We have lots of them here in Tahlequah, as well as Japanese Beetles. Don't have figs either. They have been clinging to my corn and even the tomatoes, but with little noticeable damage. I hand pick them (have to grab them by the sides because otherwise they prick your fingers) and crunch them just enough so they cannot fly. I keep a coffee can with me while in the garden to collect them, and then I drop them all in with my Indian Runner ducks. The ducks eat them as if they were potato chips. Also, these beetles hover around our lawn (where I'm sure they lay eggs) and our chickens have a blast chasing and catching them. Their larvae are white grubs and they make a mud capsule to mature into beetles. They are loud and a nuisance, but I can't say they've done much harm. George

Are these the holes everyone is talking about? This is my all green Janet sport, and she's not alone. Nearly all of my hostas have these holes, old and new leaves. Only a few in the front yard do not have them, the ones that are new to me this year. All the rest are riddled with them. I thought it might be slugs, though some of the holes must be. But I don't think all these little holes can all be slugs. I had this problem last year too. Certainly makes the hostas less attractive, though I try to look past the ugly holes. First my hostas got pounded with hail (the big torn holes), then these little holes showed up, and then the slugs. But the holes won't keep me from growing them. Karen

Thanks again for the great comments! The decking was done by Wright Brothers per my design/request, and really turned out even better than I hoped. The pattern itself is not scored - they just snapped lines and applied two different color finishes to the pattern. airborne101 - I'm right by Black Mountain in Madeira Canyon. BND did a great job for me as well! Tile work for the bathroom/shower should be wrapping up today, followed by final plumbing and electrical in the next week or two, so I hope to post some completed photos soon!

Rnmomof2, in lieu of graph paper, I did a mockup in my photo program because I don't have a drawing program... and if I did it right I can get that long left side panel out of two pieces, totalling about three yards, maybe 4 to be safe. That means that panel on the left would require a whopping 6+ yards! I should double-check that on paper, though. At work we used to have huge rolls of graph paper on vellum, which would have been perfect. But in the real world those are very hard to find and cost a ridiculous amount. But I do have big plain paper and a ruler. I'll just have to figure out a scale. If I did it right, that would mean one diagonal seam in each of the sides of that panel and the entire panel would take six yards. There would be a lot of "waste" on that and I'm hoping I could get out at least some of those upper pointies out of that. Clt3 -- Thanks about the needle! You're right, the ideal and easy solution would be to find fabric that was printed with diagonal stripes. I looked on both eBay and Fabric Guru sites tonight, plus just tried to Google it. Does anyone have any other suggestions for good places to look online? Sherrmann, thanks for letting me know you appreciate that treatment like I do. I agree, it's stunning. I'm going with you and Sippi on that the panel is a rectangle. Good point about puddling -- I can just see the vacuum sucking those babies up! I found a double rod that is long enough here: http://www5.jcpenney.com/jcp/ProductsHOM.aspx?GrpTyp=SIZ&ItemID=117adfc&RefPage=ProductsHOM&CmCatId=25437:28415:50246&cmOrigID=104f2d9&cmPosID=1 Your tip about sewing natural fabrics prompted me to look up sewing on the bias and the fabrics I found recommended were "cotton, linen, silk broadcloth, and wool challis." EBay does have some striped linens. They won't shine, but I think it could still be pretty. I'm thinking about it. The article I read said stay away from "most rayons (stretches like crazy), silkies and polyester (slippery and hard to handle), twills (lose definition), and fabrics that are heavy or stiff, like duck or poplin. Silks and sheers like crepe de chine, charmeuse, and georgette are beautiful on the bias, but these hard-to-handle fabrics aren't a good place to begin. Move up to silky fabrics once you've conquered the stable ones." No particular fabric in mind yet. I've determined that it must be a symmetrical stripe -- otherwise if you turn it the other direction your stripes can't match up. I'm a little tight on color selection to go with my furniture, too. My couch and chair should return from the upholsterer in a couple of days (we held off today because of incessant heavy rain) and then I'll get a better feel for if I have to re-cover another piece (I can do that one myself), and if I want to use what I've already got or find something else... and I'm a bit limited there too, as it needs to warm the wood, not chill it. Anyway, that's why no I haven't zeroed in on a fabric yet. I wish you lived nearby too! Are you in the Seattle area? Daisyadair, thanks for the link. It won't help me on yardage, because of the bias, but I did determine from reading it that 5 pointies is a good ballpark for what would look good in the valance. Now I have to see if I can make that work out aesthetically. Sippi, you're right, it would not be hard to just make the valance parts, and it would be much easier to cop out on the panels, and cheaper too. But I personally think the charm is in the entire look of it, not particularly in the valances. I have a favorite site for valance patterns and I think some of those are much prettier. (Southern Living) So depending on what I find out are the yardage requirements, this is still an option... another treatment entirely. I'll be looking those over again before I make a final decision. That's an interesting theory about seaming the two 54" pieces together -- but don't I end up with an extra seam in the panels that way? I don't know if this will make sense to anyone else, but here is what I made in my photo program. I left a wee bit of the red corners (the red being the 1/2 of the entire panel shape including seam allowances) sticking out just so I could see where they were, then added the dotted lines, and here's what I came up with: The blue edged white squares represent the yardage (54" square, IOW 1 yard). The arrows show which direction the fabric could be longer and also indicate the direction of the stripes. The 1/2 yard was just a visual guess -- seems it would be less on the lower piece and more on the higher piece. Naturally, when I'm done ballparking the entire yardage I'll add some just to be safe. I've tackled a lot of tough sewing projects too, and I think this is doable. But the burning question is how bad would that diagonal seam look in the panel? In its defense, it does travel the same way as the stripes, which might make it harder for the eye to pick up... but it's easy to imagine hitting it with an iron and having it define itself. If it wouldn't look good, the only answers are either hold out for a piece of fabric printed on the diagonal that is the right color and pattern (good luck!) or give it up, at least somewhat smug that I've mostly figured it out. lol! I did see one piece on eBay that was tons of yardage and 54" wide, but the color was wrong for my living room unless I change the color of my fainting couch to something I haven't yet found. I'm hemmed in by two things: 1.) The couch and chair are about to return from the upholsterer all rebuilt and covered in deep tomato red mohair velvet, and 2.) the fainting couch wood sings with warm earth tones, but dies with blues and greens or grey tones on it. Bringing a room together sure is a bear in the planning stages, isn't it? Again, thanks everyone! If I build these I will for sure post a picture here for you all to see. At this point my next plan is to mock this out on paper, and try to get the remainer of it included so I can make an educated guestimate at the amount of yardage I need. But I'm still interested in everyone's opinion on if that seam could be pulled off in each half of the panel without looking crummy. I'd hate to go to all that expense and work and then have a bad result. What do you think? I'm thinking it might depend on the type of fabric I use, but I don't know which type would be better or worse. If nothing else, if I cop out and do a different valance and plain panels, I'll be appreciating how easy it is compared to this! :-)