........ in my beautiful balloon? This morning after I got dressed I went back into the bedroom to say bye to Malcolm - and suggest that he might like to get out of his lazy bed and come with me. I think the grunts from under the duvet signified that he didn't want to come, which was a pity, because this was the amazing sight that greeted me
I don't think I've ever seen a hot-air balloon this close
Then, as I headed down towards the turning point - there was another one!! I knew I would get a better view at the bottom of the hill, so I ran down before it vanished behind the hills (my legs haven't yet recovered!!) There was still early morning mist over the hills, so this photo isn't very clear).
I spoke to one of our neighbours, who has a livery. He said that the horses had been spooked by the noise of the balloon's burners (they were very loud!), but nothing was going to deter these two from munching on the lush verge
After lunch, I headed out to the studio to play with my new toy. First I watched the dvd which came with the embellisher, which explained how to use it safely, and how to achieve the best results
I started with a piece of felt (from a bag of mixed bits I bought at a craft fair) and some wool roving.
The dvd suggested that when you first use the embellisher to loosely needle the roving in place
Then it was the scary moment ...... I took a deep breath and off I went!!
It definitely helped that I am used to doing free motion quilting, as the movement is similar (except that I kept trying to pivot the felt, which you can't do with five needles in it!!) So stage one was completed successfully
I then added an outer circle
The last stage was to add a stem and leaf. I found this much trickier - I think it will take quite a bit of practice to get the shape of the leaf right
For my second project, I started with a flower cut from a piece of felted sweater and some purple and pink roving
I covered the flower shape .......
....... then added some pink beads (they were still sitting on the worktable after using them on the shawl!) All I need to do now is add a brooch pin.
This detail shows the lovely colours and texture
I forgot earlier in the week to show you the finished applique runner (I need to organise my photos better!)
I stood on the bed to take this one, so it's a bit wobbly!! I only realised when I saw the photos on the laptop that you can see the fine wire going from the radio alarm clock to the lamp - it's the aerial for the radio!!
Now that the runner is finished, it's back to those chickens!!