SALES TABLE

Sales table by members of FeltMakers North Guild at Hillsborough Village Centre. Beautiful bracelets, purses, animals, cards & decorations available to purchase. Don't miss out on these gorgeous handcrafted gifts. Super stocking fillers just in time for Christmas.

Workshop with Gabi McGrath

7 & 8th October 2017

Finally some photographs from the workshop with Gabi McGrath. Apologies for the delay but there was a glitch!

  

   

Beautiful Bags

Saturday 21st October 2017

UNUSUAL FABRICS TO FELT

What a super morning & so many feltees, old and new. Anne welcomed new members handing out green aprons here, there & everywhere. 

Show & Tell commenced with the bags made at Gabi McGraths workshop last month. These were really quite pretty and with such intricate leather designs. 

 

Norma (below) had some Foxford wool off-cuts which she had felted onto prefelts and sought inspiration from the group on how to continue to a finished item. These were lovely & looking forward to next 'Show & Tell'.

Sandy(below), one of our newer members, attended a 'Meet the Maker' session with Helen during August craft month. This would make a gorgeous framed picture. We can see Sandy is already developing skills incorporating colour into her work. Well done.

Below Fiona shows her picture of bog plant. The soft white wool fibres really make this come alive & remind us of summer time. Great!

And now to our busy morning with Gail. Margaret is dabbing watery eyes in the second picture as Gail challenges us to think of using fibres other than wools, linens & silks to create some unique patterns and textures. We all know how strict Gail is!!

 

Just some of the fibres used. 

Lots of sharing & swapping as usual.

A few snaps of the morning.....






   
  

  

Gorgeous results. It can be seen how such unusual fibres
can be added to other projects. Well done everyone.

  

Margaret's still wiping her eyes :-(

There was a great afternoon's 'free felting'. Lots of us took the opportunity to start or complete various projects. Don't forget to bring along to the next Show & Tell. Thank you Karen for making the tea even if Ann was so engrossed & didn't remember to drink hers.

Also, huge congrats to Karen on a wonderful result in her studies.

Next felt-in on 18/11/17 with Dympna bringing some Christmas spirit. No ladies not the alcoholic type ( :-( ) but felting decorations. HoHoHo - looking forward to that.

Hare Workshop with Dorothy, our doyenne of all things felty is on 11/11/17. This is a needle-felting workshop and although not everyone's cup of tea this is a great skill to master as even wet felters will often use some needle-felting techniques to finish projects.

AND FINALLY,

HAPPY HALLOWEEN 

JUST A REMINDER.......

Good evening fellow feltees. 

Just a quick reminder regarding this Saturday's morning session which shall be led by Gail. Elaine has already emailed the extras required so I hope you have been gathering your orange & lemon net bags, laces, meshes & open weave fabrics. 

There will be a free felt-in in the afternoon. This is always a great opportunity to work on your own projects requiring lots of room and a large table but also a good time to finish those projects that have been sitting around the house (I'm sure everyone has a least 1 or 2 of these!).  Remember to bring your lunch if you are staying.

Jane is back & will have the sales table set up with those lovely autumnal colours she managed to purchase along with some silks, ball bausers, soaps etc.

We will also have a further sales table in the foyer. Although this table will not be 'manned' it is an opportunity to for individuals to sell some of their own work. Please note that any items for sale must be clearly marked with your name & price. The Centre will collect money from sales & has requested 10% commission from these sales. 

See you all on Saturday for some fun with lovely laces, nifty nets, marvellous meshes, wicked weaves & winsome wools :-) 

WORKSHOP with Gabi McGrath 7 & 8th October

What a wonderful workshop we attended at the weekend. Participants were guided through making a beautiful felted bag and then adding leather by the very skilled and generous tutor Gabi McGrath. 

The first day saw us make our bags using Cushendale wool - a mixture of New Zealand and Galway wools. Batts were laid out over a variety of resist shapes and we rubbed and rolled until all bags were ready for drying. 

