Needle Felt A Winter Landscape
Updated: 3 days ago
Katie shows you how to 'paint' with wool fibre and, using your felting needle and some scrap fabric, create a beautiful woolly landscape to display in your home.
Flat felting techniques are really easy to master and it can almost be like colouring-in. It's a lot of fun! Landscapes work particularly well with this method.
YOU WILL NEED:
An embroidery hoop
A square of scrap fabric
A selection of wool fibres (see the bottom of the article for links to our chosen wool colours)
A needle felting needle.
A felting mat or sponge.
Pencil and paper
STEP 1
Take the outer part of your embroidery hoop and trace around the centre onto a piece of paper.
STEP 2
Scamp out your own landscape design within the circle or use our template at the end of the blog.
STEP 3
Transfer the design onto your fabric. If your fabric is thin enough this is easily done by placing the design, with the fabric over the top, against a window and tracing over it. Otherwise, you can use soluble embroidery fabric or sketch directly onto your fabric.
Extend the edges of the design beyond the edges of the circle so that the finished work completely fills the hoop.
STEP 4
Start with the sky. Tuft up a small piece of aqua wool and lay it roughly in the area you want to fill. Begin to stab evenly all over the wool. Ensure you are always poking in and out in the same direction to prevent the needle from breaking. The wool will bond to the fabric and begin to fill in the picture.
STEP 5
Use the tip of your needle to 'draw' the wool into place along the edge of the mountains. Do not worry about covering the tops of the trees, or being able to see the design layout very well. The drawn design is there as a rough guide and, as with any artwork, the image will change and develop as you go along. That's all part of the fun!
STEP 6
Keep layering more pieces of wool until the sky area is covered. Don't forget to periodically peal back your fabric so that it doesn't completely bond to the mat!
STEP 7
Add interest and texture to the sky. Tuft up a fine piece of white wool fibre and layer it in gentle patches across the surface. Poke it gently in place.
STEP 8
Blend a few ash grey fibres in with some white to add a little contrast within the clouds.
STEP 9
Tuft up a small piece of teal blue wool for the mountains and lay it roughly in the right place. Secure it in the centre first and then use the tip of the needle to move the wool into the right place. Define the edge of the mountain with a row of firm pokes.
STEP 10
To give the scene a bit of perspective, blend the same mountain colour with some white. This will make the centre mountain appear further away.
STEP 11
Make the left-hand mountain the same colour as the right-hand one. Have fun 'painting' in other colours to add depth and interest. I have layered over some hyacinth wool and then added some tiny wisps of white to look like patches of snow.
Take your time to define the edges of the mountains and don't forget to keep peeling the fabric off the sponge!
STEP 12
Next, fill in the snowy hill in the foreground. Tuft up some white wool and poke it into place, creating a neat, crisp edge in front of the mountains.
STEP 13
Blend a small amount of the aqua sky colour with some white fibre to add subtle tone and texture to the snow.
STEP 14
Once you have finished the snow, check the size of your artwork. Make sure that you have been working just beyond the edge of your hoop. Adjust it if necessary by adding more wool to the edges.
STEP 15
As you will have worked over the top of the tree shapes you drew, use a small patch of wool to roughly work out where you are going to place the trees.
STEP 16
Take a thin strand of navy ocean wool and felt it in place for the base of the tree.
STEP 17
Keep adding tiny thin strands of wool above the last, each one getting smaller as you work up, making a rough triangular shape.
STEP 18
Leave gaps between each strand to allow the white to show through. This will make it look like branches rather than a solid shape. Don't make them too regular either, as this will help you create a more natural shape.
STEP 19
Add two or three more trees on the left-hand side. Make each one smaller than the last to give the landscape a little perspective.
STEP 20
A winter sun is very pale . If you don't have a pale yellow you can create one by blending a bright corn yellow with some white until you get a colour that you are happy with. Tear the fibres together, until they are very short and totally mixed up to get the neatest finish.
STEP 21
Take a small amount of your blended fibre and roll it in your palms for a while to make a ball. Poke around the edge until you have a nice round shape.
STEP 22
Trace the inner circle of the inner hoop onto a piece of thick card. Cut it out to make a disc that will fit into the back of your design.
STEP 23
Make any finishing touches to your picture before fitting it into the embroidery hoop. Trim off any excess fabric if necessary. Insert your card disc. It should sit neatly and finish your design beautifully.
Hang your finished winter scene as part of your festive decorations!
Here is the link to purchase the wools that we used in this project (aqua, ocean, lightning white, corn, hyacinth, ash and teal): https://www.berginandbath.co.uk/needle-felting/wool-shop
Here is the link to download the wintry scene template:
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