What is a wool smoothie? if you've ever worked with felted wool or woolfelt you know it's a wonderful medium to create with. It comes in many luscious colors and textures and is a fabulous fiber to embellish with hand or machine stitches.
One drawback is when it comes to piecing a seam with felted wool. Because it is a thicker, bulkier material, the seams are thick and bulky too. Using Whisperlite as a super lightweight foundation will allow you to make a pieced wool project without the bumpy, lumpy seams that traditional piecing would produce. This can be used with either felted wool or woolfelt.
So.....lets make a wool smoothie.
Cut a piece of Whisperlite 1" larger than the size of your finished project. Using painters tape, tape the Whisperlite to a flat surface. using a regular #2 pencil, draw a 1/2" border around all 4 sides.
In this tutorial demo, I am making a table runner.
Cut your felted wool, or Woolfelt pieces for your project to size, but DO NOT add seam allowances. i.e. if your pattern says to cut a 2-1/2" square, cut a 2" square instead.
In a well ventilated area (or outside) spread out some newspaper or an old towel, and spray baste the backside of the wool with your favorite quilt basting spray.
Hint ~ do not over saturate with basting spray. It only takes a light spray to work. Do not use spray adhesive...it will gum up your sewing needle and your sewing machine something awful.Beginning at one end, or one corner, begin placing your spray basted wool pieces onto the Whisperlite foundation. Pat in place. Position the wool shapes side by side, with no gaps, and no overlaps. Layout several pieces at a time.
The Whisperlite foundation allows you to create a "pieced" wool project without lumpy, bumpy, thick seams.... but it is so lightweight you won't be adding extra stiffness or extra weight to your project. Hence ~ a wool smoothie. Read on......
After you have placed several pieces in place you will stitch them down to the Whisperlite foundation using decorative, bridging stitches. You can do this by hand (if you love hand embroidery)
or by machine.
For this project I used a 30 weight variegated thread, and two different machine stitches.
Chose a stitch that "jumps" from one side to the other, left and right, so you stitch into both pieces of wool as you "stitch in the ditch". I make a stitch legend on a scrap of felted wool to refer to as I work on my project. I also write the stitch number and length/width of the stitch on the legend.
On my machine I used stitch # 55 and stitch #10.
Continue adding your wool pieces and stitching them in place. You will have a nice smooth finished project. Perfect for table toppers, mug rugs and more.
You can also make mini wool quilts as shown below.
This mini was made using 1" squares. I drew a 1" grid on the Whisperlite foundation. For this little quilt I spray basted the Whisperlite foundation, instead of spray basting the wool pieces.
The image below shows an applique over a wool smoothie pieced wool background.
No lumps under your applique!
Make a Wool Smoothie today. Whisperlite tracer is available by the yard and is 42" wide.
Click here to place your order for Whisperlite tracer foundation.
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