The Lampshade Lady Blog

HAPPY new year: new projects in progress.

       Happy New Year. It's time for a fresh start. I can barely read the Vermont Newspapers with all the Flood Irene Photos. Vermont has never been hit with a disaster like Irene. Many of my neighbors are both still waiting for major work on their properties. I was the lucky girl in the middle. How my cute little shop wasn't knocked off it's foundation I'll never know BUT thank goodness. A hellish fall for sure.

       Time for so new ideas for kicking off the year. I just picked up this delightful, sweet English embroidery. It's a square tablecloth that called out to  keep the pretty flowers together without getting chopped up by panels. The biggest drum shade I could fit across the width of the fabric was only 9 inches. So be it and I went with it. These are 9" x 9" x 9" with a washer top. Dresser scarves would be the perfect length for a drum shade, but usually all the good stuff, ie. embroidery is on the ends... so that doesn't work so great.
detail of embroidery. oooh, look at the purples, oranges. I always admire the handiwork of the ladies of the UK. Why, why do they do it so much better than here in the States??? The whip must have been cracked in their early days when they slipped up.

Now to figure out how the heck to trim these babies.... I put these together at the end of the day yesterday. There was lots of thread trimming on the backside of the linen. What a mess with threads everywhere that needed to be snipped. I'll leave them close by to ruminate on their trimming...
And another pair put together yesterday. These still need trimming also. I guess I have the hard work for today. Also squeaked out an uno hex bell with this same embroidery.
Here's a new shape from The Lamp Shop. Not sure if it was a test frame or one they are introducing, but I got a sample from them and love it. It's a clip and think it might be popular. Doesn't hurt that this shade is made from  a beauty of a antique French Knotted tablecloth and trimmed with a scrap of handsome blue Vintage Fabric.

Visit my Lake's Lampshades Face Book page and hit the "LIKE" button if you get a chance. When I'm out straight crazy and the blog is being neglected I do manage to post a few current shades on the Lake's Lampshades page. It's growing on me....  Post a photo of one of your  lampshades. I'd love to see what YOU are making.

Best Wishes for a new Year!

xo

judy

Stuck on the couch with a bug, watching tv, knitting and Snuggling with Whiskers...

 

Okay, so I got all my shop custom orders finished, a pretty good stock of inventory for the holiday week weekend visitors and took a deep breath.... and caught the nastiest tummy bug. Today is day 3 and I'm here at the computer, knitting furiuosly to finish up my husband's ski hat. Just finished watching Nate... and now it's onto Giadia... all the things I don't get to do on my work days... guess it's fun when you don't do it all the time.  These knitting books have been my savior over the years of learning to knit. I used to be a crazy knitter, but seem of have gotten off the knitting train. Last week I headed down to my friend Amy's shop, Black Sheep, in Dorset and restocked a few yarns. How could I resist picking up a few more than I really needed. It amazes me how yarn has come so far. Back when I started knitting there was the commercial synthetic stuff and the scratchy wood from Putney. Now the options are incredible; I think I may have to get back to knitting more.

Here's my old kitty snuggled under our Christmas tree. She's sleeping on an Amazon box that arrived; this is the one hour she wasn't snuggling with me....

I am pretty phobic about getting sick.. yes,  this time of year I usually open the post office door with my hand tucked into my jacket, veer away from friends with runny noses, try not to sit a a dinner party next to a red nosed person....but somehow those germs found me.... I gotta say I'm a pretty hard worker, that damn yankee work ethic. My body must be forcing me to lay low and chill out. oh, but there must be a better way.

This morning my sweetest husband offered up a Foot Reflexology session. Today was the first day that I thought I could handle the motion. oooh, the sun was shinning on my face as Carson worked his magic. He uses one of those lounge chairs that put your feet up into the air so he can massage and use pressure on the pressure points on your feet. Sure enough the stomach points sure zinged me, but the rest was great. If you ever get a chance for a reflexology session, don't pass it by. So much stress ends up in our feet; who knew. I think I got the extra special treatment today!

It's back to the shop on Thursday and Friday. May you stay healthy with all the stray germs out there....

A Smidgen of Holiday Decor

Happy Holidays from  Pawlet Village. Snow has come and it's time to get in the spirit. This is a sweet shade I just finished. It is made from a vintage Society Silk round. I've had it forever and could barely cut into it. There it would sit every Christmas getting buried after the holidays with the new fabric that would arrive with thoughts of spring. Today was it's day to come alive!

I have trouble using anything tooooooo holiday like, if you know what I mean. But this is elegant and could easily be used throughout the year.
As I have often said, trimming a shade is absolutely the hardest design decision to be made. And this shade put me to task!! I left the shop yesterday after thinking I'd found the right trim. NOPE, back this am and ripped it off... but found this odd ball trim in my trim basket. It's a initial tape from Europe. I used it instead of grosgrain, gluing it onto the shade and wrapping it to the inside. SWEET, I was a couple inches short, but managed to add a tid bit of something similar. Do you think customers know what we go through?
And lit. It's 4" x 8" x 6" (top x bottom x high) and is $75.
Yellow Toille Hex Scallop trimmed in cotton quilting fabric. $75       5"x 10" x 7" high on a vintage glass base $45.

A view from where I sit. There a few inches of snow and George Frederic Handel is my Pandora Radio Choice this afternoon for me and Molly, but she seems to be snoozing through it. It's a sleepy day in the shop, must be time for another cup of tea and finish the next project in line. You can see the bark cloth red one on my table. Behind that are 2 candlewick hex shades and behind that is a pair of bark cloth winter farm scenes and lastly a beautiful white on white embroidery in a cut corner square AND  guess what? It's been on my desk for a week, waiting for the right trim to hit me over the head. Over 25 years of making shades and finding the perfect trim is STILL hard. Holey Moley....but it does get better with age, I swear.

This beauty is similar to the one I was describing above, maybe I should trim it the same. This is a treat. Quite a nice textile find, yes, there was a hole in it....trapunto, I believe it's called, wrapping of the cord and tacking it onto the linen. And used candlewicking edge for the trim. $150. 14" bottom and 8.5" high.
and with the light on.
Last one, had to show off this big drum made with a grain bag. It's sold but has a great look. It's 18 x 18 x 11.

Time for tea!

Enjoy the holiday decorating, take it easy and have a little holiday cheer.

xo,

judy