starting over and actual finished work

so since the first attempt at the pencil roll was a total disaster, I decided to just make it more complicated all around (doesn't that just figure?)

I found I had this nice dark blue fabric that is heavy enough without the whole lining and batting and quilting thing

but it was just so "blah"





nothing to do but to break out the rubber stamps from the other ongoing project and make some cool fabric










so I stamped a very pale gold lion on the dark blue, which will require some additional "tweeking" but is a good start

in order to stamp the wall around the lion, I put some of that blue painter's tape right over the lion stamp so I could stamp over it




then I decided a sort of rock wall overall print would be good for the rest of the fabric, so I used the stamp I created for that

and I mixed in some gray paint with the gold I had used for the lion and did the rest of the fabric

after breakfast I'll be able to peal the tape and iron the fabric to set the color

then it's on to making the pencil roll

we went to Denver yesterday to do some Christmas shopping that we can't do here in our little village

while I was in the car I did almost all of the knitting of this hat (the top 10 rows or so have to be on double point needles which I finished last night)

this hat will go with the items we purchased for a girl whose name we got from the local Giving Tree



and this is the beginning of the pair of mittens which will go with the hat

at this stage the DH says these look like a shark

(use your imagination here --- see the fin?)

one more mitten to knit then stitch them up and we'll be ready to start putting that package together too


and another project is in the works too --- we've just learned that a friend is having a baby next summer, so we're working on the design of a new quilt --- watch this space for the progress!

time to go finish that pencil case