Window Dressing Scandi Style

We have been in the house for three weeks now and most (maybe that is a little optimistic) of the boxes are gone.  There is still a lot of sorting out to do, but hopefully the worst is over and the admin stuff is on the way too.  I can say categorically that 'I AM NEVER MOVING AGAIN!'  I have such itchy fingers to get back to my sewing though, that today I began thinking about the curtains and what I need to make.  We are lucky - the house doesn't need any urgent decorating or remodelling, so we can take our time with it all.  After living in rented houses in foreign countries since 2002, the idea of choosing paint colours and fabrics for our home is somewhat 'overwhelming'.   What fun!!! 

The only room I actually have curtains for is the dining room.  I did make these curtains for the house in Sweden after being swept up with an idea from Clare Young's wonderful book 'Scandinavian Needlecraft'. 

In the book there is a lovely tote bag featuring a scandinavian house design, outlined on the machine - I was completely taken up with this idea and as usual, got rather carried away.  It is suprisingly simple to do - most of the outlining is a simple close zig-zag stitch.  You simply draw your outline onto your fabric using a fabric pencil and stitch around.  I began experimenting with the technique, but using some of the decorative stitches on my machine.  It's a great way to try out all those sitches on  your machine that you never think you will use.  I made a few more bags, including this one for my sister.  

There was only one area that needed curtains in the house in Stockholm and I thought, why not use this idea for my curtains.?  I had a box full of linen that I had bought cheaply in Russia and so I set to work.  Once I felt confident with the way it was going, I began to be braver  - introuding some of my own ideas including sailboats and even the palace at Drottingham.  I was so delighted with the results that I new I had made something that would be great to have in our home one day when we returned to England... and so it is.  They are perfect in our dining room here and because of the white linen, they add lightness and brightness to the room.  I think you could stitch almost anything using this technique - a London skyline.... the eiffel tower.... OK STOP...STOP.... I have alot of curtains to do - I need to NOT get carried away...

So with one room done already - the next room to tackle is my sewing room.  This is a bit of a mess at the moment as I don't have any shelves up yet, so everything is in enormous piles everywhere.  What I do have (of course) is fabric and it couldn't be more perfect.  I bought this in Montmartre about 5 years ago -how could I have known that the walls in my sewing room would be ruby red (lol!).  What do you think?

So now to make curtains and I confess I am a little out of practice.  Having laid out all the fabric I've made my first mistake already - pattern matching.  I need one and half widths in each curtain and if I want to match the seams its going to be tight.....time to put the tea on and ponder..... Ruby x