Four fantastic shell-looking coasters arrived in the mail today. THANK YOU BEV! The batteries in my camera need to be replaced, so I'll have to describe them to you all. The tops are made of fabric with lots of shells in it, and the bottoms are sky blue with poofy clouds mixed in. They are all shaped like shells, and Bev quilted the shell lines into them. They are just too cool, and yes Bev, perfect! Now, how did you ever know I'm a beach addict? LOL! Either tomorrow or Saturday I'm going to have to go to the grocery store and pick up the ingredients so I can mix up some pineapple sunrises and use them! Thanks Again Bev!!!

Sharon, I look forward to receiving my block! No, Linda and I didn't make the sacks. I'm disappointed about that not working out. I've cut out my block but haven't sewn it yet. My daughter committed a knitted blanket to a camp for disabled kids and it has to be there by Monday. She didn't make enough squares, so she is busy knitting like crazy and I am connecting the blocks for her. So if I am not doing that, I have been in the garden! I feel like I have had such a long summer already, instead of feeling like the summer has flown by. That will probably come later. Dan, good for you. I go crazy when the piles start building up, whether it's fabric, papers or stained glass. So I spent a lot of time this last week also folding all my fabric. I'll post a picture later. I don't have a lot of fabric, but it's all organized now and I can find in an instant what I am looking for. Love it. Got to work at the Master Gardeners garden walk today, make food for another daughters dinner party tonight and maybe find time to clean house today...the last think on my list each day which I never seem to get to in the sumnmer. LOL

I've made many, and have photos of none! But I have four tips. Cutting is crucial, because if the panels are not cut perfectly across the grain of the fabric, no matter what you do, the durn things will never hang properly. A big carpenter's square and a four-foot metal rule are the most helpful tools in the world for this. And I put a link below on how to square the panels. It's worth the extra step, because a carefully made Roman shade is a breeze to operate, and looks wonderful. Use a lining...you can mark all your spacing on the lining with a pale pencil mark, and nobody will ever see it. It also allows you to sew all the edges to the lining, which makes the hems all around virtually invisible. I don't use the tape with rings attached. Machine-sewn lines never hang as well, and the spacing of the rings locks you into its pleat size. I mark the ring placement on the lining using the ruler and square, and sew them on individually. One good old movie on TV, and they're done... Except for the top, and the channels for dowels that are attached to the lining (if you are using them), I do it all by hand...that means the side hems, the rings, and the bottom hems. My dining room table is my work table for this, and I set up my machine and my ironing board nearby. Once everything is cut and laid out, the hand-sewing is actually easier to do than machine stitching, and the whole business looks and hangs so much better for it. Here is a link that might be useful: Squaring a piece of fabric.

Sorry, no photos, but our gameroom (about 18' by 30', if I recall correctly) has a wall of floor to ceiling windows at one end, a window over a little kitchen area at the other, and windows in each of the four little bays. All have burlap curtains lined in blackout lining, European pleated on rings, hung from silver-toned rods that look sort of like plumbing pipes. I had spent so much money on hand-embroidered silks and linens for the rest of the window treatments in this house that the $2/yard hemp-toned burlap looked really good to me. They are no dustier than anything else here in this agricultural area, have been very practical, and I love the texture. I only use natural fabrics for window treatments, but I find that that choice does not limit me in terms of textural contrast at all. The blackout lining holds the shape of the curtains very effectively. We needed that because the gameroom is also where the largest flat screen t.v. is, so effective light control is important. One other thing that I have done with burlap in the past: cut it, shape it into an irregular wedge, starch it, and use it as a sort of sculptural, fixed, partial shade over a weird attic window.