A Forest in my Bedroom

Well not my bedroom but a customers.

The request was back in April 2020

Hello Meikie
We are in the middle of moving house (not the best time for this) and I was wondering if you were able to make curtains with your Forest Meditation design using the colours in your original silk painting?
Best wishes
Emma

The painting in question is this one which in this picture I'm hand painting at a show Hever Castle.

I answered with

> Hello Emma
> I can of course do curtains in the Forest Meditation design. Been itching to do a set of curtains in that design. Send me the measurements and which fabric you’d like. Velvet, Chenille or other??
> Hope move goes ok considering all that’s going on.
> Warm Regards
> Meikie

I had indeed been itching to do a set of curtains in this design. The original painting being tall and slim as I was painting it I could easily visualize the trees repeated horizontally reproduced onto fabric to make floor to ceiling curtains.

To clarify Emma has ordered many times over the years, including the original paintings, table mats, a fabric table runner and many other curtains and pelmets for her home here in the UK and her holiday home in Austria. She knows if she wants something it's worth asking if I can do it. Nine out of ten times I can.

Things got a little delayed with her house move, Covid and general exhaustion on my part etc but a year on we took up where we left off.

At this point I'll always ask for measurements. Width, Height of the window and the curtain pole. I'll ask for pictures or a plan if a picture is not possible. All this information helps me plan the design and wether it is even possible as some designs can not be stretched too far without the image becoming blurry and ruining the look. Emma sent me this.

Hugely helpful as every measurement I might need is there.
I advised that for this way to hang the Tree designs is with a wave style header tape. This means that the Trees hang straight wether the curtains are opened or closed. with a general gathered heather tape the \tree design would become distorted. Emma queried what this looked like and what the header tape looked like. I sent her a picture of the other Tree design curtains I have done (there is a blog on these as well) and this picture of the header tape for clarification..

The next step in the process is to design the repeat, work out the quantity of drops ( length of fabric) needed for the curtains, then send a quote to Emma for the the finished lined curtains plus delivery.

These were very large curtains so I had to plan ahead to make sure I would have a space schedule where all my work benches were clear to lay out and sew all the freshly printed fabric.

These are the finished curtains hanging in my workshop. I’m setting the pleats do they hang beautifully straight and preparing them for shipping by  loosely binding the pleats in place. 

It was wonderful to work on these. Just imagining them hanging in place giving a tranquil feel to the room.....and I was rewarded with a picture from Emma.

 Hope you have enjoyed this blog. it is a slightly longer one to help other customers see how the ordering of custom curtains process unfolds. Would you love a fabulous custom set of curtains? Then contact me at meikiecakie@hotmail.com

More information on the curtains can be found here

Original Forest Meditation Painting available to purchase here.