Winter Occupations

 When the warm winds of Spring start blowing, (and I don't mean this Pretend Spring that we are currently enjoying), I want to be outside.  I want to dig and rake and plant.  So while the calendar says January and February, that is my cue to keep myself occupied with Inside Things.  In January, I caught up on orders and bookkeeping.  Last Spring, I ripped up my living room and entry way and staircase.  Even thought the library was staring me down with painting needs, I promptly ignored her and told her that she would just have to wait till colder days.  So as I wrapped up my duties, it is with great excitement that I prepared my trusty trim brush, my special mini roller with the long handle, grabbed a most interesting audio book and set to the work of equating my library with the rest of the downstairs.  Whew.

 With the exception of my upstairs bathroom, all my house is now painted some shade of yellow.  My favorite color since kindergarten, I have slowly replaced all other colorage from my home and without planning it, finally succumbed to the idea that Yellow is The Color of my Life.  I am very much happy with this turn of events.

 I have had my red stage.  My goldish/bronzish stage.  My green affair.  But yellow is my true love.  With a dash of turquoise.  This combination love goes back to my childhood.   I remember very clearly, a lovely turquoise wool jumper that my mama had bought for me.  It had the smallest yellow embroidery on the bodice with yellow rick rack trim.  A sweet little yellow blouse with puff sleeves came with.  I can remember wearing this memorable outfit to the hospital to visit my very asthmatic, very sick mama when I was seven years old.  I remember being told that I was too young to go to the emphysema ward that she was in and I had to sit, alone in the waiting room of our very old, very intimidating hospital.  I have no idea how long I waited for my dad to come and fetch me.  In the hours that it seemed, that sad little girl found much comfort in staring at the lovely colors on my outfit.  I remember the texture of the wool.  The complementary colors entertained me greatly.  And still does to this day.

Well.  

Now that was a nice little Bunny Trail Story, wasn't it?

Back to painting....

The first weekend we moved into our home, Kindred Spirits Friend and her hubby came to visit.  She came with work clothes, paint and anaglypta wall covering.  The library had dark paneling and KSF came many miles to relieve me of it.  She primed and filled paneling ruts and hung anaglypta till the wee hours.  The next day she painted over it.  That productive weekend, we also ripped out carpeting.

Years passed and the years of darker walls came into vogue.  One rainy cold January weekend, I painted a very cozy caramel color over the anaglypta.

More years pass and more shelves were needed.  They are now working their way all around the room. I love my books and my very special library.  It's the one room I spend the most time in.

However.

You can see that painting around all those books will be a bit of a challenge.

Hubby has offered to be on board while I climb the dreaded ladder and hand down pile of books after pile of books to be able to reach the trim and cover the caramel with the butter yellow that I knew this room was destined to be.

As I get older, tedious jobs are less burdensome.  In my younger days, I would rush and splash and dash just to get the job done.  I am more deliberate these days.  What's the rush?

I always work better hanging a carrot in front of me.

This weekend's carrot is this:

Kindred Spirit is sending me her green swirly curtains from her dance with lime green swirlies, to cover the cushions on all my library sitting surfaces.  When KS saw my colorful fabric for my living room curtains last spring, she raved on with me at the joys of Susan Sargent's creations.http://susansargent.com/.  She also reminded me of her curtains from years before and how well they would go with my new Living Room window treatments.

When she visited last fall and spent time in my library, which is by the way named after her for her aforementioned work done at the very beginning of my time here and for the number of books she has donated to the cause.  I have her poetry on the walls and her photo properly displayed. Her Hubby created a couch/settee that I cherish that sits in her room.  I call the library her, Not Quite Memorial Library.

While I was writing this, she text me that the curtains were in the mail and should be here on Monday.

Impetus for painting book shelves if I ever had one.

Cushion making next week.

Reveal later.

 In the meantime, reflect on how color affects us on so many levels.  Complementary colors soothe our spirits just as complementary friends soothe our souls....

Grab a daunting task this weekend and pleasure it with the thoughts of who you will please in the doing of it....


A good carrot if I ever heard of one.....


Thank you KSF for being the turquoise to my yellow....

Simple Sewing Saturdays: Volume 15: Scalloped Edging!

There comes a time in every one's lives when you just need a little whimsy, embellishment, silliness in your design needs.  Maybe you've gone the straight an narrow path with your fabric for long enough.  You like the material but you just need a bit of a difference to jazz things up.

Then you need to know how to scallop edges, my friend.
First, you need to find the right circumference of a bowl to use as your template.  Fortunate for me, my change bowl in my bathroom was the right size and, Ta Da, right color to make the most perfect scallop template ever.  Just seeing the colors mesh, made me more creative.  But I digress.....
Seriously, you could use a can, a lid, a saucer etc...to make your perfect scallop size.  Test it on paper to see if it will work for you and your curtain and window size.  Larger windows could handle a larger scallop and be really fun too.
But I was covering my fireplace windows so I went diminutive.

I traced the curve of the bowl onto the material, using about half the circumference, then cutting the scallop....I included in the tracing and cutting, the lining....

Then sew, oh so carefully, around the curves, stopping at the peak, lifting your needle and turning in the other direction.  It is how you handle these curve peaks that will determine your crisp outcome.

Remember this:  Clip inward curves: Notch outward curves. Trim the seams.

Turn outside in.  Use a handy turner, crochet hook or knitting needle to do this efficiently.  Get into the curves cleanly, using your tool to pop out the fabric crisply...

Ironing is very important to this process.  Once things are cleanly out, press it well..

For my project, a small valance, I needed to finish the top of the piece.  I did this by turning under 1/4" to the wrong side, pressing the two together, then stitching close to the edge..

Topstitching all around, gives the curtain a nice crisp look...

For a header for the rod, I used very wide bias tape, stitched close to both sides, turning under slightly, the tape ends...

I used a spring tension rod and inserted it through the bias tape header...

And there you go..

A whimsical, scallopy valance to make you smile when you see it....

Consider it for your next home decor project....