Secret posts? No. And some felting with Cora.

I was testing how I might be able to make a post of recent family photos to share with far-flung friends this holiday season, since I might not follow through on my usual special photo Christmas card.  I didn’t realize that a notice of the test would go out to everyone!  There’s nothing in the message right now – really no need to get a password!  I’m partly behind on Christmas cards because I just completed the latest issue of the Norwegian Textile Letter.  It has wonderful articles in it on an exhibit of Scandinavian historical textiles at the Weavers Guild of Minnesota, an exhibit celebrating 50 years of folk art at the Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum, and a monster-weaving at the museum in Osterøy, Norway.  Now there will be some post office visits and other Christmas preparations.

I just finished lining and fixing a small felted purse I made with Cora in October.  The project was to make slippers for her, similar to the slippers I felted at the Federation Conference. I made a small set for Cora, and we had lots of discussion about how wool came from sheep, and about the felting process.  She loved the first step, tracing her foot.  She loved it so much that when cousin Charlotte came to visit, they spent quite a bit of time tracing each other’s feet.

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While I felted the slippers, I thought Cora would enjoy felting a tiny square bag.  However, it turns out she is in the small minority of children who do NOT want to play around with pushing fleece in soapy water.  So instead I had her pick out bits of colored fleece to put on the front and back of the purse.

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The slippers turned out well, but are as yet unembellished.  I didn’t get the little purse felted quite so well, so this week I needle-felted in the loosely-adhered colored fleece.

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I blanket-stitched the edge, put in a lining, and added some handles.  I’ll send it off to Cora, hoping she remembers the special felting day with Grandma, which for me was way more important than the resulting purse.  And I think she will like the folded-in-half dollars, which tucked in nicely.

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