Long Time No Blog

I didn't realize how long it's been since I blogged. Several things have kept me away. I haven't done a whole lot of crafty things worth blogging about. I had a case of the winter blahs. My focus has been on taking care of the family and getting more organized since the move last year. The basement craft room got a bit chilly. It was dark and dreary and the light just wasn't good for picture taking. My current obsession is gardening, which I'm thinking about starting a separate blog for.

Spring is well under way. The sun is shining. Things are looking up on the crafty front. My oldest moved into the basement, so his bright and sunny, yellow room with a south facing window is becoming my craft room. Well, mostly a craft room? I'll be sharing it with kirk. It will double as his hobby room and library. He has a design for shelves he wants to build that will look great around the window. I suggested that he add a window seat with storage under. We'll see what happens. I think he liked the idea, but needs to figure out the best way to incorporate it into his design.

The wreath is my newest project done at my weekly craft group. It's not my usual style, which is much more asymmetrical and bold. Kirk helped pick out the flowers. He's planning to paint the door red and I wanted to make something that would look good with the red also. Without keeping that in mind, I probably would have gone with fuschia and vivid orange, not the best colors to put against red. The design is a result of laziness. The flowers I used were from a garland, not the usual bunches or stems. I lay the garland around the wreath, then decided to wire it on as it was instead of removing all the flowers and leaves and gluing them. I'm not sure if a bow will help, or maybe a little welcome plaque across the center. More likely than not, it'll stay the way it is.

Halloween Wreath

The group that I do crafts with made wreaths a couple of weeks ago. Both my daughters helped me choose the flowers. The teen liked the black flowers and the baby liked the purple. With Halloween right around the corner, and black and purple as a start, I added the orange flowers to make it a Halloween wreath. It's not quite finished, yet. I want to put a big bow at the top with a witch hanging down. I'm thinking I want the bow to be purple, but I want to make sure the color looks right with the witch. Trouble is I haven't found a suitable witch anywhere. I've looked at all the craft store and the big discount stores. There are a couple more places to look, but I'm shocked that no one has little witches this time of year.

A Start on the Curtains

Lately, most of my sewing time has been taken up with making curtains. I've had the fabrics sitting around for months and finally found the motivation to just sit down and work on them. I started with the sheers because they were simpler. I needed the quick accomplishment to keep the momentum going. Nothing fancy there, only a casing with an extra line of stitching to make the top ruffle. The selvages provided a nice edge to the sides, so I left them. I still have to do the hem. That requires sitting on the floor with mass quantities of pins, definitely a step to be done while the baby is napping. I may have to go shopping and make a couple more panels for the sides. With the location of the hooks to hold up the extra long rod, the gathered sections aren't even. Kirk likes it, and I'll live with it for now, but it will eventually bother me.

Originally, I bought insulated panels for the living room. The first one I opened had a huge flaw in it. I didn't bother with the rest. I just returned them and decided to make my own. The purchased panels were the same color, chocolate brown, but they were a plain fabric. The fabric I'm using is an embroidered linen with an insulated lining fabric. Again, I still have the hems to do, and also the ties. I was planning on doing all four panels the same, tying them up at the top during the day with ribbons and loops on the back. Kirk wants to tie the panel on the side window and those on either side of the picture window to the side and only tie the center panel on the picture window up. We'll have to experiment with it. The important thing is that the dark panels are easy to open during the day. They block almost all of the sunlight. I need sunlight, especially during the shorter days of winter.