The fish and the search for paper

Finished the Shweshwe fish today. It is one of those just for fun kind of pieces and I must say it really was fun to make. I hope Magie, the owner of the Coral Tree fabric company likes it. I made it for her to use in her booth to help sell the Shweshwe fabric. It will come back to me at some point, but for awhile this will be a working fish.

I got such good suggestions when I asked for places in Portland to find nice paper. I have checked out a couple of them. Paper Source is a national chain and has a couple of locations in the Portland area. I went to the one nearest me last weekend. Beautiful store and full of really tempting stuff! The selection of the kind of paper I was hoping to find wasn't nearly as good as the dearly departed Paper Zone's, but there was a wall of envelopes that were pretty great and then a whole store full of art supplies and tools and gizmos and gadgets. I walked around in there for nearly an hour and had every clerk watching me and asking if I needed help. I probably looked like a weird old lady shoplifter because I kept picking things up, putting them back, fondling and feeling. I ended up buying a pen that writes with white ink. No particular reason. It just seemed like I could use it.

Then, on a tip from Kathy White, an old quilting friend, I sought out Whimzee's Scrapbooking Studio, which it happens is pretty much hidden from sight, but not far from my house and just off all my daily routes. Who knew? Caaa-razy place! I mean, it is the ultimate store for scrapbookers, which I am not, but it was fascinatingly chaotic. I have never seen so much paper, and not a single piece that I wanted. Not that there was anything wrong with it, but it was all that large size, patterned scrapbook paper. I really wanted stuff I can put through my printer. Actually they have gorgeous paper. It really made me want to make something with it, but I'm not sure what. The other thing about scrapbookers, besides the paper, is that they have the coolest tools, and hidden amongst all those bins of paper at Whimzee's, and in no kind of organized order, I found them. I have a hard time resisting a nifty tool and I simply did not resist this handy, dandy Martha Steward hole punching tool.

I didn't know I needed it until I saw it and then it was love at first sight. After all, I already have a nice variety of the standard squeeze punch tools. But this one can punch 3 sizes of holes (two more punch tips are hidden inside the handle), can punch anywhere in a large sheet of material, unlike the others who can't reach much beyond the edge of anything, can punch multiple layers and it is just a cool tool.  I made myself a polka dot stencil just to try it out.

I have a couple more stores to find and explore. Wonder what I will find there that I can't live without. Probably not paper.