Re working the Otter Brothers

A year has past since I made the original wall hanging and I decided that I would change the cloth otters to needle felted wool.

The cloth left the boys looking rather flat and their coat colours were not as rich as their counter parts in nature.

I wasn't sure of the dimensions of the finished otters. I wanted to pre make the cartoons and then replace the cloth ones with the wool on the same day as I visited with my children. After pictures were taken and sent and then massaged through Photoshop, I had a real life sized pattern to work from.

Once I got started, (after washing and drying some black raw wool) it only took about 6 hours to assemble all 3.

They do seem to have much more personality

So hopefully this weekend I can re work this gift.

Polar Bear Final

Once I got the wool colours sorted, this finished easily. Some rabbit hair, anchored with shetland wool helped to brighten the white on the outer coat.

Polar Bear - Day 2

It's taken me 2 whole months to get back to this one.
In between were quilt shows, quilts for customers, knitting Christmas stockings for all the newborns in the family, a trip to a wool fair, and family holidays and visits.
With another long list of things and commitments leading up to Christmas, I have a window here that I intend to use to finish this guy.

After taking a customer quilt off the frame this morning, and doing a few hours work putting the garden to bed, I spent the remainder of the afternoon adding the foundation quilting to this piece.

Tomorrow I can get back to needling this bear.

Salmon Fishing - Final

With this sort of piece you can keep going forever.

After adding some highlights to the back of the bear, hand stitching to define the limb contours and adding angleina into the sewn cheesecloth I declare this Bear ..... done.
( My hands are sooo soft)

Water on the Salmon

My husband looked at this the other day and commented that the fish didn't look wet.

(thanks dear)
....but he was right. After few false starts I settled on using angelina.
Just few fibres gave me the effect I wanted.

So the salmon is stitched in place now under a small piece of tulle.

Grizzly in the Salmon stream

Almost there.
Some distortion develped in the body of the grizzly itself so I added a second layer of batting behind 'himself'. I'm hand stitching around the body of the bear to anchor the extra backing in place and to fill the 'wow'.

The fish is a study right now. He needs to look wet.
So far netting doesn't help and organza is too opaque. I painted a small piece of needled wool with a 'pearl' paint to see it adds the effect I want.
I may have to hand stitch over this small item with silver thread to get there.

But the 'bear' is essentially done.

Fleshing out the Bear

I'm working on the guy from the rump forward as there are many layers that change direction.
I also had to re set the ears a few times. Should only be few more days.

Salmon Fishing

The house was clean, the Family came and went, the turkey was cooked and eaten, the dishes washed and put away.  Thanksgiving 2018 was put to bed.. It was a good party.

And today I went fishing.
I decided to work on the fish, now, to help finalize the dimensions of this piece. I left the fish off in the initial working, but I need to add it back now to balance the picture. I wasn't sure, at first that I would make it in wool but now I'm pleased I did.

It's about 8 inches in size but I probably won't permanently attach it until everything else is done. Though it's felted on a stabilizer, I'll leave it only pinned until the background is quilted and the bear is finished.

Grizzly in the Salmon Stream - Day 4

The under coat is complete.
The muzzle/mouth I made off the body of the work so I could finish the water behind the head. I was concerned it's not attach to rest of the stabilizer. It might separate from the rest as it was needle punched over the water and all the cheesecloth. So I machine stitched it in place.

The water along the bottom edge is complete and the bottom edges of the bear have been expanded to the full pattern size.,

The final coat will differentiate the limbs and finish the shadow, but for now, I'm going to leave this guy here and switch to the Polar Bear.

Grizzly in the Salmon Stream - Day 3

The first? layer of the water is in place. This is all cheescloth.

I'll live with this until I finish felting the bear.

Grizzly in the Salmon Stream

I wanted to work on this fellow today........ because he's already haunting my sleep.
There are so many ways to portray water. The issue is to use the method and materials that fit the tone of the piece.

I started out with my tried and true embroidery hoop stitches, looking to make swirls and splash.

It just didn't seen to have enough 'meat'.

I found a great transition using shredded cheesecloth. By taking small pieces, about 3 inches square, and distorting it diagonally, it gave a an unstructured fill.

This will need to be anchored under netting. No surprise there. It allows me to stick in even more unstable materials.

