This pieced Roman Shade covers an eight-foot sliding door that leads to a deck. The scene mimics the actual view out the door.
			Size: 107" wide and 83" long
			Materials: 100% cotton fabrics, back with ThermalSuede lining
			Technique: Watercolor, 3.5" squares.
			Location: Master Bedroom suite, Englewood, Colorado
			Mounting Type: ceiling mount (outside mount)
			Lifting Type: flat pulleys, cord cleat.

The Windows in the Room
There was one large eight-foot slider in the room. 

Installation Issues
Roman shades work very well on sliding doors. I always use one large shade, no matter how large the doors, unless there is a reason to have one door covered while leaving another door uncovered. You often have a handle that projects into the room, so you need to mount the shade far enough out from the wall to clear the handle when the shade is raised and lowered. You also want the shade to pull up to the point where you do not have to duck to get out the door. 

It is a little difficult to see, but the ceiling in this room is a cathedral ceiling and slants up at an angle. The wall space above the window is only 3.5". There is a furring strip that separates the ceiling from the wall. After a lot of thought, I decided to mount the board onto the furring strip. That raised the top of the shade several inches and also moved the shade out from the wall, so that it would clear the door handle when raised and lowered. The top part of the shade is tilted slightly backwards, but it is not noticeable and doesn't affect the operation of the shade. As you will find out with your own projects, every window is unique and you need to figure out how to get your desired results with the least amount of effort.

This space presented another "issue". There are hot water heater units on the wall on both sides of the door. I would normally have made the shade wide enough to extend 2" to 3" past the door on each side. However, I only had 1.25" from the trim to the side of the heater unit, which projects 4" into the room from the wall. The shade is only 1" wider than the door on each side (for a total of 2"). You can also see from the photograph on the left, that I like to make my "door" shades so that they are 1/2" above the floor when lowered. That way they don't get dirty. You don't notice the "gap" unless you lay down on the floor, like I did to take the photograph.

The Design Concept
This shade is in my home. We had a deck built off of a sitting area in the master bedroom suite in the summer of 2004. A large window was replaced with an eight-foot sliding door. Now I had the opportunity to make a large shade. You can see the Bargello shade that was on the old window by clicking here.

I was tired of making PhotoView shades and decided to try a watercolor design. I wanted to reproduce the actual view. Of course, I would eliminate the neighbor's house while the mountains (which are normally only visible in the winter) would appear in its place. This particular watercolor technique was described by Cathy Geier in the Spring 2004 issue of American Quilter magazine. You can see her wonderful art quilts by visiting her web site.

The squares are 3.5". I ignored the "block size" when calculating the folding. I used a 5.5" fold depth so that I could get a stackage of 9.5" with 14 folds. 

Executing the Design
I arranged the fabric squares on my design wall, leaving space for the tree trunks. Large-scale, bright prints were "in vogue" when I was making this shade, so I used some in the trees. I thought it would look like the sky showing through the aspen trees. Instead, it looks like some exotic variety of tree with blue flowers! Whatever. I like the effect. I pieced corners onto the squares when the drawing indicated I need something other than a single fabric.

The tree trunks were an interesting challenge. I found a great batik, which was off-white and had pinkish striations in it, but it still didn't look like tree trunks. I painted the horizontal blackish marks using a gray Tsukinek fabric marker. I did this after I hung the shade, right on top of the Scotchgard finish.

The stone column was made from two different batiks. the fabric on the "side" of the column was darker than the front fabric. However, once they were sewn together, I had trouble seeing the difference. So I used the same fabric marker to highlight the corner of the column. The railings were appliquéd on top using a straight stitch next to the edge of the 3/4"-wide strips.

Here is a photograph of me sitting on the floor in front of the finished shade. I love the way it looks like I am sitting in a corner of the deck. I was amazed at how real the design appeared even though it was made from large squares of fabric.

Challenges and Afterthoughts
Since my own projects are only done when I am not making a commission shade, it took almost 18 months for this window to be covered! I would work on it for a week or two, get an order and put it aside. When I had a block of time over the 2005 Christmas holidays, I was determined to finish. I am not real pleased with the "edges" of the shade. I should have incorporated a window trim "frame" around the sides and top of the shade which mimicked the actual window. 

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