shopping trip and new project

the ongoing rubber stamping projects brought to my attention that it would be good to have a brayer to spread the paint on with instead of using a paint brush

so with a 40% coupon in hand we went off to the local Hobby Lobby and found this one

I'd forgotten that these were supposed to be soft --- the old one that I had (ok, I'd had it since I was in high school --- 40 years!) had gotten so dried out that it was really hard and didn't roll well

got three bottles of gray paint (3 different shades) so that I can work on the elephants

I got two yards of unbleached muslin to do the stamping on (and more after that)


while I was in the store I spotted this very cool upholstery fabric

I actually had been admiring this fabric for quite a while, but at $14.99 a yard I just couldn't bring myself to buy it even though we have a chair that is ready to be upholstered

evidently this fabric was not a hot seller however as they had moved it over onto the sale rack and marked it down to $2.00 a yard!

I got 4 yards, which should be enough to do the chair and a little ottoman (which the DH is planning to build) and maybe something left over to use for a pillow or handbags or other mixed media projects.

Waiting was a good thing


and here is the second drawing for the new quilt project

this quilted wall hanging will be about 3 feet wide and about 8 feet long for a very long narrow wall in our daughter's house

our plan right now is for this to be hand appliqued and painted and quilted --- it doesn't need to be as "sturdy" as a piece that would be on a bed, but it will occassionally need to be cleaned, and it should be able to stand up to that

looking forward to working on this one!


meantime, last night I finished the fronts of the sweater I've been working on -- today I will start on the bands down the front for the buttons

quilting on the Christmas project is moving right along too

yup, things are progressing!