No Tuesday trip this week either

as I had a hair appointment. I did take the opportunity to visit the latest incarnation of the Pound Shop in the city centre - it's got more expensive but has a good selection of stationery items, including big stencil letters [about 8 cm high] and similar sized fun foam letters which I will make into stamps.

This afternoon I got on with the 3D work. I painted some silk in leaf and leaf-mould colours. I took A's advice about watering down the paint and i am much happier about the shades I got.

I am thinking of adding snippets to the relevant areas of the shade, holding them down with free motion embroidery. One of the problems with making a lampshade is that the back of the stitches will show through when it is illuminated. I could do shadow work but FME will be quicker.

by the way, neither of these is Quality Control's litter tray - she has a much fancier one provided by her previous owners, although she much prefers the gravel drive.

If you think the drop cloth underneath looks familiar you must have been a Clothkits customer about30 years ago!

I also got started on the shade itself. Making the full scale mock up had convinced me that I needed to think carefully about the layout of the trees - I couldn't just do a few tree shapes as the fancy took me. So I made a 'window' in the proportions of the shade and moved it around on the Klimt picture until I found a section I thought worked.

Inspired by the this section I made a freezer paper stencil and ironed it to the silk. then erected A's ginormous silk painting frame. [You will get it back, A, honest!]

I had to assemble the frame on the hall floor which was the only space big and empty enough. Then I stretched the silk, manoeuvred it out into the garden, and painted the wax on. Fortunately it has been a really nice day!

The technology of the frame means that I couldn't prop it up vertically for the photo. It is finishing off drying now, flat on the conservatory floor.

So far I think it looks good but I can still ruin it when I add the paint. If we have another nice day tomorrow I will try to make myself paint it. [I do have another piece of silk if the worst happens.]

I must also remember to paint some threads in case I decide to add some hand stitching.