Cottonwood Quilt Shop

On a small excursion to the Cottonwood Quilt Shop in Charlottesville, VA, I found the cutest little scissors!  They came in different types and the handles were so pretty it was hard to resist!  Very inexpensive (less than $5) and perfect to carry around to snip threads when doing hand sewing or embroidery.

Cottonwood was full of interesting fabrics and patterns...and not just quilting stuff (I have decided I don't like quilting at all....but I do love the fabrics!).  They had some of The Sewing Workshop kits with a pattern and fabric--very expensive if you have never seen these.  That was rather an anomaly in a quilting store, but very nice to have the variety.  Their other pattern selections were very interesting with some neat purse ones.  I also found their toweling fabric interesting, but the only thing I bought was the scissors.  They were having a big fabric sale, too but I resisted because I don't want to keep adding to the stash!!!

Machine Embroidered Diploma

Yes.  Really.  You can embroider your child's diploma, paint one, make it a collage, you name it...when you homeschool in the U.S.  I think virtually everyone still does paper, but hey, homeschooling is very individualized and so is this diploma that I made for dd's high school graduation.  It seemed to suit her and it's fun and different.  Well, maybe not fun since I was aiming for something rather formal looking within the confines of my embroidery machine.  I don't have the software to manipulate fonts and all that so I was limited in what I could do.  But, I think it turned out well--here it is:

As a work in progress...Hooping.  Yuck!

We didn't have to name our homeschool.  It does seem silly after all, but somehow or other it became the Academy on the Hill.   We didn't have a graduation ceremony either.  Our family went out for a special dinner at a very nice local restaurant.  Dd's younger siblings each made her a card and after all of her parents' hard work over the years (we've homeschooled since kindergarten), she got a diploma and lots of special memories over the years (I hope).  Her brother has put in a request for a diploma made from wood...Thank goodness that isn't MY challenge because I would fail that one!  I do feel sorry for dh having to come up with that in a few years!

Cord Cover

I know that making an electrical cord cover to hide all the ugly wires isn't that exciting.  But, it's something I sewed.  Best of all, it must've worked because no one has noticed it!  I made this for our freshly painted living room to hide all the wires from the speakers that my dh hung.  The old radio is really only a shell.  My dh gutted it years ago to hide all the stereo equipment.

Draperies

It seems like a long time ago now, but back in May I showed the fabric for my dining room draperies.  It was a learning experience for me since I've never made draperies before!  It involves a LOT of hand sewing.  But, I think they turned out pretty well!  They are super heavy since the fabric is really upholstery fabric and I lined and interlined them.  They should provide some good insulation during the winter for sure. 

I didn't have a pattern, but used several books for guidance and directions.  Because of the interlining, lining and all the hand sewing making draperies is really a lot like dress making even down to the final fitting!  Kinda strange to think of that!

I was really pleased with them!  Here they are:

I had someone else cover the cornice boards and while they look good on the right side, the back is really sloppy.  I think I'll attempt them myself if I ever want cornice boards again.  And, yes, the dining room is painted BLACK!  Above the chair rail has a coat of gold glaze sponged on to pick up the gold in the draperies compliments of my stepmother!  She did a great job with it.  Very hard room to photograph though because it's so dark.

I was lucky enough to find 2 coordinating fabrics for my drapery fabric and you can see 1 of them on the chair seat beside the window.  I had someone else do these, too, and like the cornice boards, I will be doing any future chair seats myself!  I think the pattern on this chair should've been rotated 90 degrees.  Oh well, no one knows but me, right?

Happy 4th of July!

Where have I been?  At home sewing a lot!  Apparently, I have an inverse relationship between writing a blog about sewing and actually sewing.  The more I sew, the less I write and the less I sew, the more I write.  Since I'm writing now, that seems to suggest that I am not sewing although that is not true.  I also haven't seemed to read or comment much on other people's blogs lately.  I'm going to work harder on that!  I know I like to get comments so I assume everyone else does, too.  Blogger does seem to behave strangely when you haven't posted a comment on other blogs in awhile.  It keeps having me log in over and over again and I still show up as anonymous!  It doesn't happen for all blogs, but it definitely is a painful problem for some. 

Sewing has been very purpose driven of late and I've sewn gifts, home dec (I seem to be very slow about this), done some machine embroidery, and made a top for me (which wasn't purpose driven).  Our lives have been a flurry of activity:  graduation, room makeover, replacement deck, and solo senior piano recital with lots of guests.  I took last week off to recover--well, aside from all the appointments that were on the calendar and not feeling well at all for a day or two.

I have been feeling a burden of guilt or conscience to update the blog so consider this the ice breaking post and look for sewing updates soon!