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Needlefelted Poinsettia

Every December from 2006 to 2015 (with only one year off) I designed and made a PlanetJune Poinsettia. As a multi-crafter, it was a fun challenge to keep making the same thing using different tools and materials and slightly different styles, but I’ve let the project drop for the past few years.

But, after designing a new crocheted poinsettia for my Christmas Decor pattern collection this year, I was inspired to revisit my poinsettia collection this holiday and add another craft to the collection: needlefelting!

needlefelted poinsettia by planetjune

This Poinsettia is made from Lion Brand Spinnables roving, sent to me by a kind friend many years ago, and it’s been sitting in my craft stash since then, just waiting for inspiration to strike! The most interesting part about Spinnables is that it’s 100% acrylic roving. It’s very soft and fine and has some very pretty and muted variegated colours.

Although Spinnables has the benefit of being completely non-itchy for my wool-sensitive fingers, I found it more challenging to felt than natural fibre roving, so I kept my poinsettia very simple and didn’t worry about making it too perfect – after all, real plants aren’t perfect either.

I’m not going to write up a tutorial for this poinsettia:

  • If you know how to needlefelt, it should be fairly obvious how to assemble it by making 12 individual leaves and 3 balls, and felting them together.
  • If you’re new to needlefelting, I recommend you find a book or YouTube tutorial to cover the basics, then look for a tutorial on how to felt animal ears – the leaf shape is very similar to an ear, so that should give you the idea of how to form a leaf shape.

And now let’s take a look at my entire collection to date…

The Poinsettia Collection

11 poinsettia designs – it’s a real collection, spanning 14 years!

tsumami kanzashi poinsettia by planetjunecrocheted poinsettia by planetjune
polymer clay poinsettia by planetjunepunchneedle poinsettia by planetjune
felt poinsettia by planetjunebeaded poinsettia by planetjune
thread crochet poinsettia by planetjuneknitted poinsettia by planetjune
origami poinsettia by planetjunecrochet poinsettia by planetjune
needlefelted poinsettia by planetjune

Top (L-R): 2006 kanzashi poinsettia (no tutorial); 2007 crocheted poinsettia
2nd Row (L-R): 2008 polymer clay poinsettia; 2009 punchneedle poinsettia
3rd Row (L-R): 2010 felt poinsettia; 2011 beaded poinsettia
4th Row (L-R): 2012 thread crochet poinsettia; 2013 knitted poinsettia
5th Row (L-R): 2015 origami poinsettia; 2019 crochet poinsettia (paid pattern)
Bottom Row: 2019 needlefelted poinsettia (no tutorial) – this post!

(You can find almost all my Poinsettia designs as PDFs in my shop, or use the links above for the free online versions of most of them.)

Which is your favourite?

I don’t know if I’ll continue adding to this collection, but I suspect I’ll be drawn back to it again and again in future – I’ll leave it flexible and just add a new poinsettia whenever the inspiration strikes.

I love seeing how similar and yet different these all look together, and how it’s a tangible record of many different crafts I’ve played with over the years. I wonder what else I could make a poinsettia from..?

I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing my collection, and maybe it’ll inspire you to try (or re-try) a different type of crafting this holiday! 🙂

10 Comments »

  1. Jenny said

    Jennifer already suggested it, but I’ve been catching up on posts of yours that I haven’t read yet, and you definitely have two new crafts you could try out the pointsettia in: weaving, and I wonder if your knitting machine can do stranded color work!! 😉

    • June said

      Thanks Jenny! My knitting machine is so basic that I think stranded colourwork would be easier to do by hand than on the machine! (Not that I’ve ever tried it by hand either…)

  2. Andrea said

    Such a varied and lovely group of poinsettias! Thanks.

  3. Jamie said

    Your poinsettia collection is absolutely lovely

    • June said

      Yay! I’m so happy to hear that, Jamie 🙂

  4. Jennifer Stoyenoff said

    They are all lovely and each could be the perfect thing, depending on the intended use, but I personally like the 2010 felt one the best. I think you should try one that is woven—use the Zoom Loom or another small pin loom to make small woven squares to shape into the flower parts! I have seen some interesting flowers made from pin loom squares, and I keep meaning to get to that…..so many crafts, so little time! Have a wonderful holiday season and a terrific New Year!

    • June said

      Thanks, Jennifer! I hadn’t considered woven squares, but that’s an intriguing concept – I’ve just started playing with weaving for the first time this year, so I like your idea!

  5. MJ said

    A thought: you could try red cord and do a macrame version … ??

    • June said

      Ooh, thanks for the suggestion, MJ! I’d need to learn macrame first (although that’s not a deal-breaker, it’s a definite possibility if I get started early enough in the season…)

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