gilhoolie loves lampshades and…tea

November 5, 2012February 8, 2025 Julie GardnerLeave a comment

midwinter tea cup and saucer — My latest find…

Lately, I find it hard to walk past a charity shop or antique shop without having a look to see if they have any vintage crockery worth getting my hands on. I recently bought some 1960’s Midwinter china. I really love the colour and simple lines, I just need to find a display cabinet now to show it all off.

So, this week it’s all to do with tea and some of my favourite things…

gilhoolie loves lampshades and... tea! — gilhoolie loves lampshades and… tea!

1. Tea-towel from Skinny laMinx (one of my favourite textile designers) 2. I’m not sure who this is by but I just liked the relaxed drawing style 3. Tea-cup covers by Lucy Anne Harding 4. Handz Art for Kitchen poster picturing a Stig Lindbergs Bersa tea pot 5. Family Favourites tea-towel by Charlotte Farmer (really like her drawing style) 6. Hand-painted teapot from Room for Emptiness (love the simplicity) 7. Vintage cups and sugar bowl from Kiteless (sold unfortunately)

Sewing projects

Recipe competition – win one of my tea-towels!

March 29, 2012February 8, 2025 Julie Gardner2 Comments

Ana from Granada in Spain recently ordered one of my machine embroidered cup of tea tea-towels from my Etsy shop. I found out yesterday it is going to be a prize for a recipe competition on her blog Cazarecetas. You can read the English translation here. It’s not a brilliant translation but gives you a rough idea.

I love pumpkin so I hope someone enters a yummy recipe and is happy with their prize!…

cup of tea tea towel recipe competition — gilhoolie tea-towel

Textile Design

Where has the week gone?…

March 8, 2012February 8, 2025 Julie GardnerLeave a comment

I was thinking in the shower this morning (as you do) and asked myself, “what have I made this week?” It’s Thursday already and, unlike most weeks I haven’t made anything at all. But I have been busy in other ways, honest.

I started the week by posting my details on the lovely on-line magazinefrombritainwithlove’s directory, oh yes and the course notes from my first lampshade workshop were published, very excited about all that.

What else? Well, after the success of the first one, we have booked a date for the next workshop with Arts and Laughs (12th May, in Maidenhead, Berkshire), looking forward to it already.

I’ve been busy listing my machine-embroidered tea-towels on etsy and sold two of them to a friend and my ‘nice cup of tea’ cards seem to be popular too so I’m thinking about getting some printed.

So you see, not much making going on this week. But, I have just finished screen-printing my windmill pattern in turquoise for a lampshade order and I now I’m going to make a ‘nice cup of tea’ card and possibly start on my first wedding picture commission, phew! I’m pretty good at multi-tasking and it’s a good job I like being busy!

So it’s Thursday and have I met my objectives yet this week? Well, I’ve certainly met some of them but I really wanted to start making another hand-stitched empire lampshade, ah well, there’s always tomorrow, (where has the week gone to?!…)

Screen-printing gilhoolie windmill — See, I have done something!

Sewing projects

Tricky joined-up writing…

January 27, 2012February 8, 2025 Julie GardnerLeave a comment

Sometimes, when I look at all the amazing creative work people post on the Internet I feel a bit overwhelmed, but other times I am incredibly inspired. Okay, so this is just a tea-towel idea but any inspiration is good I think. This time I was inspired by Charlotte Macey and her lovely machine embroidered textiles. I already have a load of tea-towels I was supposed to screen-print (it didn’t work, bit of a sore point) so I decided to have a go at stitching one of my pictures on one (my retro teapot and cup). It was a bit nerve-wracking as I haven’t done a lot of machine embroidery but great to dust off the sewing machine and have a go. I have to say, the end result was better than I expected. It’s a good job no-one was watching me though, I’m sure my head follows the needle as I sew, does anyone else do that I wonder?! Oh yes, and joined-up writing was a bit tricky, but don’t tell anyone…

Interior Design · Soft Furnishings

First gilhoolie designs

May 23, 2011February 8, 2025 Julie GardnerLeave a comment

I’m really keen to make lampshades out of my designs but decided to start more simply by printing tea-towels. I spent a day last week on the computer drawing up the designs that have sat in my sketchbook for the last few months and ended up with quite a few basic repeat patterns I’m happy with.

Here are a couple of images of my favourite tea-towel designs. Luckily, I can buy them already made and will just need to sew on the gilhoolie logo. This is the blue colourway but they will also be printed in a dusky pink and powder green. Hopefully they’ll go with most kitchen designs and look as good printed on fabric as they do on a computer screen!

Creative Courses

Screenprinting at London Printworks Trust – one step closer…

March 1, 2011February 8, 2025 Julie Gardner3 Comments

I attended a 5 day screen printing course last week at the London Printworks Trust in Brixton (an experience in itself, including Electric Avenue!) We were taught by Dawn Dupree who is a textile artist exhibiting in the UK and Internationally (http://www.dawndupree.com).

I learnt various techniques I’d never heard of including foils and flocking but my favourite was just straight forward screenprinting onto fabric or paper. I finished the week by printing one of my geometric designs in different bright colours on cotton fabric and made them into tea-towels on my sewing machine yesterday. Not brilliant but it’s a start and one step closer to making my own fabric. I just have to find a workshop I can use or set one up at home now!

Screenprinted tea-towels — My screenprinted tea-towels