While the moving company dragged their feet in paying for my damaged Pfaff for months, I went ahead and bought a new Pfaff since I had tons of sewing to do!
Fabric shopping
Before getting the machine, I spent a lot of time looking through my various patterns for colonial-styled window treatments, then searching for fabrics.
Beginning my search for fabric I liked at JoAnn and Hancock, I also shopped at G Street Fabrics near Washington, D.C., highly recommended by someone I met at Colonial Williamsburg.
Wow! What a gorgeous selection of all types of fabrics, from decorator fabrics to wedding fabrics to quilting fabrics.
At first, I nearly fainted when I saw the prices of some of the fabrics, up to $100 a yard.
When I recovered from sticker shock, I revived at the discovery of the clearance table where I found gorgeous remnants for $8 or less a yard.
On top of that, I had a coupon.
So I had a great shopping day purchasing gorgeous high quality fabric for great prices.
New kitchen valence
In the header photo is the new valence in the kitchen that I sewed.
I got the floral fabric off the clearance rack at JoAnn and think I got to use a coupon on top of that.
The backing is a silk dupioni I got on clearance at G Street Fabric, also with a coupon.
This is the most ambitious window treatment I have ever sewn, but taking my time it wasn’t bad.
I love the look, and the fabric was so luscious to work with, on the thinner side as opposed to thick.
Other kitchen upgrades
Also in the photo can be seen some other upgrades, such as the yellow walls painted last July.
We also bought some continental blinds for the entire house, to replace the flimsy ones.
One day while I was a HomeGoods I found this wrought-iron baker’s rack for my cookbook collection!
Other upgrades to the kitchen can be seen over my kids’ heads…a peek at the new microwave.
That used to be only a cabinet, that wasn’t to code as it was too close to the stove.
So we couldn’t even just order a microwave to be installed over the stove like we did in our Texas house.
After all the other rooms on the main floor were painted, I had that cabinet removed and cut to size to replace as an upper display shelf, while allowing enough room for a new microwave to be placed underneath.
That was a handy upgrade, because we appreciate the convenience of quickly heating up this or that.
Meanwhile I like having the extra counter space for cooking.
