Lampshade

I have been wanting to learn how to make lampshades for quite some time. I decoupaged a lampshade a few years ago, and I painted on one before, but it's tough painting on a 3-D object. So, I found a class. It was a pretty easy process. It's a little tedious, but I liked it, and I think as I make more it'll get easier.

This shade is made from fabric, but I could use paper. I'm excited to experiment more. I even made bias tape out of the fabric to cover the seam.

Stay tuned for more lampshades!

Zinnia Skirt

I took another fun, wonderful class at Stitch Lab. I made this cute skirt from a Colette pattern, Zinnia. I learned how to do pleats, and made my first buttonhole. My Gram used to send out clothes to have the buttonholes done. She would have been amazed by the automatic buttonholer on my sewing machine.

Dotty

I bought this knit fabric a few weeks ago thinking it would make a cute skirt. Only took a couple of hours to make, and now I have a new spring skirt!

Encaustic

I took an encaustic (wax) class a few years ago. I haven't done anything since, except buy supplies! :-P I took an encaustic class tonight at a cute little place called Craft. It was taught by a fun instructor, Christine. We did this on artist trading cards and postcard sizes. It was loads of fun, and my head is swimming with lots of fun possibilities.

Embroidery

I started work on Reginald, the hummingbird pirate, quite a bit ago. It's actually a pretty decent size, especially compared to the small projects I've been doing with the stitch clubs. I was almost done when I showed him to my embroidery teacher and we had a great conversation about color. The floss I chose worked with the fabric, but maybe a little too well as it didn't stand out enough. Part of it I think was the challenge of embroidering on a printed fabric, and part was maybe being a bit color shy and not picking colors bold enough. I had the right hue, but maybe not the right saturation. She helped me pick out some colors to do essentially a shadow or highlight to help what I had done stand out.

I don't know how well my camera picked it up, but the top branch has some shading with a teal color and the bottom branch doesn't. I can't believe the different between the two. I really feel like I'm painting with thread and am excited to finish the piece. I think in some ways it's going to look even better because I went back with another color and added another layer. I love how the addition of the teal was just enough to make that branch pop out. My brain is dancing with ideas of how I can paint with thread. :-D

Fall Stitch Club

I pared down the embroidery for the fall stitch club and just did a few of the designs and made them into a handy bag. I loved the fabrics for these.

Dining table and chairs

So during my kitchen remodel LAST YEAR!! I bought an unfinished table and chairs. I didn't start painting it until late September. It's been a giant pain in the arse. Lots of fiddly details to paint around, and I have no desire to ever paint such a thing again. :-P I put the final coat on this past weekend. I'm not overly happy with it. I did a sloppy job for starters, but no will notice that but me. The colors somehow aren't quite what I had in my head. It's not bad, but I think in the end I would have been happier with stained wood. Ah well. Maybe in a few years, I'll strip it and stain it. In the meantime I have a put together dining area. Woot!