The kitchen was repainted this summer, and the curtains must have been held together by cobwebs. The eyelet lace fabric was in no shape to go back up. So the kitchen has been free of curtains for several months. That is, one curtain and six valances. The curtains on the driveway side of the kitchen hadn’t lasted through the labs’ puppy hood, and it still is not practical to replace them. Last weekend was time to get sewing. The large curtain was finished first and hung up, and the valances hung up as they were finished. I used a scrap of bias binding for the hem on the large curtain, and made binding for the rest from scrap muslin and my trusty Clover binding tool, as it made a nicer, flatter hem. The lining is stitched at the sides and the main fabric folds around the edges, and twill tape makes the casing at the top. I stuck to a simple gathered casing and dropped the original idea of box pleats. They're quite different, but they work with all the wood and tile in our kitchen, definitely an upgrade.
Christmas stockings were mailed off, and placemats for Meals on Wheels delivered, so of course I was twitching to start another stash reduction project. I was of course gifted more stash two weeks ago—what goes around comes around. It has been sorted for donation (largest pieces), two charity quilt bundles (fabrics for top & back for both), bags (3 finished) and giveaway. The new project is another Heartstrings quilt, this time using the pages from the small yellow pages that isn’t needed, in a rectangular shape that will make diamonds. I’ve sorted and cut navy strips for the centers, and blue, white, cream, red and gray fabrics for the rest of the strips.
Knitting and spinning have been happening two, one Christmas cowl is complete (done by hand), and a striped scarf knitted by machine just needs the ends woven in and blocking. 440 yards of stockinette in less than three hours, which included moving the machine carriage from side to side and crocheting in the trailing yarns over color changes. Also a airy scarf from two skeins of Rowan Kidsilk Haze done by machine in just over an hour. Two bobbins of the auction fiber are spun, and DH made me a new, heavier Lazy Kate so when I’m plying the eventual three bobbins the Kate won’t be pulling across the floor.
