Needle Felted Animals…..

January 1, 2020 / Karen Lane / 14 Comments

Since I began running workshops I’ve frequently been asked if I do classes for making needle felted animals. Up until now my answer has always been “no, but I can point you in the direction of someone who does”. It’s not that I don’t like needle felting, or animals, it’s just something I have never done and never particularly fancied doing…..up until now!

When I received a request for animal needle felting just before Christmas I decided the time had come to include it in my workshop programme. These are my first needle felted animal workshop samples and I have to admit I thoroughly enjoyed making them and feel I’ve really been bitten by the bug!

They were made using wire armatures, wrapped with core wool, and then “cladded” with blended and carded fibres. I can feel a few more hatching so watch this space!

Photos From Day Two…..

April 11, 2018April 13, 2018 / Karen Lane / 9 Comments

As promised photos from day two of the Yellow Poppies workshop in Hemmingby…..

Lou was the first to finish. Having worked so fast she even managed a second piece of work!

Lou’s Felted wallhanging with yellow 3D flowers

Janny’s Felted wallhanging with 3D red poppies

Zoe’s red poppy wallhanging

Wet Felted wallhanging with floral design

Trish’s sunflower wallhanging

Maggies floral wallhanging

June’s red poppies and dragonfly

Elaine’s Landscape with swan and dragonfly

Ellie and Brenda still have work in progress so I will add photos of their finished work as and when I get them.

Ellie’s Yellow Poppies work in progress

Many thanks to Ellie for inviting me over to Hemmingby and to all the ladies who took part. It’s probably too late to tell you now the workshops over but, as you may have already realised, felting is very addictive and can seriously improve your health….you’ve been warned!

Yellow Poppies Workshop…..

April 10, 2018April 11, 2018 / Karen Lane / 10 Comments

Today was day one of the Yellow Poppies Workshop at Hemmingby Village Hall attended by nine enthusiastic ladies all keen to learn a new skill.

The morning was spent Wet Felting the backgrounds using three shades of Bergschaf wool. Once this was done the work was spun and put aside to dry while we had lunch.

This afternoon Lou and Jani chose to make additional pieces of felt to cut up to use as 3D flowers while the others got straight on with Needle Felting their flowers directly onto the background.

Tomorrow the ladies will continue embellishing their work with Needle Felting, couching, hand stitch and free machine embroidery.

Wet Felting at Withern…..

January 27, 2018 / Karen Lane / 24 Comments

I’ve discovered an unexpected benefit of running local workshops……I’m discovering villages in Lincolnshire that I didn’t know existed! Today I was at Withern Village Hall, deep in the Lincolnshire Wolds for the first time ever, with seven ladies from the local textile and art groups.

The workshop was to be an introduction to Felting so we began by laying out our Merino fibres and fancy yarns and then wet felting our backgrounds.

After lunch we did some needle felting, adding detail to the work, and then the ladies chose to either machine or hand embroider to further embellish their pictures. I love the tiny bees on Kay’s picture!

There is still a little work left to do before all of the pieces are finished but I’m sure you will agree they are all looking great! Thanks for inviting me to Withern, and for being such an enthusiastic group! It was a very enjoyable day and I hope to see some of you again soon.

Felted Mushroom Workshop…..

January 7, 2018 / Karen Lane / 2 Comments

I’ve just been informed that we still have spaces left on my Needle Felted Mushroom Workshop which will be held in Alford on the 9th February. This workshop is suitable for absolute beginners as well as those who have experience of felting. If you would like to book please contact the Alford Craft Market via their website http://www.alfordcraftmarket.co.uk or call Lynne on 01507 463341.

Yellow Poppies Workshop…..

August 10, 2017August 11, 2017 / Karen Lane / 6 Comments

Yellow Poppies wet felted wall hanging

Earlier this week I travelled up to East Keswick, a small village just a few miles from Wetherby, to deliver the first of a two-day Yellow Poppies Workshop for Nicola Hulme at Simply Stitch.

Nicola with a selection of her work on the wall and my work on the table

14 ladies attended the workshop, some had previous experience of felting while for others it was to be their first time.

Once the basic techniques had been explained students were given the option to recreate my design or to develop their own and it was good to see some of the ladies working on their own designs and alternative colour schemes.

