Living Room Curtains

Little over a year ago I found this wonderful fabric on sale at Jo-Ann Fabrics.  The color was perfect and the weight was just right to make tab curtains.  I was planning on working on this project at home in my sewing room last year but do to the never ending work down in the basement I just do not have the room to sew.  My sewing machines are buried since this room is being used for temporary storage.

I pinned in a 3-inch hem.

I finished working on the patio umbrella in my upholstery class just before Christmas and had no new furniture projects at the time.  So I decided the only way the curtains would get done was to do them in class.  One panel is done except for the hem and I should have the second panel ready this week.  I will hang both panels up and allow them to hang awhile before putting in the hem.



I brought the first panel home over the holidays, so I could hang it and determine where to hem it.  I machined stitched the edge hem on each side of the curtain and after allowing the curtain to hang for a week I could see the machine stitching gathered the fabric just enough that the edges were notably shorter than the center.  I spent the next two classes ripping out the machine stitching and hand blind stitching the edges.  I would like to have both panel hanging up for a week to determine if the hem needs to be adjusted to look even.  On the right is a picture of the first panel with the machine stitched edge and look can see shorter edges compared to the middle.



I stilled have the double-hung window on the south side of the living room left to do but once I finished this project I will start on my new chair.

Sauk-Columbia Area Restore

Sauk-Columbia Area Restore moved from Sauk Prairie last fall to Baraboo.  This January I finely found time to make a trip up to the new store located on 1212 8th Street in Baraboo, WI.  The store is on the east side of town and 8^th street also Hwy 33.  The store sells furniture, recycled building material and other items.  I have been looking for a 24” two-panel door to use for a linen closet for about 2 to 3 years.  I kept hoping I would not need to make a trip out of the state to find one.  I got lucky this January and found a door for $5.00 while checking out the new store.

I need to do a little work but I am very happy with it.  I have been planning to divide the front bedroom closet.  There is a dead space in the closet which you cannot easily reach things and this would be the prefer place to divide the closet.  I am going to put a door in the hallway to access the linen closet.  I will need to hire a carpenter because the opening will be put in a bearing wall.  Here is a picture of the door and where I want to open up the wall.

I not sure when I will get around to this project but I will slowly gather all supplies until that time

Another Upholstery Project

Early this month I acquired a new upholstery project from Craig’s list.  It is a 1930’s wingchair and will nicely compliment my other antique wingchair from the turn of the last century.  Here are pictures of it.  

I been looking at fabric swaps and I believe I will be buy this Barrow fabric from the collection “Catherine”, color “Bamboo”.  I will not start on this project until I finish working on the tab curtains for the living room.
 

I will write about that project soon.

Latest Activities

Yes, I have been remiss on keeping my blog up to date but I just needed a vacation from everything.  I did a slay-cation off over the holidays and did nothing on the house except housekeeping.  This is very unusual for me.  I did enjoy working on pictures to put on a digital frame for my Dad.  I only managed to review the 2004 Alaska pictures and still have many more pictures to sort through before sending Dad his frame.  I am trying to add a cation to each picture; where it was taken and who is in it.

Tuesday night I got all the outdoor Christmas lights down before the Thursday’s snowstorm.  I just did not want to pull the lights down with snow on the ground.  I need to untangle the lights from the garland and put them back into storage.  Right now they are heaped in two piles, one is lying in the 3-season porch and the larger heap is on the basement floor.  All interior decoration are back in their boxes but I still need to put year around knickknacks back in place.  Right now they just stack on shelves or the dining room table until I can organize them.  I also need the put the two 4 feet trees up in the attic.  I hope to finish cleaning up all the holiday decoration this weekend.  I will have a 3 day weekend because of Martin Luther King Day.

I been thinking about my 2012 To Do List and what I need and can accomplish this year.  Here is the list.

1.      Finish waterproofing and painting the unfinished section of the basement:  NUMBER ONE PRIORITY.  I am tired of the mess down there.

2.      Add an Asparagus patch to the garden

3.      Plant one or two more rhubarb plants.

4.      Put in supports for grape vines and raspberries.

5.      Finish the outside back bedroom wall.

a.       Finish scraping it,

b.      Prime it,

c.       Caulk it, and

d.      Finely paint it.

6.      Weather proof window on scraped wall.

a.       Reglaze window.

b.      Put new cording on weights.

c.       Add insulation to weight’s pockets.

d.      Caulk window.

This is more than enough for me to do this year.