Lampshades This Week and Needlework

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I made a pair of lampshades for my client, Kristeen Church Interiors in Aspen.  These are made for a matching pair of wrought iron lamps, one a floor lamp and one a small table lamp.  The fabric is a screen printed cotton from Classic Cloth and the trim is Samuel & Sons.

Remember the antique chair with the needlepoint that I worked on while I was recovering on the couch from my broken kneecap?  After I finished that project Eileen asked me if I would be interested in doing a cross stitch kit.  I’ve never seen these kits and I must say my first thought was,  ”a kit……..heck no!”.

But, I like to keep my mind open to new possibilities.  I told her I would do a square inch and see how long it took me and give her an estimate for the whole project.

The size of the finished canvas is 11″ x 15″.  There are 400 stitches per square inch and since it’s a cross stitch, double that.

It took me 8 hours to do a square inch.

I gave her an estimate…………..she agreed.

I started january 25 and I work on it every day.

You see there’s no printing on the canvas, it’s all done from a diagram.  I think this may be the most difficult thing I’ve ever done.

It seems as I’ve gotten older I need less sleep.  I’ve always been an early bird and this bird now wakes up at 4am and can’t wait to get to this crazy addictive little project.

The hardest part is when you make a mistake and you have to find the wrong count and go back and correct it.

This is just like doing a “paint by number” kit but painting with a brush that has only one hair.

I’ve been working for 14 weeks so far, the end is in sight.  Finishing the cross stitching is not the end though, there is lots of stitching to do on top, outlining and french knots.  I’ll be a few more weeks on this.  I have to finish the tree in the left top corner and the sky between the buildings.

I know where this is going to lead……………I’ll plan my own drawing and use this technique…………..  maybe not on this small scale……….maybe bigger canvas or linen burlap with wool yarn.  I don’t know yet but I’m looking forward to it.

Kathi

Mexican Blankets Into Pillows

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All kinds of vintage textiles make wonderful pillows.

Mary Hansen found these two mexican blankets at the Pike Place Market last week.  I’m going to use some wool yarn to embroider on them.

The red one was feeling a bit fragile after I washed it so I decided it needed to be backed with a piece of brown cotton.

After I pinned the two layers together I hand stitched along the stripe lines with wool yarn.

I used the same wool yarn to make pompoms to tie on the zipper pulls.

Last month I made a lampshade for Kelly out of an antique linen sheet trimmed with old mother of pearl buttons.  She liked it so much she brought me two more lamps to finish in the same manner.  I found the perfect frames, the ones with the three inch border for trimming.

I want to point out again the incredible work done by Landbridge Lighting here in Seattle.   I hate to see shiny brass fittings and plastic wire on fine lamps.  They believe, as I do, that everything we make should be as beautiful on the inside as it is on the outside.

The linen sheet that I used for these lampshades had a monogram which I used as a centerpiece.

Kathi

Hagit’s Kitchen Island

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Our friend Hagit asked Chris to build an island for her newly remodeled kitchen.  Hagit loves the look of old wood and Chris had just the thing for her in his stash of reclaimed fir.

First he made her a mockup to test the height and the size of the two shelves.

The fir had been used as flooring and is full of nails………….Hagit wants them all to show.  The top however needs to be satiny smooth so Chris planed it all down to the raw wood.  He lengthened the top by adding breadboard ends.

Hagit came to visit several times during the two weeks that it took Chris to build her table.  When she first saw the top she knew that she wanted a vertical piece inlaid into the center.    Not a problem……………Chris routed it out and inserted an extra piece.

The old fir has beautiful raw patina which Hagit wants to see on the shelves and the legs.

All the legs have to be mortised perfectly to fit.

No room for error here.

The top is getting the first coat of stain.  It has to match the old raw wood and the bigger holes are filled with epoxy.

You can see the nails and the worm holes.

Now the tenons have to be fitted into the mortises………there is no room for error here.  If it’s off by a fraction the table won’t be square.

Whew!! …………I think I heard a few curse words that day!

Wax on the top makes the perfect finish.

Hagit stopped by again while Chris was cutting the pieces for the shelves.  He was going to make them all horizontal but she asked if the center ones could be vertical.  Of course…….we love it when our clients participate in the design of their commission!!

I went with Chris when he delivered last friday……….everyone was very excited!

Assaf was ready to carry it in by himself.

Top in place.

Assaf used the drill to screw the top on tight.  Hagit was arranging her plates immediately.

Even Naomi gave her approval.

Good job Chris!

