>Shaping Up
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Late last night, I cut out the final shapes for my latest piece featuring Julie & Tawny.

I used plain old felt for all of these shapes, because it is what I happened to have on hand. I discovered that I like using felt because it is both flexible and easily manipulated. While I've used Lacy's Stiff Stuff for bead embroidery, I have found it to be quite expensive. (Fire Mountain Gems sells it for almost $6 per 8.5" x 11" sheet. ) However, I still prefer it for single-layer pieces. I have also tried beading on Pellon interfacing, which is less pricey and normally used for quilting. I do like that for some things, but for stacking shapes upon shapes, I prefer felt simply because of its thickness.

Julie's foundation measures almost 7" tall and is 4 layers thick, including her face and arms.

Next, I will stitch some of the shapes together. When I am finished with that, they will be 3 separate pieces.

But first, I really need to clean up that mess:)