Hiding in the Attic

I decided to do the ceiling of the attic today. I couldn't face the smell of the stain for the shingles so I started with the rafters and the stuff in between.

I used ye olde wooden blinds for the rafters. First I cut baseboards and stuck them in. Then I cut six pieces the length of the ceiling. I cut the pieces to go around the dormer and up the center by laying the wood in and measuring. I cut them all with scissors. That makes it fast and easy. I have to start looking for more of those blinds. I am running low.

I let those dry a bit after installing them with Quick Grab. Then I went to look for newspapers to put in between the rafters. Right next to the newspapers in the file were the black and white adverts from the 19th century. I decided that since this is an old building that has a history as a store of one kind or another before becoming a book shop, it would be fitting to put old advertising signs in the area.

I didn't have any full sheets because I have been using these advertising signs since the early 80s. So I simply put them in and scored them with my fingernail where I wanted to cut them. This left me free to put ads that I like where they could easily be read and the ones that I didn't like, I put in corners and up towards the peak of the roof where they won't be easily seen.

I used Yes Glue to attach the ads. For those of you not familiar with the brand, it is a bookbinder's glue that has become popular over the past few years for crafts of all kinds. When I first started using it, it was very hard to find. Now you can even buy it at Michael's. It is great for mini wallpaper and other paper applications in mini. It doesn't make the paper bubble or buckle.

A jar of this stuff is a little steep in price. It's about 11.00 a jar, but that jar lasts for a long time. And if you wait for the 40 or 50 percent coupons, it is reasonable.

It can't be easily seen in the last photo, but after the paper dried, I did a light wash around the edges with really watered down yellow ochre and burnt sienna mixed together. You can see it in the sense that the paper looks lighter in the center of each panel and almost looks like it is buckling. It isn't. I am still going to try to get a better photo. This will have to do for now tho.

Speaking of having to do for now, I am quiting for the day. I have to start thinking about doing some poly clay work to sell and some Christmas presents that I still have to make.......

See you tomorrow.

Shingling Is a Good Thing!

I keep telling myself that. Both of my hands are stained Provincial. My needle nose pliers are stained Provincial. I almost had a cat with Provincial whiskers......But shingling is a good thing. Yes it is!

Here's a photo of the cutting process. I started with the size shingle that you see at the left. That gets cut into quarters. Some of those will get cut in diagonals that will go in the corner between the dormer and the main roof. The half shingles will go to start alternate rows and in a few cases to fill in gaps so that I don't have a tiny shingle on the edge of the roof.

I have probably cut about 1/8th of the amount that I need to finish the roof. You may have noticed that I don't have the roof on the back side yet. I will avoid putting that on until I finish the interior of the attic. Have you ever tried to get into the corners under the roof with that thing on? It is hard to cut and fit beams and other trim with that piece in place. Thus, it stays off for a while longer.

This is what I have done so far today. As soon as I finish here I will go back and do some more. I promise. Honest I will.......

Here's a close up of the inside corner that I have done. I am not going to put any trim on the inside corner, so I have to get everything in as close together as possible.




I started by staining shingles until I was about to pass out from the odor of the stain. Then I cut big shingles into little shingles until I ran out of stained shingles. After that, I shingled the other bay and started a couple of rows on the main body of the house. I may not finish today. I don't think I could take another hour of the stain stink.

I may have to do some work on the inside of the attic instead. Anyway, I have to get back to work. See you tomorrow.

Done Rockin' My World!

I am done with rocks!!!!!!!!


Here is the last wall all finished! Ask me if I am happy. The answer is YES!!!!!!! I am really happy with how the rocks on this one turned out. They are a bit darker and more aggressive than the rocks on some of the other buildings that I have done. Strange but also kind of fun. I am going to do a lot of vines on the walls too.

Now I can get on to shingling tomorrow. Maybe I should just say I am staining shingles tomorrow......I shouldn't make promises that I can't keep. It seems like this building is going really slow. It was all of those rocks. That's my excuse and I am sticking with it!

Just for fun, here's the other side.

I was too lazy to turn the shop around so you are going to have to shade your eyes from the sun or go look at one of the previous photos of that side.

