Sunday 4 September 2011

Scream curtain


Many years ago (eeek - Wikipedia tells me it was actually 15 years ago) I went to the cinema with my boyfriend (now husband) to see a film. I remember clearly sitting down and asking him what film we had come to see. (I find it fascinating that back then, going to the cinema was such a regular occurrence, I didn't even bother to find out the name of the film first.)

More fool me, as the reply was 'Scream'. 'What is it about?' I asked with a knot of fear forming in my stomach. I didn't have to wait long and the opening 10 minutes scared the hell out of me. I hate scary films, and this is a spoof scary film. It instilled in me a life long fear of being in a house at night with lights on and not being able to see what is going on outside when it is dark as the windows turn into a mirror.


Really, the only scary thing that is likely to be in my garden, is a fox, or my kids. But with the evenings getting darker, there is something about those windows that has prompted me to make this curtain. I decided to use a Loulouthi fat 16th bundle initially thinking I would use the 9" x 6" pieces and sew them together as they were but gradually I cut them smaller and smaller turning a quick job into a much more time consuming one.

my cat: tough on patchwork,
tough on the causes of patchwork

It took me a while to cut out all the pieces, even with my rotary cutter I managed to cut out quite a large proportion of the pieces about a cm narrower than the others, not sure how. And it took me a while to decide what order to put them in, laying them out on the floor and having the cat plough through the middle of them numerous times, scattering the squares so that I had to take a photo to remember where they all went.


Sewing it all together was much quicker, and so satisfying. I love the back of quilts almost as much as the front, maybe that's a little strange, but the construction is so geometric and neat when it is all ironed.


Having it closed in the daytime does block out an awful lot of light, but I love the almost stained glass effect it creates.


In the interests of honestly, here is a photo of what my kitchen usually looks like, and the junk I had to shove to the sides to take this unusually tidy photo.


It does the job well, and I no longer get spooked while I do the washing up in the evenings. My husband helpfully pointed out that if a 8 foot bogey man was lurking in our garden, he would still be able to see in. Thanks love.

I am planning a blog post to feature your creations from the fat 16th bundles, so do send me a photo of anything you have made.



7 comments:

  1. You are funny! The curtain looks great though x

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  2. I'm exaCtly the same with Night time windows! Beautiful stained glass curtain. But most had to comment to encourage reality blogging- I love the show home magazine picture contrasted with real life. Made me chuckle lots. Thank you!!

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  3. Clever clever you. Now we just need to make them for the four massive glass doors in my kitchen. And the window. Jeez. I'm not going in there all winter.

    I love that your house has these touches around it. Is a bit inspirational X

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  4. Love your cat comment, and love those seams- windows make the most of quilting, have you heard of Pojagi- uses french seams to make the most of the stained glass effect! Looks beautiful with and without real life

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  5. You can never be too careful - you never know when there might be a sniper in the garden. I used to be just the same, but we have an uncurtained kitchen window, so I tell myself that the dogs would hear the lurker before I would. Somehow it helps!

    Pomona x

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  6. Thank you for this post - it has shown my husband that I am not alone in my fear of outside darkness, prompted by Scream. In fact, I never got past the first 10 minutes of that film - it is horrible!!! (and I love the curtain too...) x

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  7. Katie, i think your delightfully scrappy patch curtain does the trick & looks perfectly lovely. btw i love the backs of quilts too, a totally different perspective. oh and i hate really scary films too lol!!

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