Well, I’ve had a REALLY long break from gilhoolie and I have to admit I’ve found it a bit hard to get back into things after the relaxing (yes, relaxing!) school holidays. I was just clearing up after the weekend and nearly stepped on a discarded pin and, as well as being relieved no-one had trodden on it, I was inspired to get back to making lampshades as soon as possible.
Now that my boys are both settled at their new schools, I’ve started thinking about where to go next and I’m feeling a lot better (except for the quietness when I walk back in the front door in the morning – I don’t think I’ll ever like that!)
One of the things I’ve decided is that (as well as doing more exercise – feels like new year resolutions time!), as I live so close to London I really need to go in more to look for inspiration so I’m planning another trip to Liberty and various fabric shops that I haven’t been to before. I’m quite fussy about fabrics; it has to be ‘just right’ before I’ll spend time making a lampshade from a carefully chosen piece. I just came across the new Liberty lifestyle craft fabrics on their website and I like quite a few of them – can’t wait to buy some and make some lampshades!
Here’s a selection of my favourites:
The colour and flowers in the turquoise Copeland design caught my eye initially but I also think the browns and oranges would go well on a traditional style lampshade.
I love the dainty flowers in this design; the green is my favourite – why I am always so drawn to green?!
And finally, the colours in these beautiful designs called Dance and Garnett just made me smile…
As I’m feeling a tad rusty, my plan is to make some small, hand-stitched empire lampshades from my fabric finds, including one with different fabrics on each panel, back soon with updates…
