Summer Flower Needle Felt Painting

by Cathy Disbrow

I love flowers and some of my favorite ones are the wildflowers of summer, usually seen along the roadside in my part of North America. They always put on a colorful show, and I decided to pay homage to them in wool. Choosing three was difficult, but I feel the light purple of Wild Chicory, the vibrant yellows of Goldenrod, and the delicateness of Queen Anne’s Lace were the perfect combo.

Hello, my name is Cathy Disbrow from woollydoodlesbycathy. In this tutorial, I show you how to take wool and stab it with a special barbed felting needle to connect the wool fibers into a felt sheet to create a 2-D needle felt painting. If you’ve never needle felted, I recorded two beginner videos that you can watch to get a better idea of what this craft is all about. I highly recommend watching the Painting 101 video before starting this project.

Tip: Make sure to tug on all sides of your felt sheet while you are stabbing away on it to prevent the wool sheet from warping and buckling in. Also make sure to gently take your felt sheet painting off your felting surface every 100 stabs so the wool doesn’t stick into it and destroy your felting surface when you take your painting off it at the end.



You will need the following materials and supplies:

Downloadable PDF Pattern:
Click here to download

Note: One felting needle comes in each of the Starter Kits, I believe it’s a 40-gauge triangle. I also use a 38-gauge star and a 38-gauge spiral needle when needle felt painting.
Note: Needle Felting Starter Kits are currently available in Canada only.
Note: Before you start: the video below shows the surface I use to help protect the needles from breaking. Learn about felting surfaces by watching my video (from 1:19):



Instructions

  1. Cut your felt sheet into a 5" x 7" piece. Using scissors, cut out either the bordered outline or bordered photo on the template, lay it onto your wool felt yardage, and trace around it using a pencil. Using scissors, cut this drawn square off your wool felt yardage. If you plan to cut multiple felt sheets this size, I highly recommend cutting a template out of cardboard or cardstock and using that as it will be more durable.
  2. Transfer the outline onto the 5” x 7” felt sheet. Print the template. Because I am using a white felt sheet, I can tape the outline to a window and hold my felt sheet over it and use a pencil to draw the outline on. There are other techniques to do this if you don’t have this option. Watch the video below (from 10:15) to see the ways transferring can be done and choose the one that works best for you:


    Tip: If you’re confident, don’t draw the thin stems of the Queen Anne’s Lace flower and add those lines freehand with the wool “thread”.

  1. Stems. Pull long thin strips from the side of the Olive wool roving that are the length of the stem you are adding. The width of your strip will determine the size of your “thread” strips. Roll the strip lengthwise gently between your hands. If your hands are dry, you can blow on them to heat the oil; this should help the wool roll better. Use your needle to stab along the “thread” to attach it to your felt sheet following along the drawn lines. If you have excess, pinch where you want to pull it off and pull it. Stab tuck the loose fibers into the felt sheet.
    Tip: To see how I felted the stem for a different flower, watch this video (from 48:46):



  1. Leaves and Buds. To make the leaves, take a small amount of Olive wool, about the size of what you are making, and gently roll to sides to get those loose fiber tucked in. For a pointy leaf, you can roll one end to make a point, stab that onto the felt sheet, and then gently stab the wool into the outline leaf shape. If you have too much wool for your leaf, pinch the wool where you want to remove the excess, and pull.
    For the buds, roll small pieces of Olive wool and stab them into and along the stem where I want them to go. For buds, you can add a little bit of Violet wool to the ends.
    Tip: To get a sharp edge on your leaves, use the sweep and tuck technique where you gently sweep the little loose fibers with your needle and then stab (tuck) those loose fibers into and under the main shape/color. Watch this video (from 30:11) to see how it’s done:

    Tip: To see how I felted the leaves for a different flower, watch this video (from 53:01).



  1. Wild Chicory flowers To make the petals, you can use the Violet wool only, but I like to blend Violet wool with White wool to lighten the color. I hand blend them by pulling swaths from each color, lay them on top of each other, then pull the fibers together. Keep doing this until you get your desired color. Make each petal individually. Pull the amount you need for one petal and stab-add it to your felt sheet within the outlines. Use the “sharp edge tip” in Step 4 to reduce the amount of fuzziness and watch the video for more ideas. Add a small thin wool circle of white wool into the center of the flower.
    Tip: If you are having trouble getting the shape, cut out one of the petals from the printed outline and use this to stab the shape into the small wool piece you pulled. On your pad, stab around the petal into the wool. Remove the paper, then fold the edges from the outside of the stab marks and stab the loose edges into the petal shape. Stab to attach each petal to the felt sheet where the petals are drawn.
    To see how I felted the petals on a different flower, watch this video (from 12:53)




  1. Goldenrod & Queens Anne’s Lace flowers. Roll little balls of Yellow and White wool and stab to add to the stem lines of where the flowers go. Follow the pattern of both by using the photo of the wool painting for reference. If you want to add some variation to the Goldenrod, finger blend a little bit of the Orange wool with the Yellow wool, then roll the little balls and stab add to your painting.



  1. Grass. Blend the Olive wool with an equal amount of Chestnut wool and a third of Kelly Green wool. Do this by pulling long amounts of each wool color and gently hand card the colors until you get the desired look. Pinch off a strip that is about 2” long and not too thick and roll one end to make a point. Stab from the bottom to the point stabbing in the direction of the fibers to get a watercolor effect. Keep adding and layering the grass strips until your grass looks like the grass in the main painting photo.
    Tip: If you want the bottom of the grass to look like the one in the main painting photo, leave the bottom wool unfelted until all the grass is on. Then stab a line across the remaining wool to create the bottom edge of the grass, leaving ½” under a bottom edge, and fold the ½” of wool and stab the fibers toward the top of the grass to blend the fibers.


Did you create your own Flowery Wool Masterpiece? We’d love to see your finished projects. Tag us on Instagram @woollydoodlesbycathy and @the_felt_store to show off your creations.

Happy Crafting!!





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