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This week on the blog I’m sharing with you some of my very favorite techniques and you know they’re my favorites because I’ve written dvds about each of them! Today is all about machine needle felting.

I love machine needle felting; particularly that you can get fabulous results in a relatively short period of time because those needle felting machines can really pick up speed when you need them to. Plus, machine needle felting is very creative.

How Machine Needle Felting Works
A needle felting machine looks much like a sewing machine …

… except it doesn’t make stitches. Instead of a standard sewing machine needle, it has a needle assembly of one (for fine work) or five, seven or eleven (for more textured work) needles attached onto a shaft, all with a bunch of little barbs on the end.

Together with the up and down motion of the needles, the barbs work to mesh and fuse together your roving which, as you can imagine, turns it into felt in no time at all. Of course, the needle felting machine can be used for more than just making felt as you’ll soon see.

A Little About Needle Felting Machines
I’m often asked what machine I use and I use a Janome Xpression. I like the Janome because it goes fast, has a safety guard to protect your fingers and does exactly what I need it to do. There are a number of different brands of needle felting machines available and if you’re in the market for a new machine it’s always a good idea to visit your local sewing center and try out a few brands before deciding, because each machine feels a little different and you want to pick one that’s a good fit for you and does what you want it to do.

There is also a needle felting attachment available for certain models of Bernina sewing machines, and I think there are also other types of attachments available. My thoughts on these attachments are – they are probably fine for a little light machine needle felting, but for heavy or regular use, a dedicated machine is always best. Machine needle felting produces an enormous amount of lint so do you really want all this lint flying around inside your sewing machine?

My Favorite Machine Needle Felting Technique
I use my needle felting machine for various techniques and I cover dozens of different techniques in my Felt-Punch-Embellish dvd, but my favorite technique by far is fabric texturizing. I love that I can get two, three and sometimes four different textures from one piece of fabric and I use these mainly as coordinates when making garments or as coordinates for art quilts.

The photo on the right is an exquisite piece of multi-colored silk. When texurized with the needle felting machine, you get a different textures on the upperside of the fabric and on the underside of the fabric, but they all co-ordinate so you have a wonderful selection of textures.

And this video demonstrates fabric texturizing.

Grab a cup of coffee and settle in – now it’s time to get really inspired …

On My Blog
Machine Needle Felting Tutorials
Other Machine Needle Felting Inspiration
My Machine Needle Felting Photo Gallery on Flickr

Resources on the Web
Machine Needle Felting Yahoo Group
Try Our Designs – Machine Needle Felting Supplies

Inspiration on the Web
My “Machine Needle Felting” Squidoo Lens
Fiberella
Her Majesty Margo Fiber Studio

Teach Yourself Machine Needle Felting
Felt-Punch-Embellish – my Instructional DVD

My Favorite “Machine Needle Felting” Books

Crazy Felt: Using Water-Soluble Stabiliser

Embellish, Stitch, Felt: Using the Embellisher Machine and Needle-Punch Techniques

Needle-Felting Magic: Easy Machine Techniques and Projects (That Patchwork Place)

Making More Needle-Felting Magic: New Techniques, Creative Projects (That Patchwork Place)

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