Learning to Needle Felt a Simple Shape: Part One

For the orange flowers on either side of Belleza's earrings, I wanted to pair bugle beads with a needle felted center.   Beads are very sparkly so to both calm them down and to highlight the sparkle, I will use needle felted wool centers among the flower petals.  But first I have to learn how to needle felt.

To do so, I went shopping for needle felting supplies at the big box craft stores in my area.  I discovered that in my area Michael's and Hobby Lobby carry the same brands of felting supplies so I bought a needle felting kit at the place it was on sale and bought wool roving at the other place where I had a coupon and their selection of roving colors was better.  Here's what I came home with--

Needle Felting Supplies

I bought 100% wool black felt, which is about double the thickness of felt you get at the fabric store.  I bought the needle felting tool set, which has two needles and a block of foam that you use as the base for felting so you don't put holes in your table.  I bought a package of two shades of brown wool roving (that's the wool batting you see).  I made a copy of my canvas and cut out the center of the flower so I had a paper pattern to use to make sure my two flower centers were the same size (that's the yellow dot laying under the polka dot leaf which I found on my front porch this morning).

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com