Finished Projects 5: Patchwork Curtain

This one's a bit embarrassing, I actually finished it last week, but when I was taking pics of the other recently finished projects, I forgot all about it! And it's my biggest finished project EVER!!!

Anyway, when I was doing my Embroidery City & Guilds (2000+ which I've still not quite finished...) I dyed a load of calico in candy reds/ yellows/ purples/ oranges to make a cover for a footstool (using large gauge canvas and strips of the calico in tent stitch. I did actually finish the footstool!) - but because I didn't know what colours would come out, nor how much fabric I needed, I ended up with huge amounts left over. I found a book in the local library in 2006 called Quick Colourful Quilts by Rosemary Wilkinson, and really liked her 'Glow Worms' quilt. A quick Google search produced THIS by Lenibayside, who has obviously followed the instructions to the letter as it looks exactly like the one in the book.



Anyway, for the last few years I've been making these blocks when I feel like it, in the vague hope I'd have enough to make a kingsize bedcover (which looking at the pile of fabric that's left, I would have...) But then the snow came, and the house was freezing and I got fed up with the draught from the Coal Hole door (which I can't block off as the Fuse Box is in there (with the spiders and the damp and the slugs) and I need to go in and reset it when a lightbulb blows and the electrics trip. So, I looked at all the fabrics I had and realised I had enough blocks to make a curtain, so that's what I used it for. There's 5 lengths of 14 blocks sewn together, then the side edges are bound with half of a sixth length. It's not quilted or batted or lined, it's just hemmed at the top with curtain tape and has a pretty deep hem at the bottom to keep it hanging nicely.



I didn't do the spiral 'glow worms' though, despite having lots of templates and suitable cloth. But as the curtain's unlined, I can always go back and put them on later.

It's on a dormer rail with a riser, so that when you open the door the curtain comes with it, and is raised up a little bit at the free end so it doesn't catch under the door. Hurrah for John Lewis!

I've got 10 made up blocks left over, and as this curtain's in what is now the dining cum work room, I could make up another couple of blocks and make cushion covers for my 4 chairs, as I've got 4 spare cushions sitting around.... But that's for another day entirely, especially as two of the chairs have solid seats which have split and I really need to get them mended before anyone can sit on them as they're in immanent danger of collapse.