OK I don't normally promote Michaels products, other than my classes, here - mostly because Michaels already has plenty of online visibility. However this time I'm pretty excited and I have to say something about two new product lines. Michaels has just started carrying felting supplies, "Felt Works" - wool roving, wool felt sheets, felting needles and accessories and bits and pieces like leaves, flowers and ball. The range of colors is lovely, and I know that Jayn will be very excited. She loves needle felting. The other line is: finally we have some actual art journals with different types of pages depending on the media plans. Plus we have some cute mixed media kits including ATC's and small pads of vintage style images. The kits are all color coded and are great for someone just getting in to art journaling and not sure about how to incorporate found objects.

Almost finished. In the book "The Wee Free Men", Miss Tick is wearing a straw hat with paper flowers that mechanically transforms into a witch's pointed hat. So I started from a witch's hat and twisted and sewed it down, before adding paper flowers (grubby from continually falling to the ground and being rained upon.) I made these boots from felt. Here they are drying in the sun. I will finish her props later this evening. Now my only quandrary is her stand.

Aren't they cute? I'm tired of losing needles when I put them down, or having to push them into my clothes or the tablecloth because my regular pretty pincushion is too big to carry around when I am sewing or beading on the go. I also seem to go through a lot of thread, especially since much of it is inherited from my mother's store and the reels are partly used. I just hate tossing so many empty reels. Here's my really fast solution. A piece of felt, a circle of colorful fabric and a small wad of polyfil. I have a feeling all my friends who sew are going to get one.