The Easy Way Out.....

Wall number three is done....We won't talk about wall number four or the center of the room yet.....Here's proof of three. I have the TV set on HGTV for inspiration. It's not working. All they do anymore is sell houses and fix up houses to sell.

While I was at Wednesday Witches yesterday, I had another idea for a fast rug. I have a bunch of over dyed embroidery floss from Needle Necessities. Each skein has been dipped in several colors, so as you stitch, it makes a pattern.

I decided to experiment. I love doing basket weave stitch. It goes fast and is worked diagonally. Rather than having just row after row of variegated color, I wanted some kind of vague pattern. I marked off 12 thread squares in even numbers in both directions. Then I alternated the direction of the stitches in each square.

In this case, I had four squares going across and I started with six lengthwise. It may get longer....I have room for that. Due to poor planning on a scrap of canvas, it will be no wider.

As you can see, it almost has a granny afghan feel to it. I plan to put several rows of a solid color around the edge to finish it.

I really have no idea where it will live when it is finished. I just needed something that I didn't have to think about as I worked.

I am liking it so far and Tessie has already claimed it.

Nothing has been settled about which house gets worked on and in what order. I told them that they have a couple of days until I finish cleaning.

Meanwhile, Zar came up with a project of his own. He dug up some clear barreled Pentel (cheapo) pens and some clear pushpins that I found at Walmart.

He took my miter box in hand and cut lengths of the pen barrels after dismantling the rest of the pen.(If you do this, save one of the pens and all of the insides. The one pen will last forever, because the ink cartridge can be replaced over and over.)

After cutting the barrel, he sanded the ends. He didn't have any glass paint so he used regular acrylic to paint the inside of the tube. He let it dry and then popped one of the push pins into the center top with E-6000 glue. After that dried, he used a small gold foil square to cover the top.

I found a bunch of the gold foil squares that they use to wrap fancy candy in at a garage sale....New....Not used. You could do other things like adding a bead or even just a circle of card stock to the top.

Anyway.....Almost instant bottle of something....Now all it needs is a label. These aren't the most perfect bottles around, but they will work well for filling shelves in the workroom later.

OK....I am off to see what I can do about that fourth wall and floor. Wish me luck!

See you tomorrow.