A Busman's Holiday, and Fab Fabric for a Wednesday

In the last post I referred to our holiday "break" but the truth is, we used some of the off-time to go to the studio and make shades for our own home............. truly a busman's holiday!

John got a new lamp for Christmas.  Hand made by Luna Bella, I'd been drooling over similar lamps at Archipelago At Home in Cold Spring NY for a year or so, and finally chose this one just in time for Christmas.  We live in an old house, and this lamp is just perfect for us.

Naturally we had to make new window treatments to replace the hastily-made blackout monstrosity I threw together when we moved in.  The fabric I picked up at a Brunschwig warehouse sale a few years ago was perfect.

I had a scrap of Larsen's "Winter Tree" in the off-white colorway, but split in half it was too narrow for the windows, so instead of wasting precious millimeters on hems, I made binding out of the wrong side of the shade fabric to stretch the panel just enough to fit the space.

The little grommets in the bottom corners allow us to tie back the tree fabric diagonally and secure it on a little cup hook, when we want to see out the window.
John thinks he wants a valance out of the shade fabric; I can see his point, but I'm undecided......

About that Fab Fabric: "Matera" from the Venezia Collection by Scancelli- my friend Josh and I picked up a half roll from a Brunschwig warehouse sale, for a fraction of the original cost.   Printed on both sides, the grey-green is more like a chalky paint than dye.  The mottled and crazed pattern on reverse side just glows through when the sun is shining on it.  We used thermal lining and still plenty of mottled texture shows through.   It's the most fantastic fabric!   I made Josh's shades two Christmases ago and John and I have been waiting a couple of years to finally use it for ourselves.

The Winter Trees by Larsen- I've raved about THAT one for years on this blog, and it's the backdrop to my blog profile photo- 'nuff said!  It's love forever.  We're SO happy to have a scrap of it hanging in our own window!

These treatments for us weren't the only things we made for our two-family house: upstairs, our nephew & niece and their two little girls got a bunch of new shades, too!- but that's a whole long post in itself, for later in the week.  Stay tuned.......