nesting

Now that the tree is gone from our living room, it was time for some freshening up. I began with curtains for many of my downstairs' windows yesterday. The lightweight ones we had hung a few years ago weren't tailored to my family's current needs of warmth and privacy. I'd been collecting old unbleached drop cloths for just this purpose. I ended up needing to buy one new, too. They come in all different sizes and shapes. A standard 4x15 foot drop cloth is available at paint stores and home improvement centers. It was just right for cutting in half for the above two windows (with a couple feet in the center to spare). This meant that all sides were already hemmed, except for the raw edge left from dividing it in two. 

That was the side that I folded over three inches and stitched down to create a channel. The three curtains(the third is not shown here) I made for the living room were each created utilizing edges that were already finished. That meant that with only one seam a piece, this room was done in less than 15 minutes... including hang time! I'm temporarily tying them back with a scraps, but I could see them becoming permanent, as I love the juxtaposition of the fray next to the crisp hemmed edge. 

 

Because I've always used such a neutral/natural palette in my home, textures and stories speak to me the way color excites others. Recycled textiles in wool, burlap, linen and roughly woven cotton combined with weathered wood, feathers, stones, and bits of something growing and green... these are all things that I'm drawn to. What inspires you when it's time to feather your nest? Color, texture, nature, design, etc.?

Details: burlap bins and wool poof from my book- Reinvention, bird etching above the feathers by my son when he was 10, covered stones by Margie of Resurrection Fern, green stalks are paper whites that I plant in succession so that they keep blooming throughout winter, those chairs were on the side of the road and quite a score.