September 2018-–Workshop- Needle Felted Birds with Irene Pugmire

After the summer break it was so good to meet up with friends and fellow stitchers once again and hear each other’s news. The committee thought that as it was our first month back after the summer it would be nice for everyone to work in the same room and Irene, our workshop tutor, agreed to this.

After the notices it was time for one of our own members, Irene, to be introduced to us by Sandie.
​Irene explained she had had great fun making needle felted teddy bears and had developed her techniques over time to include animals before moving on to birds. She showed us several of her examples and carefully explained the tools and techniques we were going to use, with an emphasis on health and safety issues. Felting needles have barbed points which obviously aid the felting but can hurt if stabbed into the fingers. The packs that Irene had prepared included finger stalls which could be worn to protect your fingers. We also had a piece of foam material to stab into.

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We began the morning working on a robin. Irene showed us how to make the body of the robin using the white merino wool tops, starting by pulling the wool apart, not cutting it, and then gently turning the wool, tucking in the ends and preparing a shape the same size as shown on her well-produced instructions.
From then on she added red wool for the breast and brown for the back and bottom.

As we all moved onto our own robin, Irene moved around the class and encouraged us as the robins began to take shape. A sharp ouch! And Irene was there with her safety kit of plasters!​

Once the body had been completed Irene demonstrated how to make the wings, the tail and the beak attaching them to the body by felting them into place using the felting needle.
Then we moved onto the legs, which Irene had pre-formed for us out of wire and we had to wrap brown thread around them and attach them to the body with white wool, felting them in place as before. Small black beads were stitched in place for eyes.
The robins were taking shape before our eyes; a differing degree of shapes and sizes but they definitely looked like robins.​

At lunchtime members could admire the bunting project pieces which will be stitched together and finished for the AGM next month. Look out for the details and pictures in our ‘Other News ‘tab in the next few weeks.
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In the afternoon session we began making a blue tit. Irene explained that a blue tit was quite a soft looking bird, so be careful not to over work the wool, it had to look fluffy. The body was made with yellow wool and white, blue and black was slowly added to give the blue tit its facial features. Again comprehensive notes helped us with this.
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There was great laughter during the session enjoyed by everyone who took part. Irene showed great skill helping whoever was struggling with the basics (I certainly was one of them). At the end, the finished display showed how much had been achieved in the workshop.
​Thanks to Irene for a fun and creative workshop.
​A.R.