Felting and book covers

I was reading the latest Quilting Arts magazine - Dec/Jan 2009 - and found an article about felting various fibres together to make a surface ... so I had a go. I can't tell you what the fibres I used were, as I just grabbed things from my stash. I used 2 different bases for the needle felting - a grey dense piece of foam, and the small 'brush' base that came with the Clover felting tool. While the grey foam has worked well for some things I've done, and it is much larger, the 'brush' was better for this piece. The fibres were placed between 2 layers of fine tulle. When finished, they stay felted to the base, but the top layer peels away. In the magazine, an embellisher machine was used, but I was pleased with the results I achieved with the hand tool. I'm intending to add some embellishment, and ... who knows??

Helen, in my textiles group, was cleaning out her stash, and giving things away. I was lucky enough to score a piece of collaged/ machine made/ 'fabric' - not really sure what to call it, but I love the colours and textures. I hope you don't mind, Helen, but it is now in 3 pieces - 2 of them on a book covers, and 1 waiting on my sewing table to be put on another one. The red cover is actually on my new 2009 diary, so I'll probably get to enjoy that piece every day for 12 months.

Beverley