Braided Millenium Curtains

As promised last post here is a picture of the curtains for my office/sewing room. Well, actually, here is a picture of a tiny little part of what I hope will be curtains for my office/sewing room. I'm doing a braided strip interspersed with a plain dark blue strip. The fabrics in the braided strip are ones that my son and his wife brought back for me from Israel. I love them! They are very brocade-y and shiny, with lots of gold threads. And as an added bonus, I am also including strips of a fabric I bought in 1999.

How do I know I bought said fabric in 1999? Because this fabric says "2000" all over it, and I bought it planning to make a quilt for the New Millenium with 2,000 pieces, utilizing this blue 2000 fabric as the border. Remember all the fun that was Y2K? At the time it seemed like a fabulous idea and certainly one I would do. What was I thinking? I never even attempted it, and as it got further and further away from the year 2000 I wondered how I would ever use up this fabric.

When I started to gather fabrics for my curtains, I knew there wouldn't be enough of the Israel fabric to make them, so I dug out all my large blue pieces (which was easy to do since my organization blitz this past summer) and auditioned them with the brocades. Really the one that looked the best was the 2000 fabric, but did I want curtains with 2000 written all over them? I was not sure. Denise came over, looked at them, said you couldn't really tell it was 2000 unless you got up close. I decided to go for it.

So far I like how they are turning out. What I like most is the things the fabrics remind me of -- my son, my daughter-in-law, Israel, starting to quilt in 1999. Oh, didn't I mention that before? Yes, this quilt with the 2,000 pieces was going to be only my second official quilt. Again, what was I thinking?

Here's the braid so far. I'm sewing it with my serger since the brocades are very ravelly, if that's a word. It's going swimmingly. I type a little, sew a little, type a little, sew a little. I hope to have them finished sometime next week. I'll take another picture of them hanging when I do. Happy Y2K8!

15 Seconds of Quilting Fame

Today my sister, Lori, called, wanting to know if I had listened to the latest Within a Quarter Inch podcast. I said I had seen there was one but hadn't listened to it yet. She said, Well, you should listen to it. You'll be surprised. And then she said, Oh, I can't stand it. I have to tell you. Allison Rosen mentioned your blog on her podcast!

To say there was much rejoicing would be an understatement. I was absolutely floored. Who even knew that Allison Rosen was aware I had a blog, let alone had actually read it? This, my friends, is my 15 seconds of quilting fame and probably all I am likely to get, and, frankly, it's enough. I quilt because I love to create with fabric. I like the process as much or more than the end result. I would love to sell my patterns one day (oh, how slowly that dream is progressing), but even if I never sold one thing or won one ribbon or had any other recognition in any way by the quilting world, I am a contented quilter.

Today I cut some strips for the curtains I am making for my office. I'm going to do a braided design. I'll put pictures up soon I hope. The McKenna Ryan quilt is slowly but surely being finished. It's about 2/3 done now. The practice piece on the quilter is, well, non-existent for now, but I'm taking Allison's advice and embracing multi-quilting.

By the way, thanks so much for the kind comment on my blog and for mentioning Patchplay with Me on your podcast and for just being you, Allison. I love your podcast more than any other quilting podcast there is. It's so personal and warm and down-to-earth and just absolutely charming!