AGM number 4

There was a great turnout at Feltmakers North's fourth AGM. The business side of the AGM was over quickly and then we had a show and tell! It was fabulous to see all the work everyone had done during the year and the progress that had been made!

Diane modelling her fabulous jacket she made with Catherine O'Leary.

 A small waistcoat made at J Sendler workshop!

 Freda Magill, started with her talk on different breeds of sheep and the uses for their wool! 

 Freda told us all about the breeds of native sheep and it was amazing to hear how many breeds there were. The Galway sheep being the only native sheep of Ireland! We saw lovely photos of each breed, including the very pretty Badger faced Welsh mountain Sheep. Herdwick sheep,which are present in the lake District of England, their wool can be used to make insulation, which is environmental friendly and fire resistant!
 Sarah Jarden Foster then demonstrated some spinning, bringing with her two of her spinning wheels!

Sarah spun showing the different staples of wool going from South Down, to Jacob, to Galway a very long staple and ending up with Wensleydale and Leicester long wool. I have a short video of her spinning which I hope to post during the summer! She makes it look very easy!!

To end off the mornings talks Liz Nicholls gave a short talk on how she uses native wool in her work as a designer!

Liz made this beautiful bowl from Wensleydale, the texture of wool was visible as the light shone through it!

A very fine Wensleydale wall hanging, made by Liz Nicholls!

After a fabulous lunch supplied by the members, there was an afternoon of free felting!

Our next felt in is June 21st when Dorothy will be making beads! So we look forward to seeing you all then.

I am sorry I gave you the wrong information at the AGM as we have had over 30,000 hits to our blog 

and we reach far and wide. So hello to all our over seas readers!

Fiona Harvey

Felting Fever!

April is always a busy month for Feltmakers North, and this year was no exception, as we had our usual felt in and then we have a stand at The Creative Stitch Show, and we also had the brilliant Jeanette Sendler for two one day workshops!

Jeanette brought a great selection of inspirational samples with her, and her lovely gentle teacher manner, made the first day a tremendous success! We were to make a small jacket/waistcoat for a child. The pattern for this could then be enlarged for an adult! 

                               Some of Jeanette's amazing samples!

Jeanette demonstrating the process for making our small jacket.

                                       Tina having fun!

Sarah adding her pattern of flowers!

Dorothy also making a blue jacket but with a more marine theme!

Dympha's is all ready for her little grand daughter!

Workshop Two Tartan Felt, continued in the relaxed manner of the day before, under Jeanette's calm instruction.

                Another great range of samples to inspire us, which it did!

                             The weaving was no problem for Barbara!

The weaving has started!

Weaving with a more contemporary look!

Barbara's very neat weaving starting to take shape!

I think everyone who was present at our April workshops will agree they were a great success, as we all learnt a lot and now we all have a small supply of prefelt so we can continue to learn at home!!

The AGM is 17th May and for members only, who will be getting an email with full details, but please remember to wear something in felt that you have made while being a member of Feltmakers North!! There will be lots of interesting news at the AGM about our programme and plans for the direction of FN in the future, so we hope to see lots of you there!

Fiona Harvey

Bangles!

Saturday's Felt in was filled with fun, our tutor for the morning was Deirdre Gallagher, who showed us how to make colourful bangles!

Deirdre brought with her a great variety of bangles for inspiration, some were interlocking and some were decorated with beads!

Some of the mornings work!

The morning passed very quickly with everyone really enjoying learning and making bangles! Deirdre was a lovely tutor who guided us through the process!

We had a great show and tell with lots of the girls proudly bringing their finished or almost finished bags from Gail's workshop using Native Wools!

It was also great to see some of the work the members had done on their own!Here are two of Mandys pieces!

Above work in progress, but showing great potential!

Jayne's lovely scarf she made to wear to a wedding!

We hope to see you all at The Creative Craft Show in Belfast next week, come along and say Hello or sign up and take one of our hour long workshops!

Our AGM is the next meeting which is for members only and we have some very interesting speakers lined up! 

Native Wool Workshop

On Saturday 22nd March 12 lucky felters were on a workshop with Gail Cooke as the tutor,the topic was a bag using native wool! Above is the pack that the felters received. The pack contained: jacob wool fibres, Shetland wool fibres, Linen/cotton scrim, Habotai light silk, Blue faced Leicester scoured and Kid mohair scoured, an interesting bag of materials!!

Gail had produced four fabulous bags as inspiration for everyone. The range was great and gave everyone a good choice, suiting all levels of felting abilities! As some were more advanced incorporating the silk and linen to the outside flap.

The textures of the wool although not obvious in these photos was amazing.

Some comments received

"Gail was very helpful explaining each stage" 

"Excellent workshop taught members a great deal about different types of wool and fabric. outstanding course so glad I decided to do it!!"

"Learned an abundance of techniques with new materials!"

I hope the girls will bring their bags on the 5th April so we can see the finished results!

Remember the felt in is on the 5th April and please bring along an item in a sea theme for display on our stand at the Creative Craft Show, in Belfast!

Look forward to seeing you all on the 5th April at 10.15 in Hillsborough Village Hall!

Wonderful Yarns

We had a great morning with Sarah, introducing us to the technique of adding wool into our felt. Sarah is a spinner and weaver, and brought along some of her beautiful yarns. The above picture is wool she had dyed using Kool-aid drink, the colours were amazing but I dread to think what it would do to your insides if drunk!!

Above some of Sarah fabulous yarns all hand spun. you can find her on the internet under Spiderling Creations!

Sarah is showing us here a window in the felt that just contains wool yarn and makes very interesting textured piece!

After a quick demonstration we were all keen to being experimenting!

The top photo is a beautiful scarf with felbi and wool yarn in the lace part which creates an area of interest.

Some of the finished samples, all different and everyone

 had great fun under the relaxed tuition of Sarah! A great morning was 

enjoyed by all!

Please remember that next months felt in is on Saturday 5th April (because of Easter) and we will be making a bracelet with Deirdre. The closing date for jeanette Sendler is 31st March so there is still time check out workshop/felt in section of Blog! 

Look forward to seeing you all soon and those of you on Gails bag workshop have fun I know you will, Im only sorry I cant do it!!

Fiona Harvey

Wooley Wonders

There are two treats in store for us this month! On Saturday 15th March Sarah will be showing us how to introduce wool yarn into our felting! So bring along your usual felting kit and some wool yarn to add in! 

The following Saturday, (22nd) twelve lucky people are spending the day with Gail making a bag using native wool with a few wee extra interesting things in their packs, which are included in the price of the workshop!

April is a very busy month for Feltmakers North!
The April meeting is early and is being held on the 5th April, which is being taken by Deirdre, when we will be making a bracelet! 
Feltmakers North is taking a stand at The Creative Craft Show in Belfast, where we will be exhibiting our work, and also taking workshops each day!!
To complete the hat trick of activities for April, we have the lovely Jeannette from Scotland, taking two one day workshops (check out the workshop felt in section for details) Applications for Jeannettes workshop have to be in by the end of March so dont miss out! 
Look forward to seeing you on Saturday at 10.15 am !! 
Fiona Harvey