Tales from the darkside - that is a trip to JoAnn's Fabric

Okay, the morning started quiet enough.. a quick Cracker Barrel brekkie, followed by a run to the grocery, mark 20-30 student assignments and then an afternoon of sewing. The problem is that Ken and I do some of our best thinking as a couple, while breakfasting at Cracker Barrel (must be something in the pancakes?).

Anyway, over brekkie we were debating/hashing out how best to incorporate elements of Ken's SCA arms into the black linen fencing hood that is his current pet project. He wanted to do some appliqued dove tailing onto the hem of it, I was of the mind that doing so would be far more difficult than he thinks (an opinion I still hold). Then we talked about using fabric paint, but were worried that would make the hem of the hood stiff and make it lay funny. Then I suggested that he use stem stitch and fill stitch to embroider his foxes (one major heraldic charge) onto each of the 4 gores in the base of the hood. At last...an idea worth following. One problem -- we can't find our embroidery hoops.

So, it was off to JoAnn Fabrics. Luckily, the nearest Cracker Barrel to us is in Marietta, which is just a hop, skip and a small jump up to Kennesaw and the only JoAnn's in the greater Atlanta area.

Now before I relate the tale of JoAnn's...let me point out that we are now driving all over hill and dale in the POURING rain. Not a gentle little soaking but and OMG, the bottom fell out of the clouds, deluge! But hey, I wasn't about to disuade him from wanting to go to JoAnn's, since I was wanting to go anyway (I looooove digging through their fabric remnants).

So we arrive at JoAnn's to a gentle misting of rain. Oh goodie....maybe things are drying out. This thought was shortlived because when we got to the back of the inside of the store, the bottom fell out again and it sounded like the rain was trying to bore through the roof!

Anyway...we had come to JoAnn's with one SIMPLE shopping list - 2 embroidery hoops, each costing $1.29. Oh...if only it were that simple!

We got in there and Ken changed his mind and wanted to paint his foxy foxes. Okay...so we pick up a small jar of white textile paints on sale for $2.99. But hey, while we're getting fabric paint, might as well get some in black to finish his painted banner, and then a pot of red and a pot of gold for my banner.

Hmm...so much for a simple JoAnn's run. As the rain bucketed down outside, we wanted around JoAnn's trying to waste time, and ending up spending more money.

• Textile paints in white, black, red and gold = $12
• Long heavy duty floral wire (for threading cord through the franken-kirtle) = $2
• White DMC floss x2 = 80 cents
• White chalk pencil for marking on dark fabric = $2
• Cheap brushes for use with textile paints = $2
• 3 embroidery hoops of various sizes = $4
• Remnant of white duck for a Dani banner = $5
• Remnant of black velvet (earmarked for a Dani veil) = $13

Total cost of trip to JoAnn's = $41.67

Who knew a rainy day could cost so much?

That said, we actually did pretty good. Thanks to the sale at JoAnn's we saved over $20 on what we spent! And that is about right because we rarely get out of JoAnn's for less than $60!

Of course, the downside is that we now have MORE projects that we want to work on.