Punching Holes in Wool

Finally, my "Tea For Me" Candle Mat is completed!

The mat went from....

This ..... To ....
This!
I don't know if the pictures show it well, but for the teacups, I "fussy cut" the wool so that light pink stripes from the wool would be positioned right on the cups, under the little flowers. Notice that each of those teabag tags have "tea" embroidered on them, FRONT AND BACK! Sheesh this one took a lot of time, but it's beautiful. I can't say enough good about the talented designer of this pattern, Annelle, from http://www.annellesoriginals.com . If you'd like to see some creative designs, go visit her site and take a look at those wonderfully detailed candle mats!

I get quite a few Ebay questions about how I manage to make all the little, tiny holes in the scallopped edges of my pin cushions. I'll share my little secret.

I used to cut them by hand, by first cutting an X in the wool and then cutting that into circles. That was so time consuming that it wasn't possible to continue with any large projects that way. I then used a paper punch, but with the extra thick wool I use for the pin cushion backing, it would give me blisters by the time I did just one pin cushion. My wonderful husband came to the rescue. He is a machinist and he came up with a special tool called an "arch punch". From what I understand it's mostly used for punching holes into rubber gaskets.

I still have to use a lot of pressure and twisting to get the job done.

But in the end, it saves my hands and fingers!

The little wool holes get caught up in the barrel of the cutter. I used to throw the holes away, but now, I've started saving them to use for stuffing my pincushions and ... well ... if you look at that first picture, you'll see my little jar that has the wool holes in it. They look cute in the jar so I might just collect the holes and fill the jar!

Ok, back to sewing Strawberries! Maybe tomorrow, I'll show an almost completed Strawberry Candle mat. MAYBE.