Wool Roving - An Experiment

Did you ever get a bee in your bonnet about trying something and it just bugs you until you do it?  And then, if it doesn't turn out the way you expected, that bee starts buzzing louder until you try again, and again, until you get it right?

That was the case with my latest creative endeavor.  Out of blue, it occurred to me that wool shrinks when heated.  I have tons of wool roving for needle felting but I thought to myself, I could do some layering with it and then shrink it for a really cool textured background to stitch on.  Yes, it's all about new things to stitch on!

I started with a layer of pink tulle.  On top of that, I added some wool roving in a variety of different pastel colors.  Then I added some sparkly Angelina fiber and then another layer of pink tulle.  I took it over to my beloved Singer Treadle Machine and top stitched it.

Now for the fun part.  I wet it and then took the heat gun to it!  Guess what happened?  NOTHING!!!  It didn't really shrink.  Oh, it melted the tulle and gave me a few burned areas which looked pretty cool but I did not accomplish my goal of shrinking the wool.

My philosophy is "Waste Not, Want Not" so I of course, worked with what I had and stitched on it anyway.  Here's the progress:

There's no doubt that what I came up IS very pretty!  Since I still had my heat gun out, I added a little bit of gold embossing powder and heat set that.

I choose an image of a little Cherub and sewed that on.  Then, I had some some recycled silk that I bought at a yarn store last Fall so I couched some of that on around the image:

Couching that silk on was quite a challenge!  It's so fine and gets caught on everything!  But I got it couched on because as you all know, I need pink!

Once I got that done, I added a variety of fancy yarns for more texture.  Then came some Silk Ribbon Embroidery, some vintage and new flowers and a tiny bird's nest.  Yes, the little Cherub is guarding the nest full of eggs!  I can't help it, all I can think of now is Spring!

This is where I'm at with it at the moment:

All that's left to do on it is to add some beads and sequins for sparkle.  Then I'll attach it to a little branch and call it an Art Quilt!  I'll post another update photo when it's completed.

So what about the buzzing bee in my bonnet?  Oh, I'll be trying this again!  We'll see what boiling water does to wool!!!