Birthday backgammon board

My Dad and I started learning how to play backgammon earlier this year, so I decided for his birthday I would make him a backgammon board (we had previously been playing on a piece of paper!).

I decided to make a felty-fibrey version - less of a 'board' - softer and more flexible so it could be rolled up and easily stored/carried around.

First I made the felted background with my embellisher, using Merino roving, mulberry silk, silk noil, soy silk, firestar, bamboo fibre, silk throwsters waste and wool locks:

I cut the 'spikes' out of felt, and set the whole large felted piece onto a larger piece of yellow felt for extra thickness and sturdiness:

I machine-sewed the spikes onto the felted piece, and then sandwiched it all together and sewed around the edges of the felted pieces.

Next, I made a couple of 8-tama kumihimo braids to go around the edges of the piece:

and then I cut away the excess backing felt from the edges:I sewed marigold-coloured ribbon onto the backing felt to cover up the machine-stitching:

I also made a wee bag, with another kumihimo braid as the tie, to hold the dice and counters:

I decided to use vintage buttons for one set of counters, and shells from Portobello beach here in Edinburgh for the other set:

The finished piece! It measures about 51cm x 35cm.

I'm looking forward to using it next time I visit my parents :D