A week spent swimming in colourful fibre...

OOooo this week has been a treat!  First week back to felting after 3 weeks off while the family were at home... much as I LOVE family time, its always nice to get the fibre back out :)  I have devoted the week to FUN, things that I have been planning to do but havent had time & pressies that I wanted to make.  I cant share all of my makes with you at the moment... they may get spotted and spoil a suprise.  But heres what I can show..

I have felted a journal cover for my mum-in-laws birthday.  I wanted the design to be `things that matter` to her.  My mum-in-laws big loves (apart from her family) are Cornwall, she was born and raised there and is still very much Cornish even though she has not lived there for many years.  And the church plays a major part in her life.

After a lot of thought I decided to go with sea, sky and a fishing boat for the front cover and a Cornish Celtic cross for the back.  Its finished apart from the embroidery that I want to add - more pics to follow soon :)

All laid out & ready to go... finished pics next time.

I started experimenting with summer headgear, but havent got a photo of this yet. I decided to nunofelt a head kerchief... The style is inspired the scarf-like head wrap (called a head-rail) that I wear at work (I dress up as a Tudor servant and work with schools in a local museum for anybody new who will probably be thinking "WHAT?!" at this point). As I dont have pics yet I shall talk more about it when I do...

And I felted some boots for my sons birthday - he turned 14 yesterday (where has the time gone?!)    I didnt have lasts in his size and didnt get round to making some from socks and duct tape, so I had to borrow his feet for a little while to finish them off :)  Its a bit of a challenge trying to make something `manly`.  I used Norwegian wool in grey and white, adding areas of blue Icelandic wool in the final layer.  Im pleased with how they turned out, the blue in the felt is reflected in the soft blue leather soles... I just need to add a toggle fastner now (as per his request :) think I shall use the leather again for that.

We had a wonderful day out yesterday to celebrate.  Matthew wanted to go to our local zoo, where we spent many happy days when the children were younger.  The weather was pretty good; dry & sunny though very windy.  The highlight of the day was in one of the 'walk through' enclosures, when one of the black & white ruffed lemurs held Matthews hand!  It was on the handrail next to us and just reached out and held on very gently with a hand & foot - stayed there for a good 5 minutes.  Matthew said the lemurs hands were cold so maybe he was warming them up - it was soooo sweet!  Another funny bit was when we came across a flock of cameroon sheep in pets corner.  OMG they were funny... there were 7 or 8 of them in there, most were saying "MAAaaaaaaaaa" but one missed his "M" every time just saying "AAAAaaaaa" I love hearing sheep anyway - always think they are funny... but these they had very funny voices, some were really deep, and they were SO loud.  There were 2 lamas in with them and they made a very tiny little noise, such a contrast to the sheep who were hardly as tall as the llamas knees.  My hubby recorded them on his mobile, now every time I phone he gets a very loud mad MAAAaaaa-ing :) It truly was the most hilarious noise I have ever heard.  All the photos were taken on our phones, so I cant post them unfortunately. 

And the rest of this weeks makes are secret...  but will be revealed in time.

xx