Sayra Adams of Idaho, United States creates the most stunning felted hats that anyone would look dramatic wearing. Sayra not only makes hats but she makes wool art batts, and spins yarn which looks like they would be lovely to work with.  Pay a visit on her Blog “Hat Diva” or shop her charming shops “Hatdiva Hats” and “Atomicblue fiber” and tell her you saw her on Craft Gossip Felting.  You can follow her on TWITTER too.

Take advantage of this special offer from the Funky Felter for holiday gift giving.

SPECIAL FOR THE WEEK OF 11/09 – 11/14 AT MY ETSY SHOP
FREE SHIPPING!!  All items ship for absolutely free this week!

From now through Christmas, I will be running weekly specials in my Etsy shop.  This week all items in my Etsy shop ship for free!  There’s just one catch – you must put the promo code “FREESHIPPING” in the message to seller at checkout.  After you’ve purchased your items, I will refund all shipping fees via PayPal.

Chrissie the shop owner of “Make Your Presents Felt” does some wonderful designs with felt.  I am totally in love with this Felt bead and wooden petal choker necklace.  Her shop has some lovely items you have to see.  I also love her Nuno felted vessel with burlap/hessian collar, it is so primitive and would make a wonderful conversation piece in your home. Sorry, I just bought both pieces.  Chrissie: “Hello and thanks for looking! I’m a time-served Scots crafter (living in England) who has for the last 30 years lovingly made gifts for friends and family, or to decorate our home. I was always getting told off for “skiddling” when I was little (that’s ‘making a mess with water’ to anyone who isn’t Scottish!) so I’m in my element wet-felting.

This tutorial for this adorable felted sweater floral earmuff /headband comes from the blog “Maya Made” is a very interesting and fun blog.  All you will need is: a felted turtleneck sweater, a scissor, thread, and a needle.  There is another tutorial and template from “Wise Craft” on making the flowers.  This is such a quick and clever idea that was made out of necessity.  Take a look at the blog and you can read how our designer was forced into making this headband.

This is the cutest idea to duplicate an expensive project on a budget.  I found this pictorial tutorial on a really cool blog called “Living with Lindsay” where you will find some awesome ideas and photos. When making these pumpkins don’t worry about being an artist? No worries. Lindsay did the hard work for you and drew out everything you need for the four pumpkins. There is a downloadable the .pdf file of the artwork. The artwork is scaled for a medium sized pumpkin, so you will need to enlarge or reduce if you are using a large or small pumpkin.

This charming door Witch came from our sister blog CraftBits.com.  Because of the use of all the different fibers and felt I feel it is a good Fiber Arts projects.   There is a pictorial tutorial plus a supply list for you to follow and makes a delightful Halloween decoration you can use year after year, so the time you put into it is well worth your efforts.

Taffy Knit’s has a very charming ETSY shop filled with enjoyable items to decorate with, wear or just for fun.  I love the witches brewing kettle, pumpkins and apples as they are all seasonal for the fall.  Check out this stay at home mother of four ETSY shop and offer some comments.  Her designs are unique, fun and practical. She offers felted knitted items because she feels that felted wool is such an efficient fabric for our busy lives. She also loves the fun and the shrinking process because it always brings the element of surprise.

Now is the time to think about your Halloween decorations and I thought it would be fun to see what the ETSY shop owners are selling for this trick or treat fun holiday.  I was taken in by “Two Left Hand’s Shop” with its smashing array of adorably scary dolls.  Mrs. Two Left Hand’s lives in a little cottage on a little lake in Michigan with her husband and their two adorable dogs. Muffie is a Shitzu and Poker is a Cocker Spaniel. They have three grown kids and nine beautiful grandkids, five boys and four girls. She has been sewing for as long as she can remember and because she has never been good at taking instructions (she always does first and reads later) she never know exactly what she will come up with. She loves doing needlework and experimenting with different embroidery stitches.  Most items are made from wool felt, wool roving, gauze, bead, pearls, glue, floss.  Every holiday is celebrated in this shop, so visit often.

I found this amazing site called “The Island of Misfit Patterns “ with all free patterns of felted and unfelted bags, hats, mitten, scarves and toys created by people like you and me. I have pictured a couple of free felting projects and there are plenty more for you to browse through About The Island of Misfit Patterns is about: Let me guess. You created something fabulous, wrote up a pattern, and submitted it to all the online magazines. But sadly, no one wanted it. Or maybe you wrote a great essay, but again, no one took it. Or, maybe you were just too lazy to try and get your great pattern and essay in the exact correct format for publication.  We know how you feel. But, don’t worry your pattern or essay has a home here! This site is designed to host all the lost and homeless patterns out there.

