaments shown in the 2008 issue of Quilting Arts Gifts, you need to make felted wool balls.

Warning: once you start making these, it may be really hard to stop.

To make the wool balls you will need:

panty hose

wool yarn- this is a great way to use up leftover yarn

colored wool roving- my favorite place to order roving is from Outback Fibers, the colors are gorgeous and it's very reasonable


Begin by rolling golf ball size yarn balls as a base for the felted ball. Wind yarn into oblong shapes to make a berry shaped ornament. I usually use wool yarn because I know it will felt better, but in a pinch I have used other yarn fibers too.


Unwind a length of roving, while holding it in one hand, grasp the end portion with the other hand and gently pull off "tufts" roughly 5-6 inches in length. Spread the fibers into a thin flat layer with all the strands going in one direction. Pull off another tuft of roving and layer it on top of the first at a 90 degree angle. Repeat this process several more times, criss-crossing 4-6 thin layers.


When lifting the blanket of roving there should not be thin spots or holes. Changing the colors of yarn in the layers will create a heathered multicolored wool ball.


Wrap the roving blanket you have created around a yarn ball, making sure there is full coverage of fluffy roving with no bare or thin spots.

Close the roving covered yarn ball in your hand and bring it to the foot of a knee hi panty hose. (buy cheap ones at the dollar store, or use those ancient ones in the back of your sock drawer) Gently remove your hand from around the ball and tie a knot with a small piece of yarn around the hose to secure the ball in place.


When all the balls have been wrapped in the hose, place them in the washing machine, set the water to lowest level and hottest setting. Add a small amount of detergent, about a tablespoon, the exact measurement is not crucial but soap is important in the felting process. I usually run it on a long cycle, the more agitation the better the felting.

When you take the chain of balls out of the machine, you will see little fibers have come though the mesh of the hose. Snip the tied yarn between the balls, gently peel away the hose removing the ball and roll the ball in your hands to smooth the fibers.

Click here to watch my video tutorial for making felted balls, just ignore the second half about turning them into pumpkins.


These make great cat toys, but dogs will want to shred them to smithereens. My chihuahua thinks there is nothing more fun than stealing felted balls when I am not looking and peel all the fuzz off.

These are some of the ornaments I made stitching wool felt on the balls with embroidery floss.


Theses ornaments make a great portable project. Everything you need fits in a baggie; a couple felted balls, several small pieces of wool felt, embroidery floss, scissors, crewel needles and a couple pins to hold things in place when you begin to stitch.



Stitched with beads.

They make great hostess gifts for holiday parties and are perfect for ornament exchanges.

Felted Dia De Los Muertos skulls

Jennifer from Canada left a comment on my felted pumpkin post asking about the stitching on the skulls so I thought I would post a few close ups to show how I stitched mine. I think one could really do any kind of colorful stitching and they would look great.

Making Felted Balls

To make the ornaments shown in Quilting Arts Gifts, you need to make felted wool balls or you can buy pre-felted balls from the Artgirlz or Quilting Arts. I like to make felted balls myself because I can have fun playing with colors and shapes. How to make the felted balls is explained in the article, but it does not have photos with all the steps. So, for all you visual learners here's how I do it.

Warning: once you start making these it will be really hard to stop.

This is a great way to use up leftover yarn, by rolling golf ball size yarn balls as a base for the ball. Wind yarn into oblong shapes to get a berry shaped ball. I usually use wool yarn because I know it will felt better, but in a pinch I have used other yarns too. My favorite place to order roving is from Outback Fibers, the colors are gorgeous and the prices are very reasonable. Unwind a length of roving, while holding it in one hand, grasp the end portion with the other hand and gently pull off "tufts" roughly 5-6 inches in length. Spread the fibers into a thin flat layer with all the strands going in one direction. Pull off another tuft of roving and layer it on top of the first at a 90 degree angle. Repeat this process several more times, criss-crossing 4-6 thin layers.
When lifting the blanket of roving there should not be thin spots or holes. Changing the colors of yarn in the layers will create a heathered multicolored wool ball.

Wrap the roving blanket you have created around a yarn ball, making sure there is full coverage of fluffy roving with no bare or thin spots.

Close the roving covered yarn ball in your hand and bring it to the foot of a knee hi panty hose. (buy cheap ones at the dollar store, or use those ancient ones in the back of your hosiery drawer that you never wear anymore) Gently remove your hand from around the ball and tie and knot a small piece of yarn around the hose to secure the ball in place.

When all the balls have been wrapped in the hose, place them in the washing machine, set the water to lowest level and hottest setting. Add a small amount of detergent, about a tablespoon, the exact measurement is not crucial but soap is important in the felting process. I usually run it on a long cycle, the more agitation the better the felting. Good old fashion top loading washers have the most success with felting.

When you take the chain of balls out of the machine, you will see little fibers have come though the mesh of the hose. Snip the tied yarn between the balls, gently peel away the hose removing the ball and roll the ball in your hands to smooth the fibers.

These would make great cat toys but dogs will want to shred these to smithereens. My chihuahua thinks there is nothing more fun than stealing felted balls when I am not looking and peel all the fuzz off.

This is my latest batch in preparation for my Make it U workshops in Houston.
50 felted balls ready to go. Come to one of my MIU workshops at International Quilt Festival Houston and stitch one of these babies into a lovely ornament.

Make it University Houston

I think we will all be making a lot more gifts this year with the present state of our economy. I don't know about you, but our budget's pretty tight these days.

These felted and stitched wool ornaments are a fun economical gift to make. You can find the directions in the new Quilting Arts Gifts and if you are in Houston for International Quilt Festival at the end of the month you can take a workshop making them with me in Make it University. You can't get a better bargain than the Make It U workshops at $10 each.

I will be teaching two workshops at Make it U this year. The first one will be Friday, October 31 at 3:00pm and the second one will be Saturday, November 1st at 10:15.

Ornaments again

These have turned into the best portable project. Everything I need fits in a couple baggies. Yesterday, while at my kids teen gathering at the local coffeehouse I stitched three of these. I made one while sitting at a doctors appointment and a few more watching tv with the family. The wool is wonderful to stitch through.

Creche and more ornaments

Following up several other blogsters that have been showing their creches, this is the creche I made with my daughter about 12 years ago when she was 4. We made it out of sculpy.


Here's a few mored felted ball ornaments.

Felted ball ornaments

These ornaments were made from felted balls that were leftover from last years felted ball ornaments. This year I cut out wool felt shapes and sewed them on with embroidery floss.