Progress

Finally made some progress with the wallhanging. It is so humid at the moment, not really a good time to work with wool, but it has to be finished next week.
Struggling with all the things to do at the moment with Alex going to hospital tomorrow for his hip replacement surgery. I still need to change some things in the house, reorganising, taking things out of the way for when he is back, that he can easy manoevre with crotches. Need to change the bed, has to be raised and we have to swap sides. Will take over feeding of the birds of course and drive daily to Whangarei for a visit. Don't really know how to manage all this, but a good German saying is What doesn't kill you only makes you stronger. We've got firewood yesterday unexpectedly which needs to be carried a bit further under the carport, but that has to wait until the wallhanging is gone, I hope it will not rain too much. The same applies to mowing the lawns. Anyway lots of time left before the winter to dry again.
Quite an emotional day today with the anniversary of the earthquake last year and Alex going to the same hospital tomorrow where my late husband spend his last weeks 10 years ago. Well let's refer to the German saying again... ;)

I think the wallhanging starts to look good, it is only pinned at the moment, but I must start sewing it on and cannot try out and change forever. I like the look of the monstera leaves from the distance, not so much the close-up, I guess I am too critical as usual. There are still lots of flowers to go on of course, that is just a small impression how it might look. But I used up all the leaves I've got beside of the lily leaves which will be put on together with the flowers and I think it might be enough, so no need to make more leaves !!
Now off to hoover the house before Storm comes, to get rid of any pin needles which might have fallen onto the carpet.

green and orange

are the main colours I worked with today. I dyed some more wool for flowers

and finished some big leaves. It was such a nice day, that they dried quickly on the concrete.

Finally I added another colour, I call it pumpkin yellow.

still waiting for the wool and dye....

I ordered last Thursday some more wool and yellow dye because I need to make more bigger flowers and leaves. My customer ist quite happy about the progress, but she wants now the whole background filled including huge leaves (abessinian banana, monstera deliciosa) and some very big flowers in bright colours not only red. Unfortunately it still hasn't arrived, so I drove today to see Christine at Naturally Alpacas and bought there a small pot of yellow dye and also green. Later the asford distributor rang, that the parcel is now on the way ( we have Tuesday!), but she had only a small pot of yellow dye and not the full amount of wool I wanted.
So I made some banana leaves in white to dye them later. I used the whole table for one leave

and made 3 leaves. With the last one I was a bit in a rush and wasn't careful when turning it over, so it has some thin patches/holes. I can fix them later. This huge project made me less fussy about things. I never used thread and sewing needle for my feltings, but now I do and I also cut things which I never used to do. It shortens the process and I have no time to waste. The wallhanging has to be finished until End of the month.
Here is a photo of some more flowers I made, they are drying at the moment

I also managed finally to reach the lady from the Lakehouse in Takapuna, where I have a lot of my work. I emailed her so often and never got a reply. She hardly remembered me, just said, yes she has received my emails and yes she will send my work back and was asking for name and address. Not very well organized! When I was there she typed everything in the computer and now she says she needs my details. I wonder if I will get everything back, though I should, because I never received any cheque.
The sales at the Kura Gallery also didn't happen and the lady has sent my work back. I should not make any more felted things, the house is already full with all the leftovers from the time I was an Origin member. Should look for an old freezer to store all the things that the moths cannot eat them.
Anyway this is now the time to do only the things I love doing, no need to work for sales beside of the wallhanging, because nothing sells at the moment.
When this is finished I will get my painting gear out again, haven't painted for years! And I will have a play with the knitting machines.
But at the moment, I am still waiting for the delivery.......

and more flowers ....

still making more flowers, really big ones and huge leaves too. Had a visit from my customer and a very good chat, such fun to do big things!

I need more flowers!

After arranging things on the wallhanging all morning I am realizing

I need more flowers!

so back to the felting table....

it is hanging!

Finally we managed to hang the piece of felt - not very straight I must admit - but better than nothing. Thank you very much for your help Alex!

 Now I am playing with the flowers

and I dyed all the white leaves this afternoon, which I had made last week

and realized that the gloves had holes

Nevermind, it is fun to play with the flowers, unfortunately I had to stop because I ran out of pins. I will first pin everthing before I start cutting and sewing. So more fun tomorrow after a visit to the sewing shop.