Monday, June 7, 2010

Window Quilts

Oh, yay! It's all still here! I was little worried when I couldn't log into this place at all that I would find it had all disappeared. Apparently the problem is fixed for most people but not for all. You might encounter the Blogger is unavailable message when leaving a comment. If you do, know that your comment has a 50/50 chance of being posted.

Back to blogging...

A conversation over at Auntie Leila's about air conditioning reminded me of something I have been meaning to do for a while. Window quilts, kind of.

Our front living room/dining room/school room/dry bar (gotta love the 80's) is a very large room with tall ceilings that gets the bulk of the afternoon/evening sun. It also has two outside walls and one wall that backs the garage. One summer, I used some blankets to test my theory about keeping this room cooler but I just tacked them up temporarily. I have been wanting to make something that looked a little nicer, but didn't want to spend a lot of money or time. When I noticed an old coverlet that I never really cared for was coming unraveled, I decided it was time!

I used some bias tape that I had in my stash to bind the cut edges until I ran out. It doesn't look as pretty as if I had picked out matching colors, but it does the job. The top panels are held up with grommets and some of these Command Adhesive Small Wire Hooks. I also ran out of hooks so the bottom panels are just clamped on to the blinds behind them for right now. Even with a fairly new air conditioning system, this room is routinely 2 to 3 degrees warmer than any other room in the house. I'm hoping that blocking those afternoon scorching rays will help keep us all in more pleasant state of mind!

Let's talk some more about how to beat this summer heat!

 

4 comments:

  1. Ceiling fans and inching the thermostat down until you can breathe again! :) We have window units upstairs (our house should have had zoned heating/cooling, but does not. grr.)

    We keep the shades on the windows facing south closed and some of the windows are also covered. It helps, but you know? It's just hot no matter what! And today it's humid, too. Bah!

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  2. Speaking of shades...close the ones on the east side at night...so the early morning sun, (which is HOT in TX ...even in the am), won't warm up the downstairs. I open them up after lunch, when the sun has passed over. Then I close all of the west facing blinds for the afternoon sun.

    Definitely swim! Ice cream is a good solution as well! LOL

    We just hit the library on Monday and stacked up for a bit...you know, when it is too hot to play outside.

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  3. I have the windows and coverings open on the north side of the house all day long, unless it is really muggy. I keep the east side of the house closed up in the morning, then open in the afternoon. I do just the opposite with the west side of the house. I use the ceiling fans when I need to. Last year we only turned the air on once. So far not at all this year.

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  4. We've been trying not to use the AC, too, thanks to Leila. I figure, if we're absolutely miserable (meaning Mom is Cranky) I can turn it on for the hottest few hours. But we bought a window fan to keep things circulating and I'm changing up the windows all day.

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Thank you for sharing your thoughts and yourself!