New Tote Bag Finished, A Simple Christmas Decoration

I finally ironed and cut up the fabric for a tote bag from the souvenir fabric from Hawaii.  I love this beautiful purple and pink flower print.  I bought the coordinating solid canvas after I came home knowing I wanted to use it as the bottom of the tote.  I have more of the print fabric left and there will be another bag or two made with this.

I bought some Christmas cards last year to put in frames for decorations this year.  I pulled this card out and found this 5" x 7" frame at Target this morning.  Now I have another Christmas decoration.  I have some others cards that I will be framing.

Pretty Fabric To Enhance My Stash

   I received these four pieces of fabric in the mail yesterday and this morning I hand washed them and threw them in the dryer so I could add them to my stash.  So pretty.

My Barn Quilt - - - How I Made It and Why I Won't Be Making Another

   But, I made myself a barn quilt.  I'm not going to hang it anywhere but I am going to set it on the deck so I can see it from the sliding glass door in my dining room.  My barn quilt started as a almost 2' x 2' piece of plywood I purchased in 2013 for this project.  I finally bought the other materials to finish this on February 9, 2015.  I bought wood glue to seal the edges, a quart of grey exterior paint and a quart of bright purple exterior paint for the design; a quart of latex primer, a good paint brush, and a quart of Spar varnish to finish it.

   This project is really messy and I thought about fixing the messy areas and I even thought about re-painting the entire thing with a different block and different colors.  But I'm not going to do that.  I'm going to leave this as is and let this serve as a reminder to me that I hate to paint and I'm not a good painter.  I think one of the worst parts of painting is letting one coat dry so you can paint the second coat.  Boring!

On Saturday, February 14, 2015, I sealed the edges with wood glue, sanding the edges after they were dry.  I painted one coat of primer on all sides of the board and gave it a light sand.

On Sunday, February 15, 2015, I painted two more coats of primer on all sides of the board, sanding after each coat was dry and I drew my hunter's star pattern on the wood.

On Sunday, February 22, 2015.  I painted all the grey sections with two coats of paint.  Then I started putting down my painter's tape in some of the purple sections to paint them.  I gave about 4 purple sections two coats of paint.

On Monday, February 23, 2015.  I took all the old painter's tape off the piece and put more on the purple sections that needed painting.  I gave each of these sections two coats of purple paint.

On Tuesday, February 24, 2015.  I took all the old painter's tape off the piece and put more on the purple sections that needed painting.  I gave each of these sections two coats of purple paint.

On Wednesday, February 25, 2015.  I took all the old painter's tape off the piece and put more on the purple sections that needed painting.  I gave each of these sections two coats of purple paint

Today, Saturday, February 28, 2015, I will paint the back and the sides with two coats of grey paint.

Tomorrow, Sunday, March 1, 2015, I will give the piece two coats of varnish with a light sand in between each coat.

Here it is:

 

I'm Going To Paint A Barn Quilt

   I don't have a barn to hang it on, but I'm going to make myself a barn quilt to put on my deck right outside the sliding glass door in my dining room.

   I have been wanting to make one of these for a couple of years and two years ago I bought the a 24" square piece of wood for this project, but I never went any further with it.  Today I went to Lowe's and bought all the rest of my supplies to finish this project. This is what I bought today:

    1.  Wood glue to seal the edges of the wood.

    2.  A quart of latex primer.

    3.  A paint brush.

    4.  A quart of purple paint (should have bought an 8 oz. sample instead).

    5.  A quart of light grey paint (should have bought an 8 oz. sample instead).

    6.  A quart of varnish.

    I already have the piece of wood and I have painter's tape.

    I'm going to use the hunter star block for my barn quilt.  It will be a light grey and dark purple.  I never bought paint before and I should have bought 8 oz. samples of each paint color instead of the quart of each paint color I did buy.  I'm going to have a ton of paint leftover.  Ugh.

Here's the hunter's star block.

 

   This will be fun.