Have you been bitten by the punch needle bug yet?

Last fall I designed and punch needled this beetle. It was inspired by my Entomologie fabric collection both in color palette and motif! I loved how it turned out but I wasn’t sure if I wanted to frame it or make it into a pillow or what! I just couldn’t quite figure out what it wanted to be, so it sat in a “time-out” for about 6 months!

Since I’ve recently started playing around with braiding wool, I came across some rug hooked (punch needled) designs that had braided wool borders. A-ha! I knew I had found a solution I could get excited about.

 

The first thing I did was to create a pillow with the punched beetle on the front and a wool fabric back. Since it’s a small piece, I used batting and fiberfill to stuff it and sewed it shut.

Then I used wool fabric I had in coordinating colors to create a braid to fit around the pillow. I made what’s called a “butted braid” that has a continuous look. You can’t see where it begins and ends.

 

I placed the back of the braid against the pillow seam and pinned it at the corners, evenly distributing it around the pillow. Then I used a tapestry needle to hand stitch the braid securely to the pillow. I just love how the braid adds more texture and ties it all together.

Have you tried punch needle? (I’ve blogged about punch needle before a few times if you’re not sure what I’m even talking about!) What about rug braiding? Are you interested in multiple crafts or do you tend to stick to the same ones? Apparently I like trying lots of crafts, which I am happy about except for the fact that I make slow progress on each one because they compete for my time. But honestly I wouldn’t have it any other way!