Lampshades

Go with your gut Julie!…

Sometimes I think far too much about what I’m doing, especially when I’m designing and I wish I could just get on and ‘do’ more. I had a lovely day yesterday with Angela from Cocoon Home, trawling fabric and trim shops across London (literally, I slept well last night, it felt like we covered the whole of London, by foot!) So today I decided to get on and make a lampshade from some fabric I’ve had sitting around for ages. I bought this Liberty print to make a hand-stitched lampshade originally but it’s a bit too thin on it’s own so I decided to line a drum one instead. Now, the yellow is very bright; much brighter than I thought it would be when I bought it on-line (another good reason to go up to London more, much better to see and touch for yourself) but… it looks really striking with the subtle floral print on the outside and I’m really pleased with it.

So it’s good to get out and about with someone who knows where they’re going and we found some brilliant shops and some that weren’t so inspiring (but useful for any size and colour zip!) I even managed to buy some lovely braid at a bargain price for an empire lampshade I’m making, more on that another day… Thanks Angela, it was a real treat! Let’s leave time for cocktails too next time!

Delicate floral outside
Striking yellow inside
Inspiration

Anyone 4 tea?…

Birthdays come and go but I wanted this year’s to be special and it really was, not because we did anything flash, more because we kept it simple and everything fell into place. (Plus it was a ‘significant birthday’ but we won’t say any more about that, the clues in the heading…)

We decided to catch the train into town for a spot of shopping. I have to say, it was a very successful trip for the following reasons:

  1. I bought a new outfit to wear when we go out to dinner with friends on Saturday within the first half an hour! I was very happy
  2. Followed by a quick browse round Liberty to look at their lovely wares, always puts a smile on my face
  3. Then, after wandering around lots of amazing (and one slightly dodgy!) side streets, a scrumptious lunch at a veggie cafe in Soho called Beetroot – even if you’re not veggie you should give it a go, very yummy food and lots of it!
  4. Next I realised (doh!) we were on Berwick Street – lots of incredible fabric shops, so of course I had to have a look in those too. I just had a search for some information on them and came across a lovely blog called Tilly and the Buttons – makes me want to make my own clothes, I definitely need a morning to read this more over a cuppa and take the plunge!

That was all in the space of a few hours – pretty impressive eh?! I love it when a day turns out that way, especially if its a special occasion too!

All of the above was during school hours (including the train journey to London and back!) and of course was followed by yummy home-made birthday cake at home with the boys and several visits from lovely friends, what a day… and more surprises to come on Friday and the weekend, am a tad excited…

Anyway, here is a collage of just a few of the best bits from my day and things that caught my eye along the way. Thank you to everyone who made it special in every way! (Do I sound like a cheesy birthday card?!)

My birthday board

1. Miho’s quirky and decorative range of wall-mounted deer heads and bird houses in Liberty

2. Felicity Hall contemporary needlepoint kit to make a clutch bag (in Liberty) – never seen these before and I don’t think I have the patience but they’re rather nice

3. Kate Spade New York coasters – how cute

4. My birthday cake – lovingly made by James and the boys – didn’t last long!

5. Absolutely beautiful Danish cross-stitch picture made by Auntie (!) Tina – really chuffed to get a hand-made present

6. Lisa Stickley make-up bag from James – love the pattern and the colours too

Lampshades

Spurred on by a discarded pin…

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:

Liberty Copeland

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.

Liberty Leonard
Liberty Leonard

I love the dainty flowers in this design; the green is my favourite – why I am always so drawn to green?!

Liberty Dance and Garnett
Liberty Dance and Garnett

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…

Sewing projects

Our house is becoming a gilhoolie gallery…

I keep telling myself it won’t be long until the sun’s shining so that I have an excuse to buy some new clothes, have a barbeque and sit in the garden sipping a nice cold glass of Pimm’s… well you have to dream don’t you?! At least I finished this machine embroidered picture today, oh and I think this weekend is going to be dry too, hooray!

