Big changes at Outback Fibers

Well...I always knew I was never the kind to be able to keep a daily diary, so many months have gone by since my last post. That said... much has occurred during those months.

Outback Fibers (as in Mark and Jill and their "stuff") relocated to the tiny town of Coaldale, CO

in the Bighorn Sheep Canyon, leaving behind the 100+ degree heat of Texas in July of 2011.  A 60'x40' metal building is nearing completion and will become the new home for all our wonderful fibers. In addition, we have room to host some exclusive retreats and felting workshops in the near future.

Close to the town of Salida, which features many artists and galleries, we are alongside the Arkansas River, home to some of the best fly-fishing and river rafting, and ATV tours in the country.  So pull out that dusty old atlas (or for those who just love their computer... use googlemaps or click here for a map) and plan your next road trip to include the spectacular mountain scenery, a little hiking, a little fishing, and a visit to Outback Fibers studio.

Up and Coming Felt Artist

Anyone can take up the challenge of felting.  Recently, one of our customers told us about her daughter,  Haley Doherty needing to raise money for a school cultural trip.  Haley's mom, Lori, knew Linda Wright who is a felt artist and a customer of Outback Fibers.  Linda gave Haley a crash course in making felt flowers, fiber was purchased from Outback Fibers, and the rest is recent history.  Word of mouth and some leaflets spread the word about Haley's project, and ...  it looks like we have a new felt artist.  The decorative, colorful flowers are popping up everywhere in Haley's home town, decorating clothing, hair, hats, etc.  So far, she has raised over $3,000 since December. 

Way to go Haley!!

If you are interested in purchasing a beautiful felted flower send an email to loganbrry@aol.com .

Silk Hankies

Silk Hankies (mawata) are the latest rage... but not just for feltmakers this time.
Check out this link for some mittens made by simply knitting the hankies straight from the pile!









I used to knit more than I do, but these days my knitting is usually limited to the arrival of my grandchildren...
Here's my latest effort created for young Lachlan, born on January 10th.

Now if you're not into knitting and want to stick with your felting, just check out the video on using hankies in your felting project.

Hankies are a great way to add surface texture to your wet felting project.  As the wool base shrinks beneath the silk, it draws up the silk into pebbly puckers that can be emphasized by a minute or two in a hot dryer at the very end of the felting process while the felt is still slightly damp.

Hands Blanket

A close friend in our church community is hospitalized with oesophageal cancer.  As an expression of our care and love for him, the families of our group each traced their hand-prints, which were then enlarged by approx 40%.  The paper pattern was then cut from ProFusion prefelt for each of the hands.  The hands were then placed in their relevant family groupings on a base of double-thickness ProFusion, which was then wet felted.  You can see the tiny hand print of little Grant, our newest grandson, in the top left-hand corner grouping.  He was only 6 days old at the time we traced his hand. 

  

The blanket/throw is now in Al's room at the VA hospital where he has been since September.  He recently penned a poignant letter to the fellowship group to express his thoughts.  We continue to keep him and his wife, Rita in our thoughts and prayers.

New Workers in the Outback Fibers Studio

 

With Thanksgiving just a few days away, we were blessed with the early arrival of our oldest son and his family... as we rushed to try and complete orders for customers wanting their fibers in time to "play" while their spouses reclined in a turkey-induced football coma on the couch!
What better than to have two "trusty" helpers to make up mixed bags of colors!!
5-year old Ian and 3-year-old Anabelle (sporting a designer eye-patch for a juvenile opthamological condition), were delighted to be permitted to help their "Emee" in her studio. 

So if your Pastel Mixed Bag shows up with 4 purple and no green... yikes!  Let me know.  But at least we can be sure that each bag DID weigh 8-oz.  

Houston Quilt Show Experience

In early November, Outback Fibers decided to have a presence at the Houston International Quilt Festival.  This is one of the largest Quilt shows in the nation, and we wondered how much impact the needle-felting machines had made on the quilting world. 

We were pleased by the response to our booth, and I had an opportunity to demonstrate the basics of wet-felting for 2 hours at their "Open Studio" station.  I had a constant stream of people watching, and was able to convey several simple aspects of felting to a fairly interested audience.

Suzanne Morgan was with me at the show, selling her wonderful dyed silk yardages.  She also took time to demonstrate at the "Open Studio", and generated interest in the needle-felting techniques she uses to produce her beautiful journal covers featured at the back of the booth.

Perparation for the show was enormous, and the 5 days of vending were exhausting.  Both Suzanne and I agreed we would not undertake such a venture in the future.  We were mobbed with customers, such that we got to see little or nothing of the wonderful quilt works on display at the show.  Sales were fair, but you have to sell a lot of $5-$15 items to cover the exhorbitent booth fees and related expenses.
Chalk this one up to experience!  But we were encouraged to see how much headway felting has made in the surface design world.  At least our customers were coming to purchase... and not just to view the 3-headed novelty "feltmakers"!

Coat of Many Colors

Well... I was warned that starting a blog was a commitment to regular postings that I might not be able to maintain, but I will resolve to improve the regularity... though likely to be on a weekly basis or less.

Life at Outback Fibers has been busy with the birth of a new grandson, Grant,

and the imminent arrival of another grandson, yet to be named.  At the same time, husband, Mark, has transitioned out of his HR position to become the other half of Outback Fibers.  So if a masculine voice answers the phone now and then, rest assured I have not been taking testosterone pills and growing hair on my chest!

In the midst of this I planned to run a booth at the Houston Quilt Festival in early November and decided that a coat was a great way to educate the quilting public about felting.

Starting with a base of a single layer of black ProFusion, ...

ProFusion prefelt with slit cut for pocket

Vintage Port Merino roving

I thinned strips of hand-dyed merino in Vintage Port to create the surface design layer, allowing strands of the dyed merino to extend beyond the base to create the "fringe". Between the strips of dyed merino, I interspersed thinned strips of tussah silk in the same colorway.

 

The coat was to be made by felting a single back panel, two front panels and separate sleeves -- assembled by sewing to complete it.  Allow approx. 40% shrinkage overall.  Continuous gradation of the colorway is retained by thinning the fibers without allowing them to completely pull apart.  A single layer is sufficient when ProFusion is used for the base layer.

And because I just had so much spare time on my hands (hah) I decided to also make seamless pocket inserts in the front of the coat.  The beauty of the ProFusion is that it can be stitched on the sewing machine prior to felting.  Thus two pockets were cut 40% larger than the desired finished size and machine stitched around 3 sides.  The open edges of the pockets were placed inside a carefully cut slit in the base piece of ProFusion, with plastic bags both lining the inside of the pockets and surrounding the outside with the exception of the open edge which was basted into the slit with black thread.  The dyed merino strips were placed either side of the open slit creating an almost invisible pocket opening.

After wetting out the fibers and rubbing the surface to connect all the layers, I used my trusty sander to stabilize everything and put a good skin on the felt.  Then off to the front-loading washing machine (best investment yet for making large yardage), a short run on the express cycle produced a nice piece of finished felt.

The felt is a light garment-weight fabric suitable for Texas winters, and easy to machine stich without creating bulky seams.  For northern climates, I would suggest a double layer of the ProFusion for the base.

The solid black sleeves were made from a single layer of ProFusion, well-fulled in the front-loading washer, cut in standard sleeve pattern, inserted into the coat and sewn in place.

Needless to say, the Quilt Show arrived before the coat was completed so it was displayed as a project "under construction".  Current cooler weather may doubtless prompt me to make a decision about the lapels and the ultimate completion of the coat.