Heritage Makers - Father's Day Card

Heritage Makers - My Newest Hobby and Career!

I'm No Martha Stewart...

...but making valances is a project anyone with very basic sewing skills can tackle. There are several reasons you may decide to sew your own curtains or valances. You may have odd sized windows, or a specific decorating scheme that you can't find just the right window treatments for. You may not necessarily find them cheaper than buying ready made, but you will end up with a unique look that you won't find anywhere else.

For a standard 15 inch valance, I start with two 27 inch lengths of fabric. This will give a 44 inch wide window double fullness. Make sure your fabric is cut square. I use a cutting board and rotary cutter to line the fabric up straight and square, and I use a yard stick to run the rotary cutter against.

Hem the sides first. I can't stress enough how much your iron is your friend when making curtains and valances. Trim any selvage from the two short ends, then iron a two inch hem. Fold one inch against the fold, creating a one inch side hem. Repeat this process on the other side, and the other valance piece. Stitch this hem down. There is no need to back stitch this hem, and I just sew one piece after another, not bothering to cut them apart until I'm done with this step.

For the heading iron down 6 inches on the top of each piece, then fold 3 inches against the first fold, so you end up with a three inch double heading. Stitch the fabric down, and then sew a second line of stitching one and one half inches from the folded edge. I put a piece of tape on my sewing machine to line the edge up and make it easy to sew a straight edge.

For the bottom hems, fold 6 inches and iron, then fold 3 inches against the fold to create a 3 inch double hem. Stitch the hem in place.

I find it quickest to sew these assembly style when making for multiple windows, doing all the side hems first, then all the headings, and then all the bottom hems. I like to use spray starch of the fabric isn't as stiff as you like.

If your curtain rod isn't a standard cafe style rod, adjust the rod pocket size. I can make a valance for a standard sized window in less than an hour.

Stained Glass Applique

Last weekend I discovered a new product at JoAnn's called Stained Glass Appliques. It is a repositionable self cling window decoration. I have an elongated octagon window in my entry way that I wished was stained glass, so this product sounded perfect. I chose a package called Vineyard Rose, and an extra package of 6 feet of black caming lines. After using coupons at JoAnn's, it came to less than $20.
Installation is simple. Real stained glass is not an exact craft, so if installation isn't precise, it's not critical. I used a tape measure to center the main part of the applique', and if you are a perfectionist you could put a piece of tape to mark your distance from top or sides. The directions are literally peel, position and press, finish with caming lines.
I picked up a second package of caming lines, and I'm very happy with the results. It doesn't look like much from the outside, but the inside is amazing.

The Cross Country Trip

When my daughter, Becky, got a job offer while home on vacation, I quickly volunteered to help her pack and move from Los Angeles to Minnesota. I flew out and we packed for 3 days, the truck came for her stuff on Friday, and we had Saturday and Sunday for good-byes and her last church jobs. Sunday she woke up with apparent food poisoning. There was no way she would be singing and/or playing organ at church. We still had hope she would recover enough to attend a farewell dinner at the Hamburger Hamlet. As the day wore on, even that had to be scrapped, and I was depressed to think we'd have to delay our Monday morning departure.
Monday morning she was feeling better, but we ended up leaving closer to noon, than the 6 AM start we had originally planned. At least we were on the road. Nothing appealed to me at lunch in Barstow at the Big Boy, but I ate a sandwich, and left most of the fries. We spent Monday night in Cedar City, Utah, and I only ate about half of my orange chicken bowl from Applebees. I figured it wasn't good to eat heavy that late, but it still sat in my gut like a lead ball.
Tuesday morning I woke up vomiting. This was definitely not the mother-daughter experience I was hoping for. We stopped at the Wal-Mart, stocked up on barf bags, Alka-Seltzer, etc., and hit the road. Neither of us could eat much, so we lived on Sprite and ice chips for the next day or so. We made it to Denver by Tuesday night. It was late, so no dinner, and Becky wasn't sure if her tummy was upset or just hungry.
Wednesday morning we managed toast and scrambled eggs. We got our earliest start so far, about 9 AM. Was great finally being out of the mountains where the driving was less stressful. We made it to Des Moines by early evening. I discovered it's not easy eating a bland diet on the road. We picked a Country Kitchen, thinking surely they would have chicken noodle soup. The soup choices were calico bean, cheesy broccli, or baked potato, which I ended up choosing.
We were within about 4 hours of home, and it was 8 PM, so we decided to go for it. Our saving grace was an audio book I had on my iPod. It couldn't have been timed better. We had been listening off and on the entire trip to Chill Factor by Sandra Brown. It's a "whodunit" that keeps you guessing until close to the end. The end of the book came as we made the last turn half a mile from the house.

Rhubarb Leaf Birdbaths

Several of us got together a few weeks ago to attempt to make those very cool birdbaths from concrete. We each found some large leaves. You need to pick your leaves right before beginning your birdbath. We had a bagged concrete product that we added water to make the consistancy of brownie batter. We each had a rounded pile of sand, which we covered in plastic wrap. I'm not sure this was necessary, because the leaf goes on next, face down with the veins up. Next, we placed concrete on top of the leaf, about an inch thick. The edges are smoothed, and you just follow the shape of your leaf, so that it forms an upsidedown "bowl" over the mound of sand. The concrete needs to cure for at least a couple of days.

We got together the following week to paint our creations. One bag of concrete goes a long ways. I'm looking forward to trying it again next summer. I wish the darn gophers, moles, etc., in my yard hadn't killed my biggest rhubarb plant.

Becky's Favorite Cookies

Becky will be home on Saturday for an almost two week visit, so I made a batch of her favorite cookies this morning. It's an old family recipe that I've never had anywhere else.

BANANA OATMEAL COOKIES

1 1/2 C. flour
1 C. sugar
1 tsp. soda
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. cinnamon
3/4 C. shortening
1 egg
2 mashed bananas
2 C. oatmeal
1/2 C. chopped nuts

Cream shortening and sugar, add egg, mix well. Add dry ingredients, then alternate banana and oatmeal, and nuts last. Bake at 400 degrees, check after 10 min.