Pimms machine embroidered

I delved into my fabric scraps bag (which is growing by the day) and decided to use the floral Liberty fabric from my last empire lampshade for the detail on the Pimm’s bottle. It has a really summery feel and I love the colours too. The main stitching on the picture is in a light grey but I added a gold/yellow thread for the writing on the bottle and the crown of course.

Pimms machine embroidered closeup
A close-up of the label

Last week I made a cushion and it reminded me that I don’t really enjoy making soft furnishings any more; far too many straight lines and neatness required. But drawing with my sewing machine is another matter entirely and as I get better at it the more fun it is and the less tense I am as I sew. I think I’ll frame this picture and put it on the wall in my kitchen, to add to the gilhoolie gallery (sorry family!)

Artwork · Textile Design

Inspiration at Liberty, London…

I had the best day out last Saturday in London with my husband. We started off by catching the train and sitting and chatting with a cup of tea, very civilised and bliss to have some rare, quality time on our own. We were on our way to meet some friends for drinks and dinner just off Oxford Street so decided to take a trip to Liberty for some inspiration. I used to walk past the building all the time when I was a student, on my way to trendy Carnaby Street but believe it or not, I had never stepped foot inside. Now I have I’ll never walk past it again! Anyway, here are some photos of things that caught my eye.

First, of course, lampshades (what else?!) I really liked the birds on this lampshade and we happened to be on our way to meet a very talented friend Ella who draws the most beautiful pictures of birds and makes divine stationery so I had to take a photo. The one on the right on the shelf in the background is a lampshade from Lush Designs in Greenwich. I remember seeing their lampshades when I first started out and would still like to have a go at printing my designs onto parchment paper and making them into lampshades, I will one day.

Libertys bird lampshade
tweet tweet!

Aren’t these tube lights pretty? I love the intricate designs too…

Liberty tube lights
Lovely tube lights

Hmm, I’m not sure I’d be able to make one of these just yet, better get practicing!

Traditional lampshades
Traditional lampshades

And these teapot lamps are just for fun but I was also really in awe of the building that you can see in the background, you don’t find many shops like it do you?!

Liberty tea pot lamps
Cup of tea anyone?!

Of course I spent a good amount of time browsing and looking at fabrics too and these pictures by Naomi Avsec caught my eye so I had to include them on here. Her appliqued and embroidered pictures are quite quirky and there’s so much detail involved. I have an idea for a picture I’d like to do after being inspired by these, more to follow soon…

Naomi Asvec
Naomi Asvec

Creative Courses

A lesson learnt…

It’s been too long since my hand-stitched lampshade course and I’m only just finishing off my next project. Luckily I have some really good handouts from the course but I wish I had made another one straight away! I remembered how to do the outside fabric but really struggled with the lining, taking two attempts to get it right. I know it shouldn’t have been hard but I’ve learnt a few things from the experience.

1. always have a go as soon as possible on your own after attending a course – it might all make sense when you’re there but things look very different when you’re trying to do it on your own.

2. Make sure you get handouts from a course if you can and make your own notes as you go through.

3. Don’t panic, you can always do it again and get there in the end, learn from your mistakes – I definitely won’t make the same mistakes next time!

I’m really lucky I had such a good teacher, Angela from Cocoon Home, who I’ve been able to email for advice and support, thanks Angela!

Close-up of my lampshade
Close-up of my lampshade

Nearly there now though, I just need to add some trim to the top and bottom to finish it off. If you look really closely you can see the streetly stitching at the front of the lampshade and lethal pins at the back! The fabric is a 100% cotton Liberty print called Boxford A Jersey from the SS12 Whitworth collection. It’s very pretty and floral and colourful and also very me!

I’m hoping to get it done this week now that the boys are back at school and I have some time to myself. I’m going to take them along as examples of my work to the Vintagenie arts, crafts and vintage fair I’m doing next Saturday, 21st April at Park House School in Newbury. I get the feeling I have a busy week ahead!…