Several years ago (before 2000, but I don't know exactly when) my mom got an older quilt that had been made simply by sewing two fabrics to batting. She decided she wanted a duvet cover instead and she carefully removed all the batting by opening one end and pulling all the quilt stitches out. She did that here in Oregon while visiting my sister. That was as far as she got before she had to return to NY.

When I moved here in 2004, my sister gave me a lot of fabric she didn't want, plus a lot of mom's fabric, since she would be living with me. This past week, mom said she didn't think she really wanted any of the fabric. She'd rather paint than sew. (I've never known my mom to sew much at all -- curtains, simple draperies, and an occasional chair cover --but if she could do it without sewing, she did.) Anyway, I was looking through the box and spied one I thought would make a lovely tablecloth. It turned out to be her "duvet."

Actually it would make two tablecloths that would look great in my kitchen. I checked it against the wall color and against the still-unfinished-curtains. Although the pattern is totally different from the curtains, the colors match exactly. Woohoo!

So today I worked on one of the tablecloths. I took the floral design and this is what I ended up with:

I just love it! I also made six napkins. I have enough for more, so I may make two more, but maybe not. Six is all we can fit at the table at this size and the cloth won't cover the table if it's expanded. I may use that fabric for another project instead. Don't know what, yet.

Here's a closeup of one of the napkins:

This is a photo of the teapot that was part of my inspiration for choosing the colors in my house:

Pretty much all the same colors!

I hope to do the other tablecloth (yellow check) by the end of next week. Maybe even tomorrow. I also want to get my curtains and shades finished. It has taken me forever to do them and I haven't even half finished. The other project I had hoped already to have finished is the cushions for the outdoor chairs. I don't know if you can see them in the second photo, or not, but they are old and drab and splitting along the seams. I have a gorgeous red hydrangea outdoor fabric for them. It would be nice if I could finish all these projects by the end of July. My workspace is a lot more comfortable now.

I didn't work on the fairy quilt again. This time it's because I took my machine into the shop. I was going to use the Husqvarna, but that would mean rewinding all my bobbins because the two machines don't use the same size. Since I have these other projects to work on, I figured I'd just wait for my own machine to work on the quilt.