Autumn Finds and Awesome Felts.

Treasure Hunt Showcase...

Vintage costume jewellery.

Show-and-tell time!
Here some lovely pictures of recent thrifting treasures.
I love the cherry brooch, and I might sew it on to a patch of contrasting vintage fabric, and wear it like that. Because the brooch flops forward: the pin is behind the cherries and is unbalanced.
 I might do the same with the ( plastic) cameo; it is too prim by itself and needs some playfulness.
 I totally adore the cross stitch embroidered tablecloth in the background! Only a few dollars and the stains came out completely...

Old buttons and a bakelite buckle.

A nice old buckle to use for a fabric brooch.
 4 Linen covered buttons which were often used on bedding fabrics.
And a handful of tiny, vintage mother-of-pearl buttons with carved decoration on them.
So small and so pretty.

Soft pastels and fragile leaves.

New and old spring-coloured zips, a pretty embroidered doily to make a zip-pouch from.
3 Old books for playing with; Shakespear, numbers and statistics, and a fairytale book with delicate drawings.
Also a packet of skeleton leaves for mixed media collage.

Red, white and blue themed finds.

A tiny vinyl patterned handbag in royal blue. Bias binding( always handy) and 1970's embroidered ribbon. I think my Mum used the same ribbon on some of my dolls' clothes!
And a funky dutch boy all embroidered, ready for use on a bag.

Sweet old textiles.

A length of greys and deep pink florals, and a shiny satin in old rose with tiny sprigs of flowers.
Two matching wool blankets in aqua colours, to upholster 2 old wooden chairs.
And a near new Waldorf doll. These are tricky to make and take a long time, and this is usually reflected in the price. I might have to sell it on.

Birdlife.

3  Kererus eating leaves.

A few feathered visitors around our home were snapped by my trusty camera. Kereru or NZ native Woodpidgeon are quite big, like a small chicken. These were having a feed of fresh leaves. The branches were all bending over and swinging about with the fat birds hopping on them.

And a tui singing.

There is constant singing and chatting of birds outside. It's like living inside a large birdcage.
About 5 tuis are hanging around, and I have spotted 4 bellbirds all chasing each other.
They burst into short streams of song, very loudly. Just to impress each other.
At times they zoom right past you for a shortcut across the deck.
Then there are sparrows and wax-eyes chattering and peeping.
I have also been hearing a grey warbler in this little gulley, but I haven't seen it. I guess it's grey...
And last week my Dad spotted a kingfisher in the oak-tree. Very impressive, considering he is colourblind!

Laying out the top layer of felt.

Right, so here some photos of the hobbit-hole in the felting process. At this point there are 3 layers of wool, then a plastic bubble-wrap resist, then 3 more layers of wool. Now for the fun layer, this is the 4th with most of the decoration.

Lots of details.

You can see all the colours blended, and pre-made spikes, threads and cut-out pre-felts. I'll wet this with soapy water, cover and press down with a plastic rubbish bag, and flip the whole thing over like one humongous woolly pancake.

Laying out the bottom of the hobbit hole.

And this is the other side, the earthy bottom of the hobbit-hill. Part of the sides will be molded upwards for the sides of the hill. Again I will wet it and cover, and then my actual hard work will start with the felting itself. 

Close-up of the colour blending.