Leaping Bear Project

Hello, my name is Joel and I am an over-achiever.   Terri and Peggy were recently at our house in Kansas City for the weekend.  Terri had an idea for a “not a bear, but bear related” project.  It would be made of felted wools, and each of us would use a common design element.  When complete it could be a pillow, or wall hanging…something like that.  Great idea!  Peggy drew a leaping bear for us, and we were off to Quilter’s Station for supplies.  (Quilter’s Station is a wonderful quilt supply store in Lee’s Summit, a KC suburb)  We worked on them while Terri and Peggy were here and vowed to finish them at home.  I put mine down and didn’t play with it for at least a week.  The more I thought and planned, I decided I would like to do something different with it when it was complete.  I decided to cover a box lid.  After work one day I stopped by a local big-box craft store.  I found an oval paper mache box that I decided would do.  Not my favorite…but it would work.  Walking up to check-out, I noticed baskets were 50% off.  Truly…when are baskets not 50% off?  Any way…I wandered down the basket isles.  There they were.  Several different sizes of unfinished picnic baskety kinds of things, looking right at me.  That was it!  I knew the over-achiever label would be used, but I decided to own it.  I went back to look at spray paints, knowing I would find the perfect color.  Did you know craft stores have drastically reduced the spray paints they carry?  Neither did I.  I found a color of red that I thought might work.  I ended up spraying the basket with the red then watering down some burnt umber and brushing that over.  I put a couple layers of flat cotton batting on top of the lid and covered it with a nice cotton print.  After finishing my wool piece, I stitched it in place on the lid.  Now I just have to figure out what to do with the basket…perhaps a pillow was the way to go after all!