Kathi

Antique Linen Sheets and Mother of Pearl Buttons

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Kelly brought me three antique linen sheets last week and asked me to make four pillows, a duvet and this lampshade for her alabaster lamp.

We thought this would be an opportunity to do something special for her client’s guest bedroom.

Because this is an extremely complicated and detailed lampshade I thought it would be a great chance for another lampshade sewing lesson.

I don’t often have the chance now to do this kind of work but in my store room we found this uniquely shaped frame.

First I made the patterns for the top and bottom sections.

This is the lining I’m cutting out here. I cut all the same pieces from the old linen.

I have all 32 pieces cut.

Pin and sew the seams.

I used to buy buttons and have saved a lot.  It’s been 10 years since I used these old mother of pearl buttons.  I’m going to use the big ones to button up the duvet and the little ones on the lampshade.

The first step is to sew the linen in the cuff at the bottom then trim it close.

I don’t know why but I just love to do this detail work.  I’m hand sewing the buttons all the way around, but only in the center of the cuff.  I’m leaving a half inch at the top and bottom, not sewing too close to the wire.

That took a whole day……………….next I’m pinning and sewing the lining only in this seam.

Time for the linen to be sewn on the outside.

Sewing by hand just below the wire pulling it tight while I sew.

After that seam is trimmed close I’m applying a folded self trim to cover the stitches.  You can see why I didn’t sew the buttons too close to the wire.

On the inside you can see that sewing the lining to the wire before I sewed the linen to the outside will keep it fitting snug.

The inside needs to be as beautiful as the outside.

Now I can sew the last row of buttons to the top of the cuff getting them close and covering the trim.  At the same time I’m being very careful not to catch my stitches on the lining.

Now I can pin and sew the lining to the bottom.

Then trim it close.

After I apply another folded self trim to the bottom edge to cover the hand stitches I’ll sew more buttons to finish.

The pillows are also made with the antique linen.  I hope I can get to the client’s house to take more photos of the whole room.

I made this lampshade once before about ten years ago. The same but different, this one is much bigger.

Kathi

Theresa’s New Couch

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Mary Hansen and I do back flips when Theresa wants to do a new project.  No matter what the project, it always involves beautiful fabrics.  Theresa found a bad old couch that was so bad the Goodwill wouldn’t even take it.

Mary chose five fabrics from Canovas, Hazelton House, Pierre Frey and Henry Calvin.  She had the couch upholstered and then I got to make the pillows.

It’s not just a couch, it’s a convertible.  The seat cushion flips to show two different striped fabrics and the pillows are also different on the fronts and backs.

 

After the upholstery was finished Mary brought me the leftovers.

When I make pillows I always underline the pieces with muslin and cut back the corners so they don’t get bulky when I sew in the flanges.

I used the Pierre Frey pink woven geometric to make the boxed edges.

I found some trim which I hand sewed to the fronts on top of the brown linen flanges..  This linen print is from Hazelton House.

Here I’ve pinned the boxed edge to the backs.  This stripe is from Manuel Canovas.

I always make my own down and feather forms for my pillows so I’m not limited to 18 inch or 20 inch squares.  I think odd sizes are way more interesting.

Kathi

Building Another Beautiful Table

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Chris was happy when the opportunity arose again so quickly to build another dining room table.

He delivered this beauty today to his clients in Bellevue.

From a thumbnail sketch he cut a mockup of the base to show his clients for their approval.

They decided to use walnut for the top and the base and wenge, a darker contrasting wood for the stretchers.

The two curved stretchers were laminated and glued up from 8 thin pieces of the wenge.

This is the first piece after it spent the night in the mold.

Chris made these mockups of the shapes on the base so he could figure the angle of the stretchers through the square holes.

He’s testing the fit before he builds the whole base.

It’s starting to come together now.

Clamped up……….good fit!

Starting to put the finish on.

The table is different than the last two tables he built because the top is cut in a perfect rectangle.  There are no live edges on this top.

I’ve never seen a floor like this.

 

 

 

Good job Chris!!

Kathi

Kelly’s Pillow Project

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Kelly brought me five rolls of fabric the week before Christmas and asked me if I could do a quickie project of 20 pillows for her client.

Will I?  Can I?  Of course, why not?

Kelly came by and picked me up yesterday to drive by her client’s home and I was able to get a few pictures.

I used her five fabrics that she ordered from Duralee and I picked more than several others from the magic shelf to make backs and borders and trims.

One of her fabrics was back ordered for several weeks so Kelly scrambled and requested all the memos that she could gather from showrooms across the country in order not to disappoint her client.

I made these two from the memos…………proving that where there’s a will there’s a way.

