Finally Finished! Bedroom curtains part 1: sheers

The Quilting Queen, aka my darling mother, was here a month ago and helped me finally finish the new curtains for my bedroom. It's funny how curtains make such a difference in making things feel cozy and home-y. Come to think of it, that might pertain to most soft furnishings. My mum's quilts certainly made a succession of college accommodation and random flats feel very much like home!

Anyway, mum and I did most of the work on these sheers over the Christmas break and all that *really* still needed to be done was the hemming. I spent ages back in January playing with pleating tape that we sewed into the top and trying to decide how many pleats I wanted. I finally decided on 2 and gave up on those annoying metal fork things and just sewed the pleats down.

Anyway, here's the finished product:

You might recall that I actually bought this fabric back in 2016, well before I was in any position to buy a flat but, as it turns out, it was the perfect choice. I'm so happy with how these turned out! Thanks TQQ!

Curtain sewing love,
me xoxo

P.S. Linking up to Finish it up Friday and Finished or not Friday

Fabric shopping: Curtain fabric

Great news - I've found curtain fabric for my bedroom curtains! After over 9 months of trawling the far corners of the internet and a silly number of central-London fabric shops, I've finally found something that I really like.

Liberty samples - none of these made the cut
Top row: Liberty ianthe velvet (green), Liberty Jeffrey Rose Tree (golden), Linwood Fable (green)
Middle: Libert Capello Shell (dew drops & spade), Liberty Rose May (jade), Libert Riley (Jade), Linwood Sakura Damask (pampas, stone,  dove grey)
Bottom: Lelievre Nami (opaline, vermeil), Lelievre Metali (glacier, cuivre), Linwood Hudson Bay (goose grey)

I spent over a month um-ing and ah-ing because this stuff is from my second favourite fabric shop in the whole world, Liberty (First place goes to Mood Fabric in NYC, in case you were wondering) and, thus, stupidly expensive. BUT, in the end, I just couldn't resist and it's bonus time, which is always a good time to spend silly amount of money on fabric, right?

Liberty fabric samples
At least I avoided the pricetag of the gorgeous velvet on the RHS

The fabric is called Wallace Secret Garden in Green Gauze and it's a gorgeously textured linen. In case you're wondering it also comes in beautiful blue and a lovely grey, which I was very tempted by. I bought the ridiculous amount of 6.5m, which should give me a little spare for some cushions. Can't wait to show you my new curtains!

Wallace Secret Garden by Liberty
Beautifully packaged in tissue paper as always

Significantly less exciting: blackout fabric from John Lewis
On the plus side: about a tenth of the price

Fabric looty love,
me xox

Finally Finished! Summer By the Sea Borders

I finished the final border for Salt Air Summer by the Sea (new and improved name!) back in January! Yay! The double cable border has been really fun to quilt and my hand quilting has become so much more consistent over the course of this quilt. I'm so glad that this one is going to be mine to keep.

Summer by the Sea - finished borders! Yay!

As I have come to realise, however, the blue marking pens that I was using have proceeded to wear off rather badly over time. I suppose it's my own fault for taking so long to finish quilting the damn thing. I finally gave in the other week and spent an hour going through boxes until I found the stencil. I am so looking forward to having a place for all of my things once the builders finish my new cabinets. It will be so good to know exactly where everything is and not have to go hunting in 5 different places anymore (I suspect this might be slightly utopian, but one can hope, right?)

Summer by the Sea - double cable & shell borders

I spent ages agonising over how to quilt these borders and I'm so glad that I still like them after spending so long stitching them up! As you can see in the photo above, there are a couple of places where the threads aren't quite tight enough as it took me a while to figure out how to properly secure them but I'm fixing those as I go through.

Summer by the Sea - double borders (back)

Next up: finishing the diagonal quilting on the body of the quilt (oh yeah, that's still not done. Blegh). But then: Binding (!) and quilt labels(!!)

Really need to get back on this one but have been distracted by other projects, both sewing- and non-sewing related. More on my new curtains soon!

Hand quilting love,
xoxo me

P.S. Linking up to Finish it up Friday and Finished or not Friday (because it's kind of finished, and kind of not)