Real & Felted Flowers

The Arizona cactus are starting to bloom and they are just beautiful. I have some hedgehog cactus by my front door as they are the first to bloom and I can enjoy them before I leave for the summer. The yellow and orange blooms on the prickly pear follow next. Any of them are inspiration for beading projects - or felted flowers.






Yesterday, my Sister Jill and friend Ginger came over to try their hands at making felted flowers. We used the great instructions found on Gleason's Fine Woolies Ranch site. Ginger brought her collection of felt hats and I dug out all of my felting supplies.


It's always relaxing to have an afternoon of doing creative things and experimenting. Jill and I had been talking about doing this all winter and finally it came down to now or never as I'm heading East in a couple of weeks.


Ginger added a needle felted edge to the hat she had made in a workshop and then created a felted flower to perk the whole hat up. Jill is modeling both the hat and the felted flower pin that she created.



It's always fun to play dress up, no matter what age you are.


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Winding Down in Arizona

Now it's time to start thinking about packing for the trip to New Hampshire. I've already been making piles of treasures that I've collected over the winter to take with me. Many of them are unusual Arizona or Mexican items that will be gifts for friends and family.