I Really Wanted To Try Needle Felting and Penny Rug Felting - I Loved It!

I decided last year that I wanted to try needle felting and penny rug felting  with wool felt as it seemed like everyone was having so much fun with it this year. I don't mean wet needle felting where you are actually creating a needle felted object from the wet felt. I'm just not that adventuresome!

Penny rug felting involves using pieces of wool felt hand-sewn in a decorative pattern using a blanket stitch or other embroidered stitch to create a miniature rug that is hung as a decoration or used as a tablecloth.

Needle felting is similar to penny rug felting only it also includes using roving that is punched into the wool felt to create part of the decoration. Decorative pieces created of this nature are usually primitive in design and created for a primitive decor.

Here you take a piece of wool felt and place it over a needle felt mat. Then you take a bunch of the roving and using the needle felt tool you keep punching the roving into the wool felt piece until you get the desired effect that you want.

Wool penny rugs started out as coin shaped decorations stitched together from scraps of fabric.  According to Wikipedia.com: In the 1800s, starting around the time of the Civil War, thrifty homemakers would use scraps of wool or felted wool from old clothing, blankets and hats to create designs for mats or rugs. Using coins as templates, they created circles and each piece was then stitched in blanket stitch fashion. (Thus, the name "penny" rug). Sometimes, the mats or rugs were backed with old burlap bags or feed sacks. Sometimes a penny was stitched inside the mat to make it lie flat.

Penny rugs and needle felted wool decorations are very popular with the "primitive" home decorating community.  They are no longer rugs for the floors but have developed into all sorts of decorations for ones home. 

I started with three wool felt kits where one was a penny rug type decoration that needed to have some sheep and tree decorations needle felted. The other two kits were more like wool felt embroidery kits to create primitive wool decorations which could be hung on a wall or placed on a table top.



All three of the patterns were designs from Lakeview Primitives.

The first was the "Wish Upon A Star" pattern by Lakeview Primitives (www.lakeviewprimitives.com) and the store I bought it from had already put the pattern together with the wool pieces, with the DMC floss, and with the buttons.  The pattern was very easy to follow and included some tips for felting wool as well as instructions for creating blanket and straight decorative stitches.  Here's the result:

I decided to add a cardboard layer in between the front embroidered wool piece and the back wool piece so I could hang it on the wall and created a little DMC Embroidery hook to do so. It will be hanging in my house during the winter season.

The second pattern was "Puppy Paws" by Lakeview Primitives (www.lakeviewprimitives.com) and the store I bought it from had already put the pattern together with the wool pieces, with the DMC floss, and with the buttons.  The pattern was very easy to follow and included some tips for felting wool.  Here's the result:

I also added a cardboard piece in between the embroidered front wool piece and the back wool piece to stiffen it as I intended for this to reside on the top of a pellet stove when not in use.

The 3rd pattern was one that required needle felting gray and burgundy roving into the wool felt and necessitated using needle felting needles and other needle felting tools. It took me a long time to find the needle felting needles and tools, but I was finally able to do so at a local Michael's store.

The third pattern was "Piece on Earth" by Lakeview Primitives (www.lakeviewprimitives.com) and the store I bought it from had already put the pattern together with the wool pieces, with the DMC floss, and with the two sizes of gold bells.  The pattern was very easy to follow and included some tips for felting wool and using needle felt tools.  Here's the result:

Again, I added a cardboard piece in between the embroidered and needle felted front piece and back wool piece as I intended for this to hang on one of my walls during the holiday season.

As with my punch needle creations I really enjoyed the wool felt and needle felting projects. So, of course, I bought a couple more. Those are on the back burner for when I can find some spare time.  Maybe the next time I'll get adventurous and try wet needle felting!  Yeah! Like that's gonna happen anytime soon!