Part of the group in progress.

And more…………

And more…………..

And more………..

Kelly also placed a pair of my rock lamps with this client 3 years ago.

The fabric on the lampshades is an embroidered linen from Zimmer Rohde.

This window seat by the front door is a welcoming place to sit.

Kathi

Jenn and Lewis’s Table

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It’s not that I haven’t been working……………..I’m working but not finishing.   I’m giving it up to Chris today because he’s working and finishing and this is what he finished and delivered today.

Live edge, slab wood tables seem to be popular these days, everybody wants one.  Jenn and Lewis wanted one too.

Chris had more big leaf maple in the shop………….3 big pieces were cut up to make the top.

This stack of small scrap is just enough to cut all the pieces for the base…………..believe it or not.

He used the band saw to cut these shapes.

The two ends are roughed out.

There is still lots of shaping to do, but he’s starting to glue it up.

I bet you were wondering what he’s going to do with that big flaw you saw in the rough table top…………..sutures……………reminds me of the stitches they took out of my knee last month.

What beautiful grain in this wood…………..it will really be pretty when the finish goes on.

The base is finally all together.

And the top is on……………the underside looks as good as the top.

It takes many coats of finish.

They haven’t chosen their chairs yet……….. they wanted to wait till the table was in place.

I love the way the other light woods in the room relate to the table and the way it sits on the darker floor.

Did you notice how the ends of the table have a gentle curve?

 

 

Good job, Chris………..another very happy client!

Kathi

Betsy’s Door

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Betsy called Chris last year when she saw his door at Monsoon East in Bellevue.  You can see a picture of that door and the post I wrote about it here.

Chris made his proposal to her with this model………….. and she accepted.

Chris chose to use reclaimed wood as veneer.  The horizontal panel in the center is  patchwork of 3 1/2″ squares that he cut from a 4 x 4 that he found floating at the edge of the ocean on the beach at Ocean Shores.  In the sidelight on the left is a fold formed copper panel.

Chris has the sidelight built and is laying out the pattern of the small squares.  First he cut the 4 x 4 into a perfect shape then sliced it into thin chips.

He was happy to see that this wood was white oak and cut from the center of the tree so you can see the center of the trees rings.

The wood is glued to the door frame that Chris built and it’s ready to go into the veneer press.  After spending a few hours in the press he flipped it made the same on the other side.

The fold formed copper was so great on the Fang door that Chis was excited for the opportunity to do it again.

Heat and hammers.

He made 42 of these 3 1/2″ squares, 21 for the exterior and 21 for the interior.

The copper panel is installed in the sidelight.

You can see in this picture that the white oak squares are not set and sanded flush………..  I really like that effect.

So cool………….to see the tree rings!

It’s a big door………….

This is all Chris is doing for now, he delivered it to storage for Betsy.  We’ll see it again later this year when the house is nearing completion and they are ready to install.  The wood frame has no finish on it yet, I don’t know what they have planned for the glass panels in the sidelight………some art glass I’m guessing.

Kathi

This Weeks Lampshades

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Now that I’m back to work I’m playing catch up.  There were several lampshade projects that were on hold and I’m glad to be able to get back to them.

My client sent me one of a pair of Lalique lamps from Colorado.  The lamps are very delicate and even with the lamp right here in front of me it was difficult for me to get the size and shape correct.  I won’t even tell you how many frames I ordered…………

But finally they are complete and I shipped them yesterday back to my client in Colorado.

This is another Mary Hansen lamp design project.  The ceramic was purchased from Jane Piper Reid in Seattle and wired by our friends at Landbridge Lighting.

We decided to enlarge the pleated linen trim which I cut on the bias.  Mary picked a few colors of the wool yarn I had left from my embroidery.

Mary chose a light weight wool for this lampshade.  After I picked the fringe I embroidered dots and made french knots and tied off little wisps.

 

The leather lampshade…………..I put it off and put it off.

I’ve never made a leather lampshade, so when my client asked me if I could, of course I said I would.

I made a test.  I had a frame that was slightly the right size and an inexpensive hide that I could use to experiment.  It turned out very well and I was confident that I’d be able to do it.

When the hide arrived I realized that this buttery soft leather was very different than the one I had used for my test.

I’m making this just like I make a sewn shade but instead of using pins I’m holding it together with clothes pins.

This is all glue work.  I found a roller downstairs in Chris’s shop that he uses for veneer that works well to press the trim pieces.

These two are shipping to Laguna Beach tomorrow.  The fabrics on this lampshade are all Chelsea Editions.

Kathi