Fun Felt Crafts by Tina Skinner is a fabulous book for those of us that love felting.  This book is published by Schiffer Books and they were kind enough to send me a copy to giveaway to one of you.  The pages are filled with clever ideas on how to recycle old or used woolens, as Tina points out in the history of wool crafts (Below).  Homemakers have been using left over or outdated wool clothing and recreating these into fashionable wearables for their families. I recall my mother telling the story about a coat and showing me pictures of this adorable coat that was made for her out of the wool lining of a worn out man’s overcoat.  The lining was a brown and cream plaid and the matching bonnet that matched the new coat.  There was a fur band around the bonnet and a fur muff was also created.  This book will show you just how to recycle wools and turn them into amazing and useful home décor items and wearables. Tina shows us the proper way to take apart an old wool blazer and skirt for use in fun new projects.  Felting and cutting up used wool sweaters will leave you with enough wool for many smaller projects. She shows you the basic stitches to use when hand sewing felted wool. There are patterns for making adorable pouches, bags and fabulous flowers she calls “flower Power” to decorate your hats, sweaters, jackets or stand alone brooches.  She has the cutest hats and sweater bags that will be one-of-a-kind by you the designer.  Tina has many templates in this book for patterns for your use.  The illustrations in this book are wonderful and clear and you will enjoy looking through the projects and creating your own from Tina’s basic ideas. This is a book that all felters will want to own.  

A History of Wool Craft by Tina Skinner:

Felt is one of the most popular craft mediums right now, but it’s hardly a flash-in-the-pan trend. Sheep are one of mankind’s oldest commodities, and their wonderful wool has been clothing and sheltering us throughout recorded history. Saving scraps of wool from sewing projects and salvaging what’s usable from used-up clothes is an age-old tradition. Women have been recycling wool into clever crafts since time immemorial, and the styles pioneered by America’s early homemakers are still much admired and imitated in Grafting circles today. Besides forming the basis for hooked and braided rugs, wool scraps are also the stars of the lesser-known penny rug. Penny rugs were probably never destined for work on the floor. Rather, they were used to protect the tops of precious cabinetry or furnishings while showing off the mistress’s skill with a needle.

To learn more about the designers and projects get this fun filled book.

Enter today or purchase it from Amazon or Schiffer Books. To enter (type enter me in the comment area)

It never ceases to amaze me how many beautiful free felting patterns you can find on the Internet through yarn shops.  Today, I signed up with Patons Yarn and found some really nice free patterns that would make wonderful mother’s day gifts. You can knit up this adorable Classic Wool – Felted Knitting Needle Case or Classic Wool – Fabulous Felted Flowers or Classic Wool – Felted Shopping Bag and I’m sure mom would be thrilled.  They’re classic wool yarn is very affordable and I found it at Joann’s Fabric on sale for $4.50 100% merino wool 100 grams (3-1/2 ounces) 223 yards and this is quite a deal.  Right after I saw this sale I called a friend who works at Joann’s and asked her to pick me up a few skeins because she is coming over to visit tomorrow. I don’t have to wait for the delivery truck or go to the store. I think that I’m going to make the felted knitting needle case. Check out the patterns on paton’s website (you may have to join, but it is free).

Amanda is a felting artist from Finland. She has a blog Felt Finland, a Flickr photo stream that will give you an idea of this amazing woman’s talents. There is no way that I could show you a small fraction of her work, so I selected Easter related items. Amanda has another site she sells from which is called Felt Finland.  One of the things I noticed about a man does sites is that she has written them both in English and in Finnish which allows us that are English-speaking to enjoy her sites. Please take the time to visit Amanda’s sites and see all her stunning felting.

Artist’s statement:

In the autumn of 2005, quite by chance, I discovered the ancient craft of Felting. History will tell us that felt dates back to as early as 6500BC and is one of the oldest forms of fabric. I use felt’s amazing properties to create art in the form of wall hangings, table runners and pictures, using the traditional wet felting method – Soap, hot water and friction (one’s hands usually!) I also use the needle felting method to make 3 dimensional characters and smaller decorations.

This Easter Eggs tutorial is from Activity Village out of the United Kingdom.   They have many neat ideas for crafting and the entire site is family  orientated.   This is a complete Pictorial Tutorial with several ideas for different decorative eggs.   Check out the adorable felted bunnies tutorial when you visit. Tracy is team of contributors (home-schooling mother of 4 girls) takes us through the process of making these gorgeous felt Easter eggs to decorate your Easter table this year. Children can use their imagination to come up with some really pretty Easter egg designs!

Rachel of “Think Outside the Box”  has generously offered to create one of her adorable hearts personalized just for you, the Craft Gossip Felting readers.  Rachel is one the kindest and the friendliest people I’ve ever met. Again, this will be a random drawing and what you are required to do to enter the drawing is to go to Rachel’s ETSY shop, her blog, or her Flickr and simply mention in the comment section “here” which one of her pieces of art you like. This gives Rachel an opportunity to know what appeals to you and gives you the opportunity to win the heart. This will be your Valentine gift from Rachel. The contests will begin today January 27 through February 14. So let’s give Rachel a great big thanks for her kindness and generosity.  Pictured above are a couple of the types of hearts that she will personalized for you you’ll be able to pick your colors and what theme you want.  It is so nice to have people you write about come back and offer something so nice to us. So when you stop by Rachel’s sites please tell her you founder on Craft Gossip felting.  Good luck to all my readers