Today's task. . .

was to finish the dining room windows. I had received the roller shades yesterday. I ordered them from Blinds Galore who custom makes them to your measurements. These shades are a winter white fabric with white on white embroidery all over. I had a decorative hem done with pineapple bead fringe. I installed them yesterday afternoon using DH's new toy:

This is the greatest tool ever! It is a Snap On rechargeable power driver with every type of bit imaginable! I'm such a gadget person and I love nice tools --home improvement, sewing, craft, cooking--whatever! I'm really picky about my tools and I take care of them!

I spent today doing the curtains. They weren't that involved--just yards and yards (7 - 9 yards of each color) of fabric. I draped them on the windows, cut the fabric to the correct length then hemmed it on all sides. After hemming, I had to lay each piece out on the living room floor and accordion pleat it the full length. I tied scrap pieces of yarn at 1 foot intervals to hold the pleats in while I positioned the fabric on the rods. I fiddled with it for about 15 minutes until I got the look I wanted. Here is the completed window:

Next is the kitchen window. I ordered a custom made pleated shade for that window when I got the ones for the family room a number of years ago. The problem is that I cannot find it! Obviously it is in the house somewhere! Fortunately we don't get bright sun in there so I won't worry about it. I'll just make the curtain and worry about the shade later.

I spent some time knitting Labyrinth last night. I hope to finish the waist decreases tonight then I will try it on. I love the yarn. Handmaiden yarns just feel wonderful in the hands while working with them. It's amazing to me how the fiber content of a yarn can make your hands really tired or it can make them feel wonderful!

Not much else going on today. I'm starting a new blog feature. Since this blog originated as a blog for fiber arts, I thought I would show off some of my design work from the past. Periodically I will share a bit of nostalgia--projects from the past. Not all will be garments. Some will be functional and some decorative.

A Bit of Nostalgia
This piece was a Mother's Day gift I made for my mom in 1990. I have always loved doing machine applique and when my kids were young, I would make appliqued items using their original artwork. This is a quilted tote bag with my mother's portrait as drawn by Ems when she was 6 1/2 years old. All lettering and details are exactly as she drew them. Both grandmothers received bags like this and I made a number of these for teacher gifts from both kids. I would give the child a piece of paper the size of the space on the bag and they would draw the portrait of the person the bag was intended for. I would choose the fabrics according to the colors the child used in their drawings. Needless to say, Ems' drawings always had a lot of pink and purple and Jeremy's drawings had more primary colors. These bags were always a hit! I found this one when I was cleaning out my mother's house a few years ago. She took great care of it and used it for her knitting.





I still have a bag with fabric to make a quilt from Jeremy's art work. He made an animal book in kindergarten with 12 different animal drawings. I had planned to do a block with each animal. As with so many projects, I never got around to making it. I'm hanging on to it thought because I figured that I might just make it for his first child, if he ever has one!

Bushism of the day
"And the second way to defeat the terrorists is to spread freedom. You see, the best way to defeat a society that is -- doesn't have hope, a society where people become so angry they're willing to become suiciders, is to spread freedom, is to spread democracy." --George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., June 8, 2005

Kitty Cam: Harley has the right idea for using a treadmill. Take a nap on it!