{"id":6589,"date":"2019-07-09T06:43:51","date_gmt":"2019-07-09T13:43:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.road2ca.com\/blog\/?p=6589"},"modified":"2019-07-04T13:48:59","modified_gmt":"2019-07-04T20:48:59","slug":"meet-road-vendor-wooly-felted-wonders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/road2ca.com\/blog\/2019\/07\/09\/meet-road-vendor-wooly-felted-wonders\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet Road Vendor: Wooly Felted Wonders"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wooly Felted Wonders<\/a> has transformed wool in to a hot, hot, hot tool for quilters. This natural fiber is easy to work with and lasts forever. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Thea Jirak,\nowner of Wooly Felted Wonders, first discovered that wool was a great pressing\ntool when she was growing up. Her dad was in the military and her family moved\naround a lot. Frequently, ironing boards weren\u2019t available, so her mom would\ntake out her dad\u2019s wool army blankets and press on top of them. Thea\u2019s memory\nof this practical and useful tool stuck with her as she moved on, later opening\na quilt store in the Portland, Oregon area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Wooly<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A few years\nago, Thea saw wool dryer balls popping up in retail. They were advertised as a\ntool for drying clothes faster and Thea began wondering why they weren\u2019t being\ntouted in the quilting industry. Thea found the dryer balls aerated the laundry\nmore efficiently, speeding up the drying process. Consequently, quilts didn\u2019t\nneed to stay in the dryer as long. She also discovered that the wool dryer\nballs minimized static electricity and the lanolin in the wool helped reduce\nwrinkling. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Giving back to the World Community <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Thea began\nselling her handmade, 100% New Zealand Wool Dryer Balls as Spring Market in\n2017. She was the only vendor for this product at the show. Today, Wooley\nFelted Wonders Dryer Balls are manufactured by women in Nepal who are still struggling\nafter that country\u2019s devastating earthquakes in 2005.  Through this business partnership, Wooly\nFelted Wonders is supporting fair trade, empowering Nepalese women to enter the\nworkforce and enhance their professional\/business skills, and ultimately giving\nback to the world community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Other Wool Products Made in the USA <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Product\ndevelopment is Thea\u2019s \u201cpassion.\u201d After Wooly Felted Wonders Dryer Balls took\noff, Thea began working on other natural wool product lines designed\nspecifically with quilters in mind. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Remembering her mom\u2019s Army wool blanket pressing experience, Thea created a Wool Ironing Mat<\/strong>. The wool texture holds on to fabric, allowing for even, crisp ironed seams for quilt blocks. The mats come in several sizes. The 13-1\/2\u201d mat is handy to take along to quilt classes and retreats as it is the perfect size for pressing 12\u201d squares. In addition to the ironing mats, the company also makes custom cut ironing board covers. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Wooly<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Following the success of the pressing mats, Wooly Felted Wonders next big item was their Wool Pressing Bars.<\/strong> They were developed with Modern Quilters in mind as an aid to pressing open multiple seams. They are handmade by Thea\u2019s husband. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Their latest wool product for quilters is their pin cushion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Wooly<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Wool Bag Challenge \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Earlier this year, Thea teamed with Moda Fabrics<\/a> for a Wool Bag Challenge. Participants had to make large tote bags from wool. The Finalists were displayed in the Wooly Felted Wonders Booth at Road to California and winners were announced at 2019 QuiltCon<\/a>. Prizes for the winners included a Bernina 535 for first place and a Bernina 330 for the second-place winner. Thea said the response was \u201cphenomenal\u201d and she hopes to bring back the Challenge again in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Vending at Road to California <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"Wooly<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Thea thought\nRoad 2019 was \u201cfantastic.\u201d She enjoyed interacting with the guests and quickly\nbecame known as \u201cMrs. Wooly.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To learn more about Wooly Felted Wonders, please visit their website<\/a>.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wooly Felted Wonders has transformed wool in to a hot, hot, hot tool for quilters. This natural fiber is easy to work with and lasts forever. Thea Jirak, owner of Wooly Felted Wonders, first discovered that wool was a great pressing tool when she was growing up. Her dad was in the military and her […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/road2ca.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/road2ca.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/road2ca.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/road2ca.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/road2ca.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6589"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/road2ca.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6589\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6600,"href":"https:\/\/road2ca.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6589\/revisions\/6600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/road2ca.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/road2ca.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/road2ca.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}