Life does seem rather quiet now and yet I’m still very busy. I can only put the change down to a lack of gossiping with other felters about the felt trail we had in Ilkley. Maybe what I need is another felting challenge. First there was Bart, then the felt trail, what could I possibly do now to fill my already full time?

It’s a curious phenomenom that when an event is over you still don’t have any free time to get on with all those other good ideas you’ve been having. Why is that? Am I slowing down or is time speeding up? Maybe I should just stop pontificating and go bake a birthday cake for my daughter. It’s not felt, but at least it’ll be one more thing ticked off my ever increasing list of things to do.

The weather here on Saturday was absolutely awful. Simon used a polarising filter to photograph the felt but it was a struggle.

The pictures above show: Spencers meanswear, Adress dress shop and Weaverbird Art Framers. Most items in Weaverbird were wrapped in cellophane so didn’t photograph as well as they might have done. Below you can see Phillips jewellers, who did a splendid job of showing off the felt, and Mortens hardware.

It was too difficult to get shots of the Art Shop, 5th Avenue and Oxfam. The pictures below are of Cakewalk, a shop for vintage and handmade items.

The final images are Duttons for Buttons and Young Pets which is a fantastic display that will stay up for two weeks.

Although we saw a few people walking around on Saturday I’ve been unsure just how popular it was given the awful weather. However, my daughter cheered me up immensely on her return from school with the news that the children had been talking about it (unprompted by her).

The first International Day of Felt has arrived and so have the high winds. I do hope people will turn out to take a look round the felt trail in Ilkley but they’ll need to wrap up and hang on to their hats!

Work can be seen at: Weaverbird framers, Gazette newspaper offices, Smooth cafe, Oxfam, Mortens hardware, Adress, 5th Avenue dress shop, The Art Shop, Young Pets, Spencers menswear, Duttons for Buttons haberdashers, Phillips the Jewellers and Cakewalk handmade shop.

The regional members of the International Feltmakers Association have produced miniature dresses which are on display in 5th Avenue and the Gazette offices. All other work has been produced by: Angela Barrow, Bronwen Edwards, Alyson Evans, Tracy Harrison, Phillippa Horner, Katharine Huggett, Yvonne Le Mare, Gill Manthorp,Tracy Markey and Sara Millis.

Some felters have been kind enough to produce and donate 6″ squares for a wallhanging to be sold in aid of Cancer Research, they are: Bronwen, Tracy H, Phillippa, Yvonne, Gill and myself. Below is the fruit of our efforts.

Organising the trail has taken more time than I thought but Yvonne and others have been very supportive. I hope everyone who sees it, enjoys the event. I can’t wait to see what other people have done.

Things are coming together well for the felt trail in Ilkley. As the date creeps nearer, we all suddenly seem to be more active and slightly panicky that pieces won’t be finished in time. Having said that, some are more on the ball than others and I can offer you a sneak preview of a few bits.

Katharine Huggett

Yvonne Le Mare

Sara Mills

Bronwen Edwards

You may have noticed that there’s nothing from me. I promise I have actually done something I just haven’t taken any photos yet.

Saturday 3rd October is the first International Day of Felt, where felters around the world are encouraged to show their art using a theme of yellow through red.  A few of mad souls have banded together to do something for the day and this has quickly snowballed into a felt trail around the town of Ilkley

We have a number of shops involved including: a cafe, 2 dress shops, menswear shop, art shop, pet shop, hardware store, gallery, haberdashers, 2 charity shops and the local newspaper offices. I can’t wait to see what beasties Katharine produces for the pet shop! I hope to begin showing some of the work over the next few weeks and will definitely do a gallery of the trail as well.

The local region of IFA (International Feltmakers Association) is also involved and will be exhibiting a number of small tops. They’re gorgeous and look like dresses for teddy bears.

Since the website was set up six weeks ago there’s been a lot of activity and people all over the world are getting involved. A new page called ‘Happenings’ is now available to post any planned activity no matter how large or small. My favourite is Jean who lives in a cul-de-sac, to make sure her felt is seen she’s planning an installation for her car! What can we come up with?

The 3rd October 2009 will be the first International Day of Felt when feltmakers everywhere are being encouraged to celebrate and display their felt in as many locations as possible. The theme is yellow through red. If anyone is interested in forming a group please get in touch as I think this could be a real fun event with which to be involved.