I am going to make this short today, so as usual you get a site to go play with. This one has some good projects and printies. Look around. You might find a project that you want to do. http://www.mysmallobsession.com/home.html

I am off to do absolutely NO minis for the rest of the day.

BTW. The blog hit the 20,000 mark this morning. Thanks for stopping by and reading!

See you tomorrow!

Three Sides to Every Story

I have finished rocking the third side. Thank goodness there isn't a fourth side.

Tomorrow I will do the painting and that part will finally be done! In the photo at the bottom left, you can see the amount of DAS that I had left. I might have even used that, but it was getting way to dry to work with. The package was 2.2 pounds. I figure that I added at least two pounds to the Buttercup with that. It's still very easy to lift and cart around. I bought another package of DAS last week with a 50% off coupon. I might still put a little bit of rock work on the upstairs bay. It looks pretty plain right now. A sore thumb comes to mind.

I keep putting it back in my workroom when I want the family room to look presentable. It is important for the building to be very portable and it is.

I finally remembered to do a photo of the inside of all three stories. I don't think that I have done that since the beginning.

I seriously need to get to work on the attic. It is way too happy and friendly looking with all of that white paint up there. So far all I have up there is the wicker chair, tuffet and the gramophone. Oh, and some books scattered around on the floor.

I still have the main window propped up on the second floor. I guess it would be a good idea to paint that section of the wall and put it in permanently now that I have the rocks finished and Morgan installed.

The bottom floor is essentially done except for putting some hinges on the door and setting it in place. These little jobs would only take minutes if I would get to work and do them.....I just keep putting them off because they aren't the fun part. I complain about the rocks, but they are really a lot of fun to do. It is kind of like doing a sculpture of a house. Hard to explain.

Now I have run out of photos to show you and excuses for not finishing. So I will quit and go back to work.

See you tomorrow.

Cheap Thrills......

Yesterday I went wild! I bought enough fabric to redecorate seven rooms! I have enough to make draperies, bed covers, chair and couch upholstery. The nice part is, I don't even feel guilty.

Some people get really excited and feel ashamed of themselves at the same time when redecorating. They are excited that they are getting a new room. They are ashamed of themselves for spending hundreds of dollars on fabrics and furniture. They live in the real world.....

The reason I am bringing this up is, I was thinking this morning that I have been doing this for many years and have hundreds of pieces of fabrics and never felt guilty for overspending. I will say it again. I love living in miniature rooms.

My real house may not be elegant but I can enter a Regency living room any time I want. I can wander through a castle filled with fairy tales. I can even spend some time with Spike(Buffy the Vampire Slayer) in his crypt.

These are the pieces that I found yesterday. Wal-Mart got in a new shipment of material @ 2.00 a yard. A quarter of a yard will go a long way. The top two will go even farther. They can be used in half and quarter inch.

Here is a peek into one of the drawers where I keep my stash. It needs straightening right now, but I will make the sacrifice and let you look. I keep the fabrics according to color in small baskets that will sit on top of one another in the drawers. The two baskets on top slide into the left side of the drawer on top. Yes there are 3 drawers in all, with two layers of baskets in each. I am not going to mention that I have fabric stashed in other places in the house....Many other places. Shhhhhhh! Don't tell. I can justify this with the fact that it's not all miniature. I do other things with it. I am into cartonnage, quilting, sewing, embroidery and needlepoint. I use a LOT of fabric. I seldom buy a piece that is not on sale.

Anyway, here is one of the chairs that I designed a few years ago. If it were in the real world it would take about 6 yards of upholstery fabric to cover. Probably the price for the fabric would be anywhere from 1oo.oo up. I think that this one took about half of a 1/4 yard cut. That means I would have enough to make curtains for the same room or a bedspread or upholstery for a couch.

Yes. I am stalling because I didn't work on Buttercup today. I lived in the real world where houses get messy and rugs have to be vacuumed. I don't think that I like that world. In my miniature world I don't have to clean bathrooms or make beds or iron clothes.

I am going back there for the rest of the day. It's much more fun! See you tomorrow.

Guten Morgan!!!

I am not German, but I just had to use that for a title. And it's no longer morning, but Guten Morgan fits the occasion. I am very pleased with Morgan. He is now in his place on the front of the building. He has one coat of antique wash around him. You can't really see it in the photo. I am going to have to do it again. I think that he could still use some more metallic powder on his little nose too.

