Pattern for Upcycled Felted Trivet now on Etsy

Remember this trivet that I made with felted woollen sweaters in 2013? If you would like to make one yourself but are not sure how, I have written up the instructions and added the pattern to my Etsy pattern store.



Now that autumn has started here in Australia and it is slowly getting a bit cooler, I look forward to working with felted wool again. A visit to the op shop (thrift shop) might be in order, as they are sure to have sweaters again!

Felted Trivet article

My article about making trivets and coasters from felted sweater/jumpers is in issue 16 of Down Under Textiles, which is on sale now. I show how to make the baby blocks trivet and there is a small gallery with my other pieces.



This is a great issue of Textiles - it also has articles about making paper vessels, sun printing and stitching on metal, as well as artist profiles, exhibitions and lots more. You can order a digital copy of the magazine here.




A few of my felted trivets are for sale at the Reverse Garbage giftshop at the moment. They were part of Handmade Harvest which opened a few weeks ago. Sadly I missed the opening night, but here is a photo from the RG Facebook page. I spy a felted trivet hanging on the wall! (under the X)

Felted sweaters projects

I am writing an article about upcycling woollen sweaters (jumpers) into useful items, so have made a number of mouse pads/table toppers/trivets in the last week. Most of them have been (or will be) donated to friends and colleagues :-).



The finished Argyle Table Runner that I showed earlier:



I tried to 'loosen up a bit' in creating these free-form coasters from scraps of felt:





And this might become a new project... A wonky log cabin quilt in felt:

Sneak peeks, upcycling and kids' art

I have just finished two quilting projects - can't show them yet but here are some sneak peeks. The first is the quilt made out of men's shirts; the binding is also a striped shirt! The second project is this one; cool hey!



Today was a rainy day here in Brisbane and I decided to have another play with my felted sweaters. This is a mouse pad for a colleague. The camera on my mobile phone had a hard time capturing the orange...



My second son Ernst (9) had his first art class with Brisbane artist Kylie Farrelly yesterday and loved it. This term's theme is 'Paint like the Masters' - can you guess yesterday's Master?

Upcycled Argyle

This blog doesn't get updated as often as I would like, because I can't show most projects I have recently finished yet. Very frustrating! However, I can show some sneak peeks... such as this denim project. I cut strips from discarded blue jeans in different shades of blue from my sons, my husband and myself, sewed them together to create diamonds and then added some decorative stitching. And voila:



Argyle! I was so pleased with this effect that I have started another upcycled argyle project; this time with diamonds cut from felted sweaters:



This is going to be a table runner. I will keep you posted!

More felted sweaters projects

I'm still in my felted jumpers/sweaters phase and yesterday I made this 'trivet' (or table topper). Cool, hey? Here is a view from above:



Much as I like them, I don't really need more than one of these things, so I've added it to my Etsy shop - you can find it here. I also made a smaller version of the Baby Blocks (or Tumbling Blocks) trivet I showed here a week ago:



I've added that one to the shop as well - I think it would make a great mouse pad!
And here is another one - this block is known as Card Tricks. It's a small one, I think I will keep it and use it as a coaster:



I've still got a pile of felt, so I'm not done yet! Any suggestions for quilt blocks I could make with felted shapes?

Felted wool and kids' art

A while ago a friend who was moving overseas gave me her (small) fabric stash. In it I found some woollen jumpers (sweaters) which I felted in the washing machine. Then I cut them up and stitched the pieces back together, as you do when you are a quilter... and ta-da!



 The back is made from another jumper:



I think this sort of thing is called a trivet, right? it is residing on our dinner table now where we could put a vase of flowers on it if we had any flowers (flowers are shockingly expensive here in Australia, compared to the Netherlands, so I hardly ever buy them). The boys, especially my middle son Ernst, are fascinated by the 3D shapes!

Speaking of Ernst, here is a painting that he made this week. It's called Robot Dog:



And here is a drawing of a character that he invented. He called it Triple Trouble - or rather Triplle Trubull ;-)



I just love his original artwork and am going to try to upload it onto Spoonflower and see if I can have some of it printed on fabric (as I did with another drawing of his a few years ago).