Felted Pumpkins

I would like to introduce you to my friend Cindy. Cindy and I met at a Bible Study we did years ago and like most people keep in touch via facebook. I knew she was crafty when she gave one of the gals in the group a completed scrapbook album for her new baby that was gorgeous! I saw one of her recent postings about these felted pumpkins and fell in love! I adore the expression on them. They have so much personality! She's here to show us how she made them.

Hey y'all!! My name is Cindy and I'm a craft-o-holic!! (insert obligatory "Hi Cindy" here) I was looking for a new hobby - like I needed a new one - and I decided to try needle felting. I fell in love immediately!!!! I took a class on how to make felted pumpkins (then a dragon) at Unraveled Yarn & Artful Gifts in Federal Way, WA (http://www.unraveledshop.com/) with the owners, Ann & Karen. The wonderful Rachel saw them on my Facebook page and fell in love also and asked me to share the process with you. I am so honored that Rachel asked me.......




For the beginner, you need to get a felting needle, a styrofoam pad, some wool roving, and a pattern or an idea of what you want to make. Wool Roving comes in any color you could possibly want. The felting needle is a special needle that has little barbs on the end that help the fibers stick to themselves. They also come in several sizes - so far I have only used a size 36-gauge.

To form the pumpkin, I took about .25 oz of my wool roving and rolled it into the basic pumpkin shape. Then carefully, take your needle and begin to "stab and roll" the fibers. Because of the special needle the fibers will begin to stick to one another and your shape will begin to get smaller. The more you stab, the more compact and solid your shape will become - the less you stab the fuller. Make sure to stab the top where you attach the stem and the bottom so the pumpkin will sit.

This picture is to show the "actual size" of my pumpkin. Since pumpkins come in all different shapes and sizes, the size for this project doesn't matter.

Now I've added the pumpkin ribbing. This is achieved by stabbing the pumpkin in a concentrated area. Just keep stabbing in a line to get the ribs. Again, it doesn't have to be perfect. The more imperfect the better!!! The finished, ribbed, pumpkin took me about 45 minutes to an hour of stabbing.

Next I attached the stem. Taking a smaller piece of the green wool roving, loosely form the stem shape and begin stabbing, being careful NOT to stab your fingers!! I've done this a lot, however I think it's part of the fun! To attach, take one end of the stem and begin to stab it into the top of the pumpkin. Stab around the edges of the stem to get it good and secure. I attached a leaf as well as some vines. The vines are just twisted, and twisted, and twisted with spit and glue.

These are some of my finished pumpkins. The middle pumpkin is the one I am demonstrating. To make the face I added more fibers for the cheeks, nose/brow bone, and mouth. I also added a tiny mouse to one....

The dragon is my latest project so I had to add a picture of him!

Thanks so much for joining us Cindy!

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