Vacaciones de invierno- mosaico

Vacaciones de invierno- mosaico
Originally uploaded by Marian Florcita

Well, as promised... some of the stuff I did during the holidays...
Remember I'm teaching myself how to sew (with various degrees of success)? well, I finally found a shop that carries that stuff -no idea about the name- to fill soft toys with... and bought a bag. Also bought a couple of meters of the stuff you put between two layers of fabric when you want that quilted effect... Sorry about the lack of names but I do know them in spanish, but not in english. The woman that sold them to me didn't even know the name in dutch... we agreed on "vulling" which is something like "filling or stuffing". If anybody knows...enlighten me.
So, I made some gifts for my son's kindergarden teachers. I didn't want to just buy a box of chocolates or flowers.Instead I made some flowers... (this was a bit before the holidays... the ones in the pic I made later).
Then, I made my first hand felted soft toy. No seams, just felted with the bunny shape and then "stuffed" with that material I was talking about before. I thought it was going to be more difficult, but, for a first attempt, not that bad. The pics here are small, but on my photostream on Flickr you can see that the bunny has veeeeery long ears, it's green and it has little needle felted spots here and there.

Last row in the mosaic:
I wanted to use one of those ceramic flowers I made a few months ago, so I knitted a very simple neck warmer and added it more as an embellishment than anything else. It's super warm!
I made a huuuuuge wrap on organza onto which I felted some flower (ish) shapes which later I embellished by hand sewing a million seed beads. The technique of felting onto fabric is called nuno felting. I used merino and silk and basically you don't have to sew anything, as you felt, the fibers of the wool pass through the weaving of the fabric and they "attach" themselves. The edges of the wrap were finished with a technique which is called "scorching"..which basically means you...burn them. :) Yes, with fire.

Last but not least, a little handbag. The white is a piece of handfelted "fabric¨ which has a really nice bumpy texture . Basically I handfelted a long strip which later I sew and it became a handbag. The top rim and handles as well as the lining, are fabrics from Amy Butler's collection (don't ask me which because I don't know!). The leaves are buttons that my mom sent me from Argentina a while back. They are hardened leather in 3 different tones. This bag I didn't make now on the vacations... I just re-lined it (now that I know how it is done, at least the theory) and finished it.

We also changed the curtains in the living room and the dining room, bought a new bookcase which takes up a whole wall from floor to roof and filled it with books.
Took long walks in the snow, took lots of pictures, ate like piggies, suffered a lot with our kid and his operation, watched lots of movies, listened to music and spent time together.
The husband is going back to work tomorrow which officially finishes the vacationing time. Back to regular life. And that is just fine with me...