Hanah Silk Lamp Shades

I absolutely love designing with Hanah silk ribbon and wanted to share a project I've just recently completed.  I have two vintage glass lamps mounted on marble stands.  The shades were worn and discolored so I removed the fabric leaving only the wire frame.

I've taken six coordinating shades of Hanah silk ribbon, along with vintage lace and remade my shades.  The rolled roses are made with the same silk ribbon and  I've scattered rhinestone pins and chandeliers crystals  along the top and base of the shade.

This was an enjoyable project and I'm really pleased with the results.  I've used a low watt florescent bulb and it is lovely shining through the lace pattern.

The velvet leaves add a special touch of color to the design and the rhinestone pins and crystal chandelier babbles add the perfect sparkle with the reflection from the light.  I love making roses but I'm not sure I love making this many.

Many thanks to my "crazy quilt sisters" for sharing their lace, rhinestones, and chandeliers crystals.  I couldn't have done it without you!

One World One Heart

Welcome old friends and new...I'm glad you've taken time out of your busy day to visit my blog and I hope you will return often. Last year I came across this wonderful blogging adventure called One World One Heart. It was so much fun visiting new blogs and signing up for fabulous gifts. I decided I just had to participate in 2010...so here I am.

The Concept of OWOH: Lisa Swifka, owner and host, explains this concept much better than I ever could so I will quote her: "This is an International Event that transcends geographical location, socio economics, political affiliations, religious beliefs...it's a coming together like the giant community we are on this planet. If only it took a simple giveaway to create Peace everywhere. In the meantime, hear we give from our hearts. We are not solving the world's problems nor are we curing anything, nor or we changing the world. We are merely generating a closer community between humans through our blogging."

How to participate:

All you need to do is leave a comment on my blog ...nothing more. Your comment must have a way to link back to you or you must include your email address. I need to be able to contact you if you win. Only one comment per person will be included in the drawing.

The deadline for adding your comment is Sunday, February 14th. at 6pm CST. The winner will be posted on Monday, February 15.

My Giveaway:

The winner will received this felted wool needle case with hand-dyed silk ribbon embellishments. The necklace is hand-beaded with Swarovski bicones. Please note: The scissors are not included.

I hope you will visit all the wonderful bloggers who are participating this year. You will find the complete list here: OWOH Have fun everyone!

Retreat Withdrawal

Our Wallis retreat was wonderful as usual! Premier Estates is the perfect place to sit and stitch. The peace and quiet of this small town along with the beauty of the house and grounds is so inspiring. Combined with the talent of all my Lake Jackson friends, one can't help being productive.

We were excited to have Melanie's sister, Wendy, join us...what a talented lady. She and Melanie do wonderful ribbon and fabric dyeing in addition to many forms of needle art including crazy quilting.

There was a beautiful gardenia bush blooming profusely. Wendy brought one in and asked me to make one with silk. I made some sketches while enjoying the wonderful fragrance of this flower. Monday I sat down and made my first attempt at recreating it. We talked about naming it The Premier Gardenia so here it is - just for Wendy!

I really don't like the burned edges since the gardenia is such a pure white. I'm going to continue experimenting and check other ways of doing the petals.

I promised pictures so I'm going to share a few of the projects I completed on retreat. I signed up for the pinkeeper swap on one of my yahoo groups, Silk Ribbon Heirlooms, so that was my first project. I altered one of the rose patterns I created for Artemis/Hanah silks and added it to the top.

Instead of using the regular CD I used a 3" mini CD. Two of the CDs are covered with green velvet and sandwiched together. You can slide pins between these two layers and it makes a great place to store pins.

I formed the center bud using a light rose velvet and filled it with emery...a little something extra to sharpen pins or place your needle. The rose is made with 1" wide Hanah silk satin in the Victorian Rose color. I absolutely love working with these beautiful ribbons and feel so fortunate to be able to design for them.

Another friend and I had seen several CQ bags for your clipping and such. I hesitate to call it a trash bag but that's exactly what it is. We talked about making one so I drew a pattern for a really simple box-style with a lid. I was experimenting to see if my pattern really worked so I used a floral fabric and lined it with dupioni.

It would be beautiful crazy pieced and embellished and I plan to do one for one of the upcoming issues of CQMagOnline. Pictured here is my first attempt. The green velvet on the inside lid is an emery pincushion. The weight of the emery keeps the box in place on the edge of the table. It's amazing how convenient it is and I find I'm using it every time I sit down to stitch.

In a previous post I showed you my large CD pincushion. It was an idea I got from the ladies at the Tomball retreat. Several of our group just had to have a small one when we discovered the mini CDs. Pictured here is my mini creation. Of course, all I need is another pincushion but that isn't really the point, is it? I'll have to substitute pincushion in that old saying: "He who dies with the most pincushions wins!" I may not have the most but I'm sure I'm running a close second.

By the way, isn't the box under the pincushion beautiful? Linda always brings door prizes and I was the lucky winner of this beautiful prize. She is always so generous and we always look forward to seeing what she has.