Oh, the possibilities!  About two weeks ago, I heard about a fabulous sale at a fabric store in town I used to visit with my grandmother as a child.  The chocolate-covered cherry doling old man who used to run the place had died years ago, leaving piles of valuable fabric bolts to rot in a couple of old warehouses.  Apparently, a construction company recently purchased the buildings and required their contents be emptied by the end of the month.  

A coworker informed me that a woman was attempting to sell what remaining fabric could be salvaged before sending in the garbage trucks.  Shortly after receiving her text, I was at the store, perusing piles of authentic vintage upholstery and dress fabric, along with other fellow sewers, including women from three of the surrounding Hutterite colonies.  I was in heaven!  If only I had more space in the apartment, I thought.  

The seller was looking to get rid of as many bolts as possible, and the Hutterites had loaded their Suburbans and conversion vans to the hilt.  I, however, had to consider my available storage space, so I asked to purchase some of the fabric by the yard and settled on what you see in the picture above.   The entire haul cost a total of $23!  A steal for the yards of velvet and other high-quality items I acquired!  

The only problem I ran into was that of cleanliness.  Most of the fabric smelled quite musty from its years of being shut away in dank facilities.  I washed what I could but had to hang the velvet on my parents' clothesline and spray it repeatedly with Febreeze for about four days to remove the smell.  

I have many projects in mind, including using some of the pink velvet to cover bulletin boards in my classroom.  Some of the pieces have already been put to good use, like this green and white striped number I turned into a patio rug...

 

... and the green velvet I've used as lining for my farmers market jewelry display.

Any suggestions for how to use the rest of this glorious fabric?

Yesterday, I was a crafting machine!  I painted the arms and legs of a $3 Goodwill chair (more on that in a later post), painted a night stand, and used a decoupage technique to transform an old wall-hanging into something much more modern.  Our bedroom received the first in a series of much-needed updates.

For the night stand, I began with a spray primer from Rust-oleum that promised to be sandable.  I had some problems with the initial application.  The primer came out somewhat chunky and ended up sort of turning to dust and just, well, falling off the back side of the small table.  After using it for a while, the texture became more consistent, but when I attempted to sand what I'd applied, it turned dusty again.  Maybe next time I will sand the surface of a project before priming.  Once I got the silver sprayed on (Rust-oleum Specialty Metallic), the surface seemed smooth.  I'm quite impressed with the intensity of the metallic shine!

Can you believe the wall art above was created from the thrift store find below?!  To start, I taped off that pretty gold frame and spray painted the canvas with a flat black.  When that dried, I used Mod Podge to apply one of Chris's favorite Van Gogh prints.  I brushed the white glue both underneath and on top of the print using broad strokes with a 1 1/2" brush in order to secure its adhesion and give the finished product a rich texture.  In the process of the decoupage, I noticed that my tape had slipped while spray painting the background, and the canvas part of the frame showed some black.  To fix the problem, I simply re-taped the gold parts of the frame and applied acrylic black paint with a foam brush.  

 Our bedroom is on its way to looking rather stylish!

Hooray for fellow crafters!  Last night, Chris and I attended a tie-dye party at friend Briar's house. (Briar's in the pic with me.)  We all brought items (new or used) that needed a splash of color.  I brought a couple of pillow cases and two shirts, one of which I traded for a pair of socks.  We had a couple of beers and a fun time.  I'm always glad to have a craft buddy, so I was pumped to join a craft party!

Today, I washed and dried all the items and had the chance to try them on.  What a nice splash of color for my home decor and wardrobe!