Sales and another 8th anniversary square

If you stopped by on Sunday you saw this image of a basket of goodies from the scrapbook store that is closing.


My friend Kathy loves to shop and most of the things in the basket actually belonged to her. In fact, her bill was over $80.00 and mine was about 10% of that. After the scrapbook store, we also went to JoAnns, where everything we bought was either 40% or 50% off. Between the two stores, my purchases added up to just over $12.00. And you would think from seeing all those boxes in my basement that I don't need anything else, but like many of you, I seem to buy things I don't necessarily need, but managed to justify.


In the back, from JoAnns, I got a small ball of wool yarn I'm going to dye using powdered drink mix. Also from JoAnns, were two spools of thread I thought I needed for my latest set of anniversary squares. Two rolls of Christmas ribbon for a quarter each from the scrapbook store, along with three distress reinkers, and three staz-on reinkers add to my dyeing fabric stash. The Tattered Angels tiles will be useful to use in place of texture plates under my Shiva Paint Stics which I hope to find soon. I also got the clear vellum at the scrapbook store, and the fabric on clearance at JoAnns. I needed some black card stock for my next color round robin partner. And since I've never seen black before, I thought it was a real bargain at JoAnns at 40% off retail.

Speaking of sales and bargains, I hit seven stores yesterday looking for shelves and shelving. I have a few more on my list, but the heat got too much for me, so I'll be back out there today with my measuring tape and sketches.


And because you deserve to see a bit of art along with my whining, here is my second set of 8th Anniversary squares. These took awhile to make, but most of the wait time was for the back side of these squares. You probably can't see it, but I colored the backgrounds with two colors of paint, then placed plastic wrap over the wet paint and waited at least two days for the paint to dry because of the humidity. Everything else was sewn in place, first using my new turquoise thread, then black thread when the turquoise kept breaking. After a few squares, I gave up and will use the turquoise thread in my bobbin from now on. Click to enlarge the anniversary squares.

I'm off to visit a few more places while it's still coolish. Our temps have been over 100 every day except one in July and it was the third hottest June since weather people started keeping records (sometime in the 1800s).