Needle Felting Archives

Fri-Yay! A topsy-turvy emotional day for certain.

September 12, 2026 by Aunt Author Leave a Comment

Hey all,

We all know what day it is, and this morning was definitely a rough one. My emotions were out of wack as I remembered September 11, 2001. I had sudden bursts of tears, other moments where I tried to pretend that it was ‘just another day,’ and yet, knowing that it is an impossible feat to think of anything else. There was one person who put it best in the news today, as it reminded me of how it felt when my sister was suddenly killed in a vehicular accident. They said something to the effect of, you learn bad things can and do happen, and it changes you. It changes how you live. It changes your outlook on life. Today was felt deep in my heart. I heard some stories I have not heard before, heartbreaking tales of courage, bravery, and of course deep grief.

By the time the night came on, I knew I needed a little healing art therapy. I worked hard on a couple of projects tonight, staying up late – at least late for me. It’s coming up on midnight here. I find the stabbing motion soothing when needle felting, so it seemed like a good outlet for my emotions.

We did try to watch a movie, together, as a family, my parents and I. But we ended up tearing the movie apart as we watched. We were super disappointed in the story line, and the ending was lackluster. In the end it seemed more like a comedy, than the suspenseful film we picked to watch.

I was grateful for the family time. Grateful for spending it with my loved ones. I spend far too much time focused on mortality at 47 years old. I worry about it. I fear it. I live each day terrified of getting closer to it. I am fearful of my parents aging. I am fearful of what comes next. These aren’t normal everyday thoughts, they go much deeper than that.

But I am working on it. I am working on being excited about living, instead of terrified of death. It’s not easy to do, but I am trying.

Anyway, here is what I made today:

I spent a lot of time on the tree image. I thought it was really successful, until I started showing people, and no one could see the woman like I could. It was comical really. I also spent a lot of time on the mouse sculpture. I followed a free online tutorial, and well, my mouse looks nothing like their mouse of perfection. Mine is haphazard, got weird eyes, lopsided ears, and feet and hands as big as the stomach! But – I love it anyway. It was my first character sculpture I really tried hard to create (next to the ghost from yesterday), so I am pleased with it.

We ended this rocky, emotional day with laughter tonight. My nephew came by to visit and we had a great time chatting with him, and he shared some funny sayings with us that had us all in tears of laughter.

Tonight I go to sleep with thoughts of many on my mind, and the belief that we are still a united country, even if it is in our grief.

Needle Felting Fun, and Some New Wool Paintings!

September 10, 2026 by Aunt Author Leave a Comment

I am excited to share that I finally got all of my needle felting tools! I can officially start ‘painting’ with wool! I got a really nice felt mat, from “woolbuddy” that should last for quite some time depending on how often I get out my felting stuff!

I immediately dove into my new hobby with a passion I was surprised by. I seriously enjoy the soothing, repetitive stabbing motions required, and watching my ideas come to life. But before we get into that, lets talk about yesterday.

Last night, I worked on another small pumpkin, and a little ghost (with a heart in its chest). These were to go along with my first little project – a very tiny pumpkin.

They are far from perfect, but I love them just the same. For my first little projects, I am pretty happy with them.

Now that I am into the wool painting, however, I think you will see less sculptures, and more artistic wool designs of my own to share with you.

I worked on three today. One is a tree, one is a squirrel, and one is a pumpkin patch – all our best viewed from a little bit of a distance. Up close, the flyaways are still quite noticeable.

I haven’t figured out if that is normal, if I should take some scissors and just trim them (I might), but for these first projects, I wanted to leave them as is to see what I could do with them, and experiment a little bit with using the wool.

I love mixing the colors. Which is done, by pulling and blending the colors of the wool fibers by hand. It’s just one more thing about the craft that makes it enjoyable. The blends are gorgeous when they are applied, and sometimes, I even surprise myself with what detail pops out of my wool painting.

Below I will share a little gallery of the completed ‘paintings.’ I am still debating how I want to frame and hang them. I will probably trim back the felt to a decent shape, then I was thinking about using sticks from in our woods to hang them from – as tapestries. My mind pictures it well, but I have yet to implement this portion of my projects.

Let me know in the comments what you think.

I am still trying to figure out the difference between the needles gauges. Right now I am using a ‘twisted 40 gauge’ needle to create my projects. I have noticed that some of the needle impressions are very noticeable in some of my art, like in the clouds behind my tree, or in the pumpkin patch sky. Overall though, I am so happy with the way these turned out! If you know anything about needle gauges let me know! I’d love to hear about what you know about needle felting!

I hope you enjoy them, I plan to share a lot more of them, as the days progress!

New Hobby Alert: Needle Felting

September 8, 2026 by Aunt Author Leave a Comment

Tonight I started a new hobby. Needle felting. I have ALMOST everything I need to get started, but I admit, I am missing the foam mat work surface, which is super important. However that did not stop me from creating my first little project: a pumpkin!

It’s definitely not perfect, but for a first attempt I am happy with it! I really enjoy the repetitive stabbing motion that is required. It is definitely therapeutic. I want to learn both how to make sculptures of my wool, as well as create 2 dimensional wool paintings using similar, if not the same – techniques.

I am hoping the rest of my equipment, well – the foam mat work surface, will arrive tomorrow and then I can get a lot more practice in the art form. I will admit I stabbed my finger once or twice tonight, even though I had on leather finger protection. Ouch! That hurt.

My pumpkin, while amazing in my mind, isn’t exactly flawless. It could probably stand me stabbing it a bit more to tame some of the fly-away wool fibers.

Once I get the foam mat, I know I am going to jump right into ‘painting with wool.’ I absolutely love the look and feel of it from what I have seen. All the joy of painting, with a lot less mess!

In my order today I received some white core wool, a set of 40 variety of colored wool, the tools needed (essentially the barbed needles, and leather finger protective covers), and a book to guide me in my journey to learning needle felting.

Questions I have at the moment, when is too much poking? Is your project supposed to be firm, or have a little give to it like a stuffed animal? I don’t know yet, but I am going to have to look it up. On the pumpkin I made, the stem is super firm, while there is some slight give to the tiny pumpkin.

I am full of pride that I haven’t yet broken a needle, but I expect it to happen at some point. I just thought it would happen on my first day! Although I have been cautious not to bend the needle while in the wool, so it doesn’t bend/break. I know it is only a matter of time before it breaks.