OK. Boy do I owe myself some time to sit down and reflect on school, the trip, sewing time (or lack of), and just some everyday stuff.
I've been contacted by a woman who would like me to make her wooden valances for her dining room. Now, I should have known better than to do a wooden, fabric covered valance for ANYONE, but little did I know that by doing a friend a favor, I would now be in the spot of having to say no to one of HER friends. Darn! I HATE it when something grows when you don't want it to.
First, fabric covered wooden valances are a pain in the you-know-what. The measurements for each window have to be exact, not even a mm off, since once covered with quilt batting and the fabric, they actually have to fit the window you've measured days before. Second, my first valances were done ONLY because a friend had tried to do them herself and had the wood already cut and had gotten stuck on how to do the fabric and batting. I know mine are different than some because the front of the valance (the part that actually hangs from the wood) is fabric. So you basically have a shelf of wood that you cover with batting and fabric, and on that you attach a fabric front and sides in a pleasing design (in this case, I did 3 shield shapes across the front and one shield shape on each side, and the shelf itself was 6" deep. The depth of the shelf needs to be in good proportion to the windows, so that requires a bit of planning also.
All things I really didn't want to do for anyone else, especially not someone I don't know. But I think I'm going to do them, just because this woman is a good friend of MY friend, and I'm not in the mood to disappoint anyone right now.
And on top of the valances, which really don't take too much sewing, but a lot of time "constructing", I need to get back on the stick with my own designing and sewing. I have two sketches, one for a jumper with an assymetric neckline, and the other for a jacket with a shawl collar and raglan sleeves, that I really want to construct the patterns for. In addition, winter is on the way, and I'm thinking that I'd love to make a pattern for a hooded scarf (but not a knitted one - maybe wool plaid). So as you can tell, I really should get back to it. :-)
