What I failed to mention was the choice of the fabric. I had originally fallen in love with a beautiful biscuit-coloured linen, embroidered with birds. However, at £70 per metre and a whopping 6 metres needed, this was way beyond the budget, not least because we are only likely to be living in the house for another 2 years.
Not that I'd given up entirely on the bird fabric as the curtain fabric we chose picked out exactly the shades of blue and green that was featured in the embroidered birds. My mission was then to find a metre of the fabric being sold off at a discounted price. After a few weeks of searching, the internet came up trumps and a metre's worth of embroidered birds was being delivered through the letterbox.
The idea was to make some lampshades. One for the ceiling light and the other for the bedside light. The ceiling light was an awkward size. Or should I say that the size and spacing of the embroidered birds proved challenging. However, I just about managed to get the birds lined up. I'm not entirely happy with the final result, but I am particularly picky!
The bedside lampshade was much easier, even if it did mean sacrificing a lot of the remaining fabric to get the birds lined up so beautifully. (Can you tell I'm happier with this one? And who doesn't love a Kingfisher?)
With fabric left over I just couldn't resist having a few more birds perched around the bedroom. A trip to the local craft store resulted in three tapestry hoops of just the right diameter to be able to frame up one of each of the birds to hang on the wall.
This is such a simple thing to do and, I think, looks particularly effective when the bird designs are so obviously embroidered.
I placed the hoop over each bird and centred them up. I then cut out the fabric leaving enough of a border to be able to fold the fabric around the underside of the inner hoop.
I then took a roll of narrow double-sided sticky tape - as luck would have it, the one that came with the lampshade kit was exactly the same width as the inner tapestry hoop - and applied it to the inner edge of the ring.
I then carefully folded over the fabric and stuck it down.
In just a few minutes I had a fabric picture, ready to hang on the wall.
They have been on the wall at the foot of the bed for at least a month now and I don't think I'll ever tire of looking at them. Or is it just that I'm sometimes just too lazy to get out of bed and admiring my handiwork is just a feeble excuse?!
Well, either way, they bring me much joy, so what's not to love?