This worked out very well.
There are two colours of cheesecloth here. One pure white, out of the package and the other muddied with grey? blue?

Bears and Bears

I'm so happy I got as much done on our retreat as I did.
There's always the temptation to just sit on the dock with a tall cold drink. This year the weather didn't encourage that so we all were busy most of the days.

The Polar Bear is by far, the easier piece so I accomplished much more in the one day I worked on him.

The Grizzly too, went together well. My next step, (I had put it off to just take the needling supplies with me) is to create and add the water as the edge of the bear. I can't finish the edges till I've determine the 'how' of the water. There is still lots in my head there.

The faces are what takes the most time. I think they're almost finished.

So that's how I spent my summer vacation!

Felted Bears - Plans and Prep

Next week I'm off to a retreat with a small group of lovely women. We meet regularly throughout the years and have challenged and pushed each other to try new things.

This year, I'm not taking a sewing machine. I plan to needle felt.
I have two projects in mind, (just in case I meet road blocks ie. brain dead moments). I expect to switch between the two pieces.

They are both bears. One is a Polar Bear.
I've washed the white fleece I bought earlier this month and prep ed the background so that is ready to go.

The other is a Grizzly.
I came across this wonderful shot posted by the National Geographic Society. What drama here. The bear himself won't present too many issues. Finishing the water will. I've already worked through a number of solutions. But that's a while from now.

I'll take lots of pictures but you've have to wait till next weekend to see how it went.

Summer is Half Over

I've been AWOL for a bit with visiting relatives and summer stuff.
And I will probably not post for the next little while as I've found myself backed into a deadline corner that needs attention, now.

Our guild quilt show is 6 weeks from now and I have almost half a queen quilt left to hand quilt, so I need to put that first for now. When it's done, I'll be able to turn my full attentions back to working on.....what I bought.

I invited a neighbour to travel with today. (She was supposed to be the voice of reason.) She ended up buying some luscious wool as well.
We traveled back to Chassagne Farm in Puslinch, just half an hour from my house (too close if you ask me)   www.chassagne.ca

I was so pumped by the finish on both my bears that I wanted to make an immediate jump to the Polar Bear. I had been wrestling with whether to render him in collage or wool. On a whim I contacted the owner of the farm, Carol Precious and yes, she had a few white fleeces. So off we went.

With two raw smelly unwashed glorious fleeces in my possession, I now, reluctantly put them aside until I finish the quilt. I hope sooner than later, to get to these beautiful bags of wool.

Grizzly - Final

The bear is complete and quilted. I'll bind in in a few days.

Grizzly - Day 7

Almost there.

What's taking so long?
I'm mixing colours as I go and a lot of application is with small whispers of fibres. Layering takes time.
All that is left is the upper left ear and remaining ruff.

Grizzly - Day 6

Since we're forecast some brutal weather over the next week, I took advantage of the cool morning to do some maintenance baking. Granola for me and Oatmeal Raisin (breakfast) Cookies for hubby.
That took most of the morning. It included a lot of taste testing!
Hopefully we won't need to turn on the oven. Even thought we are air conditioned, my very diluted Scottish blood just hates the idea.

Yummy for me with yogurt  😁           

                                                     Yummy for hubby with coffee.





The finishing of the grizzly is slower now. I have to stop often and hang and photograph the bear so I can compare and see what I've done. I spent today working on the right side, polishing the muzzle and fur ruffs. It's only when you look at both today's and the early undercoat picture that you can see progress. I'm working with very small bits or wool specifically colour blended to massage contour and add detail.

under coat

 Detail in progress.

Grizzly - Day 5

If this seems to be going slower than usual it's because I'm fitting in a lot of other fun times with my quilting and knitting friends. It is summer, after all. But I find time for my bears.

But I finished all the undercoat today. With a little critique from a friend I tweaked the eyes so they are balanced.

 

I know in my head how I want this to look at the end, but working out the technique is going to be the trick. There is a fine line between having the wool securely anchored and not having it lie completely flat. Another day or so.....

Grizzly - Day 4

Now that most of the white is covered with the undercoat, the camera is giving a truer image.
I enlarged the pupil of the left eye and added brow ridges. I'm not sure the right eye doesn't look a little dozy. An easy fix.

Needled Grizzly - Day 3 - The face

I am pleased with this. The most defining part is done.