The time flew by, it was a lovely day with good company and Simply Stitch proved to be a hidden gem! The beautiful studio is large, bright and very well equipped. There is a fantastic choice of classes and courses run by Nicola Hulme, including patchwork, machine sewing, purses & bag making, hand embroidery and much more! The studio also hosts regular visits from well known specialist tutors in a variety of subjects. On sale are up to the minute patchwork fabrics and all the other essentials such as threads, wadding, notions, etc.

Simply Stitch studio

Nicola was a terrific host and ensured that the tea, coffee, biscuits and cake kept flowing! Watch this space for photos from next weeks workshop including images of the finished wall hangings.

Find out more about Simply Stitch visit www.simplystitch.co.uk

Yellow Poppies Workshop…..

May 11, 2017 / Karen Lane / 2 Comments

I’m really pleased to be announcing that I will be holding a two day workshop in August to recreate one of my favourite pieces, the wet felted wall hanging I call Yellow Poppies. Since my quilts started touring with Grosvenor Shows earlier this year I’ve received more email comments about this piece than any other, which is really nice, with several ladies asking when I will be running a workshop.

The venue will be the beautiful light and airy Simply Stitch Studio at East Keswick owned and run by textile tutor Nicola Hulme. The facilities are perfect for encouraging creativity and with over 400 bolts of patchwork fabric from Makower, Lewis & Irene and Cloud 9 as well as Hobbs quilt wadding you can take the opportunity of a little retail therapy if the mood takes you! Nicola offers an extensive workshop programme so it’s well worth taking a look at her website to see what’s available.

Needle Felted Toadstool….

May 3, 2017 / Karen Lane / 2 Comments

This morning I travelled down to Pode Hole, in the Lincolnshire Fens, to deliver a needle felted toadstool workshop for the Spalding Embroiderers. The ladies had expected to be doing a beading class but unfortunately the tutor couldn’t keep the booking and I was asked if I could step in at short notice, which I was only too pleased to do.

We began by making the three main components, the stalk, base and top of the toadstool using white Cheviot wool from World of Wool. Cheviot is a good choice to use as ‘core’ wool as it is inexpensive and needle felts quickly. Once we had joined together the three elements we covered the top of the toadstool using WoW’s carded Corriedale in sour cherry (Tutti Frutti collection) and Pinwheel (Galaxy range). The base was covered in a combination of Tadpole and Sombrero, again from WoW’s Galaxy range.

For a lot of the day you could have heard a pin drop….the concentration was so intense!

Detail was added using small skeleton leaves and tapestry wool for grass.

Once again it was a really enjoyable day in the company of a very creative group of ladies. My thanks to Liz and Mavis for inviting me back and I’m now looking forward to our next workshop!

The Spalding ladies with their toadstools

Where does the time go…..

November 13, 2016November 14, 2016 / Karen Lane / 5 Comments

I can’t believe it’s been a month since we started the felting group in Belchford. Where does the time go…..

Once again we had eight ladies gathered for a felting session. Val and Karen couldn’t make it this month but we welcomed two new faces, Ann and Sheila. Sheila brought her current project to work on which is a very handsome needle felted owl…..

Sheila and her owl.

Adding feather detail on the back.

Ann began working on a needle felted landscape and I’m loving the colour scheme…..

Rosie was busy with her beautiful new wool making more vegetables (we’re starting to suspect an obsession here!)…..

Looking good enough to eat!

Olga was working on her sketchbook ideas for new projects…..

Olga working on ideas in her sketchbook.

Pat was busy with embellisher…..

Pat busy on the embellisher

Janet made a wet felted bowl and then did some more work on the lovely picture she started last session….

I started another Merino collar which will get finished at home…

Fibres laid out ready for felting.

All in all another enjoyable day in Belchford.

Felt Inspired in Belchford…..

October 12, 2016November 13, 2016 / Karen Lane / 8 Comments

Today was the first meeting of a new felting group, Felt Inspired, which will meet in Belchford Village Hall on the second Wednesday of every month from 10-4pm.

Eight ladies attended our first meeting. Olga, Pat, Karen and Jenny brought their embellishing machines to work on.