Felt Beads

I've been playing around with making felt beads. Using merino wool roving, water, and soap I've had fun creating beads and buttons. Here are my early attempts:

This is an asortment of round and cylinder beads. The orange and brown one in the left corner is a button. I plan on embellishing it. It started out with a better shape but as I kept adding to it the shape become a little mis-shapen! Embellishments should take care of that.
Three of the beads I made became a necklace.

The center bead was felted around the necklace cord. The shiny area is silk roving that was added for texture and interest
Here's the whole necklace with glass beads added.


Look for more of these in my work, maybe on a hat or a purse or whatever inspires me!

Anatomy of a Hat

As I was working on a Hat order the other day I thought you might like to see pictures of how my hats are made. They are one of a kind and totally designed as I go. Here is one being made.

They begin like a crazy quilt. Pieces of my handwoven fabric are sewn to a muslin backing until the whole square is filled.

The whole piece is then stitched in a free motion patterning with rayon thread.

The pattern is pinned on and the crown is cut out. The brim is cut out of ultra suede, interfacing is added and the embellishments are sewn on.

The brim is then sewn to the crown.




The lining is sewn together and then added to the hat.















Buckram is sewn onto the bottom edge of the brim to keep it from stretching and a grosgrain band is added to the inner edge. Lastly the label, Judy Connor Jones, is added.

And the finished product........................

I build furniture too!

I've been working on trying to organize my office. I transferred books from another room in our house to the office. I very methodically arranged them by subject. It was fun rediscovering books that I had not used for a long time, books that I purchased and have not looked at yet, and books that have been put on my TO READ list! I consider books friends and like friends I haven't seen for a long time, it was great to reconnect. Needless to say this made the process take longer than if I had just moved the books and put them on the shelf!

Part of organizing was putting together a desk that I purchased from IKEA. It has been sitting in my office for several months. I have become an expert at putting together pieces of furniture. I also constructed my file cabinet and computer desk! Here are the pictures.

And the finished product - TA DAH!!!!!!