Day two concentrated on designing leather embellishment using designs provided by Gabi.  We  were taught how to sew the leather onto the bags using a variety of stitches and threads. Gabi also showed us how to make leather buttons - toggle and bellybutton shapes, leather button loops and handles using 4 strands of leather to produce a circular platt.  Gabi's friend Yvonne was wonderful - she helped us all in manyways.Pulling bags into shape, helping with techniques and she was always on hand with teas, coffees and water!

Dorthy decided on Saturday that she would stay over at Ann's on Saturday night but realised on Sunday that  she needed her medication. Thus devoted husband Sam arrived to save the day!

We were delighted to have the Lord Mayor of LCCC (Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council) call into the workshop. We are very grateful to LCCC for their continual support in 
providing funding for this workshop. 

We all went off home to complete our bags which we will show at the next felt in on 21st October.

    

September starts a new felting year

Saturday saw the start of another felting year. Our Chairperson, Gail opened the Felt-in welcoming back old familiar faces & some new faces too. In addition, Gail thanked members for their hard work & contributions to a very successful exhibition as part of August Craft Month and advised that the Guild has been invited to exhibit at the Loft in Portaferry. Further details will follow but another fabulous opportunity to display our work & raise our profile. Get your thinking caps on and rollers at the ready to create some exciting new pieces for the Loft. 

It was a busy morning with membership forms & fees being submitted to Ann & Mandy. For those of you who have not yet submitted your form please either forward to Anne or bring along to next felt in. Remember that one of the benefits of membership is priority booking for workshops & permits attendance at the afternoon felt-ins.

Gail launched the Programme of events for 2017/18. This is on the blog site under the heading 'Diary of Events'. This is one of our most exciting programmes to date with morning felt-ins led by our own skilled members together with workshops with renowned felters such as Gabi McGrath, Gabriella Kovacs, Wendy Bailye and our very own 'Doyenne', Dorothy Dinsmore. Early booking will be necessary to secure your place. Furthermore, there are three afternoon free felt-in sessions where you will be able to bring along your own projects to work on. Please remember these are not formal teaching sessions but are opportunities to begin/finish projects in a relaxed setting with long tables. Remember to bring your lunch along. 


SHOW & TELL

Some great work was produced over the summer at both the workshops & at home.

Karen with her beautiful vessel crafted at Gail's workshop. The simple spiral design is very effective.

Norma had a challenging day at Ann's scarf workshop but persevered at home to create a unique wool & silk scarf.

Olwyn's autumnal colours of her wool & silk scarf also from Ann's workshop. & doesn't her jumper go so well!

Now everything gets a bit fishy........

Puffer fish workshop. So cute.

What did one puffer fish say to another puffer fish?
I'm feeling rather bloated right now!
or
What do you call a puffer fish with no eyes?
A puffer fsh!
(I know terrible, lol)

Sharon's autumnal coloured grid scarf.

Cup warmer - a very useful means of using up leftover felt.

& Finally, a very industrious Deirdre - handbag, scarf & another fish!

Gail reminded all of the availability of wool, a selection of silks & some sundries at the sales table.  There were some of last year's wooltops reduced in price and a wonderful selection of autumnal colours for this season. Unfortunately our usual sales person, Jane Fox, was away. Helen substituted for what proved to be a very busy morning for the table & Helen is thankful that Jane will be here next time!

Then we came to the morning's felt-in led by Jayne Burgess, 'Fabric in Felt'. Jayne gave a clear and concise talk of how to incorporate fabrics inc. silk, muslin & cotton into the felting process.  After a discussion regarding the suitability/unsuitability of various fabrics Jayne showed some samples of beautiful felted projects demonstrating endless possibilitie using this technique. She had kindly brought along some sample fabrics for members to practise with. After laying down the wooltops & silks it was onto some very gentle patting to massaging then rubbing, rolling & of course throwing to rid yourself of any angst! Below are a selection of photographs of the morning and the resulting felted pieces. Remember that all felt-in sessions allow feltees to learn or practice a new skill that you can then take home to incorporate into your very own project.

Thank you to Jayne for beginning our year with a great session.


And finally a big thanks to the ladies who kindly organised the teas & coffees. Always a welcoming start to the morning & an opportunity to catch up with old friends & welcome nubies. 

What a fab day to start the year & hope you are all looking forward to our October felt-in on the 21st.