The First Cut

I am a planner.  I plan and plan and gather and plan.  I love a well thought out plan and the process of collecting just the right pieces to make it happen. 

I have all the parts for a variety of projects... that I have never started.

One such plan is the decor for Z's room.  I have been talking about it for almost exactly  a year now.  (Huh.  I didn't realize it was the anniversary of my first Z's room post today.  Kinda ironic!)  I mapped out the embellishments to the bed-in-a-bag set I bought last spring with blueprint-like detail.  I started collecting fabric shortly after Christmas.  I found fabrics online, in sheet sets, at Hobby Lobby, and a curtain panel.  The last print arrived in the mail from Javis Davis yesterday. 

I am still on the hunt for the over-the-top trims I want to use.  I purchased some giant rick rack in a beautiful lime green only to discover that it clashed mightily with the lime in the Paris print I am using.  And giant rick rack is hard to come by.  Sharpie to the rescue!  I colored a small part of it with my yellow Sharpie an it was the perfect color!  Yay!  And also? Boo!  I hand colored 18 feet of giant rick rack.  Sucked two Sharpies dry.  Man.  I am so compulsive.  And that was just for the valence!  I'll have to do

Over the weekend, I constructed the wooden box that will become a valence over Z's window.  I'll pad it and upholster it with three of the prints from her bedding (and the Sharpie-d rick rack).  Finally, after putting it off for as long as possible, there was nothing left to do but start sewing. 

Making the first cut into a piece of fabric is always the hardest part of any project for me.  I guess it signals the end of the planning part and the beginning of the doing part.  In the doing part, there is the very real danger that my project won't turn out as I had envisioned.  I hate that.  But I did it.  I cut three fabrics and pieced them together. 

So far, so good.  I love it when a plan comes together!