Flamingo Room Progress and a Tutorial for a Flamingo Window Header

This is just a trial run of the window treatment that I may use in my granddaughter's "Tropical Island with Pink Flamingos" room! Her walls are turquoise and her blinds are white. She will also probably have some curtains or drapes. I've pinned this up with straight pins to see how it would work. I've included a tutorial for it below.

                                               

I've finished appliqueing the flowers on the quilt top for my granddaughter's new bedroom. It's pretty big - about 96" x 83" before quilting. I'm anxious to find a backing and get started. I'm thinking I will need to mail it to her before I go in a couple of weeks because I'm not sure it will fit in my suitcase! We'll see.

Then I started thinking about the rest of her room. She will need a window treatment, for instance.

I got in the car and started searching for "Flamingo Inspiration."  At The Dollar Store (where everything cost $1), I found a couple of flamingos (about 12" wide) and some flower leis. I also bought a very inexpensive curtain rod at Walmart.

My haul for less than $7.

I removed the two wire "legs" that were inserted in the neck (they were intended to be removed and placed in two holes on the underneath and then stuck in the ground). I used the closed point of my scissors to "ream" the hole out just big enough for the end of the curtain rod. (Be careful to not get it too large!!!)

I removed the little finial on the ends of the curtain rod.

I inserted each end of the curtain rod into the holes on the two flamingos. (I think a little hot glue here would help stabilize it.)

I cut two ribbons, each 40" long, to use as legs. I folded them in half and then tied a loose knot in the center of each half  to act as knees. I cut 8 "tulip" shapes for feet.

I used Tacky glue to sandwich the end of each ribbon between two felt feet.

 I found the two holes on the bottom that the wires were supposed to be inserted into. (If your flamingo doesn't have these, I guess you could either make some or just use glue.) This is where I attached the legs (see next step).

I used a large, sturdy needle to sew through the two holes to attach the center of each set of ribbon legs. I was not able to do this with a small needle.

This is what I ended up with. The legs may be a little too long, but I will wait until they are safely in place in their new room to decide. It might be that we don't use them at all. I'll let my granddaughter decide.


Tah-Dah!
(probably not as pretty on MY window, but a start for hers)

Now I'm ready to hang the window topper. Remember that I was trying these out on my own windows before taking them to my granddaughter's. We will probably also have soft drapes on the windows that this will go over. I hung the rod and just draped the leis over it. All in all, I spent only about 20 minutes on the entire thing! What do you think? This goes in the same room as the tropical quilt. We already have some palm trees painted in the room, but she will help me add more when I go for another visit soon.

The things she wanted in her room were:

PINK

Tropical Island

Flamingos

Flowers 

"Fuzzy Pillows"

 Her bed is white, so I included some white flowers (they have tiny pink dots that you can't see in the picture.) I'm thinking maybe soft, white sheer drapes? She does have white blinds. I need to experiment when I get there to see what looks best! Maybe white drapes with a border (along the bottom) of pieced tropical prints? I'll be sure and take pictures when all is finished.