Window Valances... ten months later

I'm almost embarrassed to post this, but I'm so excited that I'll just push the embarrassment aside. :)
We moved into our house 3.5 years ago. Within the first year we (I mean, my husband) painted the kitchen and dining room. We selected a lovely deep blue for two of the four walls. I love it! However, apparently it isn't a very popular color because I have had the hardest time finding kitchen decor to match. Until today, we have had NO window treatments in the kitchen!
Back in February I purchased some lovely fabric online that I had discovered through Kimberlee at The Spunky Diva, who had posted a kitchen valance that looked perfect for my kitchen as well. I even posted pictures of my fabric on my Facebook page to see if anyone had suggestions for something other than simple valances. And then the fabric just hung there on a tension rod... for months. Until my husband said, "Um, is that fabric going to fade before you even do anything with it??" So I took it down, and set it aside.
I was determined to finally make some valances before the end of the year, and today was the day!! Here's the kitchen valance (hung on a tension rod between the cabinets):

And the dining room valance, which is on the opposite wall:

The dining room window already had the sheer curtain there; I simply attached it to the blue valance so I didn't have to get another curtain rod. :)
I really hate folding under fabric and making seams, so I lined both of these valances with solid fabrics. The ruffle above the rod pocket is about 2", and it hangs about 12" below the rod pocket. The width of the valance is 1.5 x the width of the window.
It feels really nice to have that project done. Now let's see if I can make a purse out of the fabric I bought for myself... FOUR years ago. Sheesh.

Stitched for Andrea

I spent the last five days stitching exclusively for my friend Andrea!

At the beginning of the week I appliqued seven airplanes on a shower curtain for her boys' bathroom. She has been hunting for something to coordinate with their bedding and couldn't find anything. So she bought a plain shower curtain, coordinating fabrics, and requested I use contrasting thread. It was a challenge, I learned a lot, and thankfully the whole family was thrilled with the results!

The airplane design is from Applique Cafe. (Cole--she has a cute owl on her site if you haven't been there! ;))

I used Embird Alphabet #8 to add their names to two of the planes.

Once I completed that, I tackled a set of matching Christmas shirts for her boys and nephews.

The applique reindeer is from Designs by JuJu. I used the 4x4 size for the youngest, and the 5x7 for the other three boys.


Andrea's boys have matching red corduroy pants -- I cannot wait to see a picture of them!!

Lastly, I stitched a crayon and pencil roll set for Ethan for his birthday party, which was this morning. (The in-hoop designs are from Sewing for Sarah.)

Monogrammed Shower Curtain

Sunshine asked me to embroider a shower curtain for her bathroom. She purchased this shower curtain from Target:

She requested the font Edwardian Script IT for the "D", which Kathy digitized for me as large as possible for my hoop. I stitched it right in the middle of the shower curtain.

I stitched this in June, but never blogged about it. If I get a picture of the final product hanging in her bathroom, I'll add it later!