Sheep, sheep, and more sheep

 Here are pictures of the smaller projects I've been working on lately. Yes, they are all of sheep.  :.) I must have "sheep on the brain" because my newest project (yet to be started) is also of sheep. Anyway, back to the pictures.

The first one is a sheep make-do. It is made using upcycled felted wool on an upcycled candlestick. It stands 11" tall and is 10" at its widest point....from front leg to back leg. The stuffing is wool....of course.  :.) It is adorned with a homespun bow (on sheep and candlestick) with a little gold bell in the center (sheep only....not seen in photo).
What is a make-do? For those of you (like me....I looked it up) who aren't familiar with the term, a make-do is basically anything made from something that has been re-purposed. Turning something old into something new......recycling. Like using your favorite mug for a planter because it has a chip in it. 

The next couple of photos are of small wool applique pieces that I framed. Both pieces are done on a coffee-dyed linen background (I prefer coffee-dye over tea-dye because coffee has brown overtones whereas tea has orange overtones....plus coffee is kinder to your fabric than tea is).....using upcycled wool with embroidered embellishments. Both pieces fit very nicely into a 4" x 6" frame. I really enjoyed stitching up both of these. They were fun!!

I can almost hear the question....how did you do all those tiny little flowers?? Normally, I would have cut them all out by hand (very tedious and very tricky) but I picked up a new tip from designer Sue Spargo (watched her show on The Quilt Show. Wow!!! Definitely a must-see!). Seems she utilizes these tiny circles in her quilts all the time. To make things easy she uses a 1/4" hole punch....which I did. It was wonderful!!!! I was able to produce all these tiny little circles in a very short amount of time. The "Sheep with Basket" has 18 tiny flowers. The "Sheep with Flowers" has 12 tiny flowers. Of course with the flowers aren't all the same size on "Sheep with Flowers" so some of those had to be cut out by hand. Still, the hole punch did make things so much easier. Now I'm on the look-out for a one that is a little larger.  :.)