June 2023 – Shepherds' Spring Farm

Branch all done.

So sliding in on a cloud of dust I have the branch finished just as the quarter runs out. I know we don’t have to get it done in a specific time but it is nice to get it done in the quarter the challenge is posted.

Last time I had all the flowers made. https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2023/06/18/second-quarter-challenge-flowers-finished/

After looking at it and especially seeing it in a photo I decided the larger flowers at the bottom of the flowers should have yellow centres. So I added them. I used mostly french knots with 2 threads. The single french knots are smaller than the colonial knots. The Yellow stands out more in the photo than in real life.

It still looked pretty sparse so I decided leaf buds would help. I looked them up online. It was best to look up flowering trees and look at the buds in the background. It didn’t seem to matter the kind of tree the leaf buds looked pretty much the same. I made all the leaf buds at the same time so I would get them about the same size. It didn’t take long and I only poked myself a few times. That’s the problem of working small.

first I had to make the green I wanted. I had Christmas green, lime green and a very yellow-green. I mixed them with a couple of dog brushes.

I made 2 at a time. Then cut them in half and finished shaping them while holding them. I poked myself working on the pad not in my hand and I know Jan will tell me she just gave me a tool so I wouldn’t do that. But I forgot until after I poked myself, naturally.

I fiddled around placing them. and felted them down…… without poking myself.

I had originally thought I would add a bit of brown near the base of the buds but I didn’t like it and pulled them off.

I am quite pleased with the finished branch. Now I need to steam it a bit, to block it square. The dent on the left is really bugging me.

Flowers finished……almost

I have finished my flowers but I don’t think I am finished with the picture.

The last time I had gotten this far

I started adding flowers, thinking that the branch end would be the last to open, I started with a darker colour and fewer threads to make buds. I made smallish french knots.

Next, I went to a lighter shade of pink and a few more strands for the next size-up flower buds

For the next group, I used my final pink colour but added in a few strands of the darker colour. I should have probably used half and half because the darker pink didn’t show up as much as I hoped. I did these at home so you got 4 progress pictures.

Today while I was at the market, I finished, with the lighter pink being for the bigger flowers. I decided to try colonial knots instead of french knots. I am not sure I wrapped them all the right way band I added some extra wraps around the needle to bulk them up a bit.

I liked the way they turned out. I am thinking maybe I should add a little bit of yellow to the middle of the bigger flowers to make them look more open. I also think adding some green flower buds might be a good idea too. So that is next, and hopefully, I will make it before the end of June.

And now just because they are cute, the 2 ducklings that visited our booth this morning. they belong to the Farm and were out for a walk with their youngest.

Still working on flowers and more lambs

I have started adding flowers to my branch. It is slow going as I am still fighting my cold but it is started, so that’s something.

I started adding the purple backgrounds for the flowers. I took a picture partway along. I remembered to take pictures before finishing so everyone should clap…… or something. LOL

Taking the picture made me look at it more and wow, dead straight

So I went back and poked them into a more organic shape.

Next was the stems and that’s as far as I got. I am not sure about the blank space bottom right. I can’t decide if I like it or not.

And just for fun, sheep and lambs. theses are bad sheep who escaped in the rain and decided to eat the grass between the two houses on the farm. They are not very good at being sneaky. This was a little earlier in the spring. They are out in the pasture during the day now.

And some cute Lambs

Flower samples and some lamb pictures

After thinking about the flowers for my branch (here’s the last post if you missed it https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2023/05/13/tree-branch-progress-and-shopping/ I decided it would be better to do a sample so the colours could be seen better than in the pencil drawing.

I grabbed an offcut of a fulled sweater to use for the sample. It’s a bit lumpy but it should work for this. I have already decided I wanted a purple background to the flowers like the hairiness you see around some flowers.

I thought orange would be the best idea for the central stalk of the flower. I had a lighter and darker orange so I did some of each to see how it looked.

Then it was time to add flowers. Someone on the last blog post said to try gradient colours for the flowers. that sounded like a good idea. I am using embroidery floss the stuff that comes as 6 strands. I started with a darker colour and smaller knots at the top. Then I added a lighter colour strand and made a little larger knots. Then just the light colour but more strands and bigger flowers.

It’s not the best knot-making. On some, I just couldn’t get the knots to line up in neat rows. It’s probably the stitches of the sweater, you can see it’s fulled up quite lumpy. I am leaning toward pink. The yellow is nice too.

And now as promised some lamb pictures. We have 3 sets of twins and t singles so far.