What Was I Waiting For?

Subtitle: It takes as Long as it Takes!

I started re-making this lampshade in February of 2023. That's more than two full years ago. 

The lamp that it goes with was a hand-me-down from Linda W. as she was downsizing...and I enjoyed it in my guest room in Lexington for many years. But the fabric was starting to break down and fraying at the edges. 

I knew I wanted to redo it...and I found this polka dotted fabric in my stash that I thought would be fun.

The yellow in the Lexington guest room was not as obnoxious as it is in the photo.

I love this little vintage lamp and the way it fit perfectly on the vintage desk from my youth.

I enlisted the help of Patsy...who has made several of lampshades using this stitched panel technique. The first step was wrapping all the wire with seam tape giving me something to stitch the panels to. Then during a visit to Patsy's place in Perry in February of 2023....I started stitching on the lining panels. 

It was fussy work...and a little hard on my hands...so I had to take it slow. Once I got a panel stitched on...I trimmed it up close.

Once the lining fabric was finished it was time to start stitching on the polk dot panels. Again...I took it slow. Just a panel here and there. Then in November of 2023 I took it with me on a girls weekend hoping to finish stitching on the colorful panels. 

But on the very first evening I injured my thumb.....and all the stitching came to a screeching halt. I wrote about that trip here: https://joyfulputtering.blogspot.com/2023/11/one-thumb-down.html

In the months following that trip I did finally finished the polka dot panels...but held off glueing on the trim. Which...by the way...is a hand-me-down from Connie. Was is the right choice? Did I have the right glue? How would it look around that scallop bottom? I wasn't sure...so I just set it aside.

But a few days ago I wondered what I was waiting for....and I started glueing. Turns out my favorite fast drying craft glue was just the right glue...and the scalloped edge around the bottom was no big deal. I just glued a small section at time...secured it with a clothespin and waited for it to dry before moving on.

And just this morning I finished it.

Over two years in the making...this precious little lamp has been reinvented and is back on the vintage desk in my dining room where it belongs. It's a little bit of Linda and a little bit of Connie...two of my very favorite people. And now it's a whole lot of me.

The desk is shallow...so the narrow profile of this lampshade is one of the things I love best.

What was I waiting for? Maybe I was waiting for this rainy day....and it just took as long as it took.