Super Scrappy Quilted Curtains

The old scrap basket, okay I'll be honest, baskets, were overflowing so I got creative. Two hours of sorting later, I had two piles (mountains) separated on the cutting table.

Feeling a hint of spring in the air, I decided to use the lighter colors to make window curtains for the sewing room. I lost some of my motivation after 8 straight hours of piecing these little bits and pieces, so decided to scrap the curtain idea and went with valances instead.

Still tedious, but worth the effort. They really brighten up the sunroom and I'm thinking that some white muslin panels appliqued with matching flowers will complete the sets. Valances first though...  Six more windows to go!

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Catching Up

It's been a little while since I've written, so here's a quick update of the past few months. This is my friend Heather's quilt, all finished up and ready for mailing.






Now, remember the scrap quilt I mentioned earlier? The one where I thought it would be a neat idea to sew a whole bunch of odds and ends together willy-nilly just to see what would happen? Well, this is what happened. :)





This is Fiesta's block. She was my Blue Heeler (Australian Cattle Dog). We had her for 14 years before she passed away from cancer on 31 December 2009.






Kadi never did come home, but she will always be a part of our family. I miss her and my Fiesta every day.








Jesse is our male Blue Heeler. Even though he is all grown up I believe he will always have the heart of a puppy. Ranger is the newest member of our clan. I found Ranger on the local Humane Society website while checking to see if maybe someone had turned in Kadi. I'll post a real picture of these guys later on.

Bumblebee is our old orphan kitty. She adopted us back in 2003 when we lived in Louisiana. Someone shot her in the head with a BB gun and dropped her alongside the road. To this day, she still has the pellet because it is too risky for the vet to remove it. Petey is our pain in the butt Yorkie dog. Jesse has always been our oldest son's dog and his little brother felt he should have a doggie of his own to make it fair. So along comes Pete in a Craigslist ad and he was just too cute to resist. For such a little dog he sure can be a handful!

While I was researching scrap quilt blocks, I happened across some pictures of old fashioned redwork embroidery. Thinking it would be fun to try something new, I found a coloring book page online of this basket of apples, traced it out on a leftover piece of cream muslin from Heather's quilt backing and started stitching. There are a few mistakes here and there (Shhh!) but overall it came out good enough to be part of the Duncan Family scrap quilt.

The boys like to spend time in the "woman cave" with me on occassion so I take the opportunity to teach them a little something if they stand still long enough. Both of them thought redwork was pretty nifty, so they gave it a try. They each picked something that they really love to embroider. As this was the summer of fishing and the first time Jake had been out on our little john boat with his Dad, it didn't surprise me a bit when he went searching for a picture of a boat.

Kennedy chose pizza as his favorite thing, but he got a little tired of sewing towards the end, so I just left the stitching "as-is" for his block because I wanted the work to be his alone.