I put a little framing under the roof line and then I started painting rocks. I continued painting rocks. I then painted rocks some more...... Did I mention that I did some rock painting this morning? The results of the exercise is two walls finished and one to go. I think that I am still going to add more rocks to that side too. It seems to need more to balance out the other two sides.

I am starting to get excited now. It is coming together pretty much like I envisioned it at the beginning. Somehow I am always surprised when this happens. My buildings seem to evolve. It seems like the building is telling me what direction to take next. Or maybe I should say that the building is directing me.

This whole project started taking shape when I got a book called "Storybook Style, America's Whimsical Homes of the Twenties". The authors are Gellner and Keister in case you are interested. I had seen the ones in Carmel, CA years ago and really loved them. There were not only houses, but also shops.

In fact, when I was growing up in Phoenix AZ one of my favorite parts of the city was the houses around Encanto Park. That area was filled with these houses. Each one was different. Each one told a story.

The style is completely fantasy and most of them look like they came straight out of a fairy tale. There is no rhyme or reason to the design other than to please the eye of the beholder. Most of the time, the rocks on the houses served no structural purpose. They were purely decorative and simply added to the fantasy quality. That's what I like about the style. There are really not to many rules or restrictions to the design.

I decided what better style for a book shop than a storybook building. Thus the Buttercup Bookshop was hatched. Now I can't wait to get it finished and move in.

I am making no promises, but I am hoping that I can get it done in the next week or so. I want to start something new! Back to work.

See you tomorrow.

Morgan Is Cooked!

I spent the morning at my two favorite antique malls. I ventured out, but didn't gain anything. Not even a scrap of old lace.

I came home and eventually started working on Morgan again. I don't have him all the way done.

I still need to put a little more metallic highlight on him. Then I need to do the trim under the eaves. I think he is looking pretty good so far.

It's hard to hold up a dragon with one hand, change the settings on the camera and take pictures with the other. I need another hand. Mookie, could you come hold up the dragon for me? On second thought......... Never mind.

While Morgan was cooling off after baking I started watching(really just listening to) Heroes and painting the cracks between the rest of the rocks. Half of Heroes was in Japanese. I don't speak the language, so I think that I missed a lot.

After painting the mortar, I can see where I need more rocks. Guess what I will be doing for the rest of the afternoon?

This is going to be a short one. I really don't have much progress to report and I do need to finish this thing.

See you tomorrow.

Mookie's Dinner......

This is going to be short today. I had real life get in the way.



Remember the dragon that Mookie had for lunch a few days ago? After thinking about it, I decided that it would just give Mookie something to chew on if I kept the dragon sticking out from the front of the Buttercup. So........I chose to go in another direction.



First of all, I was not happy with the detail that I was able to get with the Super Sculpy. I changed to Granitex in the brown colorway. Here is what happened.

The dragon became a more shallow relief type than a sticking out type. He pulled his wings up around his head to fit under the eaves.

He is decidedly more sinister looking than the first one. I haven't baked him yet. I may do some shading with crushed pastels before I do that. That way the chalk will stick to him and I won't have to paint after he is done. Here he is from the other side. His name is Morgan. I have no idea why. He just kind of looks like a Morgan to me.

I really don't have much else to tell you today, that is unless you want to know about the second new microwave oven that I have bought in a week. No. I didn't keep both of them. I returned one and then got another one. See I told you you didn't want to know.

I am off to set fire to Morgan. See you tomorrow.

At The Top

I finished the other side of the shingling on the bay this morning. Then I capped it off with a little trim.

I am a firm believer in just a little extra frosting on top of houses. That's the best part. What I mean is, you can just put a plain old L shaped piece of wood up there or two flat pieces. If you put a little extra up there it calls attention to the work that you put in on the roof as well as the rest of your building. Details are what make the house/shop.

Here are a couple of examples of what I mean. The first one is the Witches' Warehouse. I painted this roof charcoal gray with Ceramcoat. It needed something so I used some large Victorian scalloped trim painted with Red Iron Oxide. I put that on both sides of the peak. Then I topped that with two pieces of the infamous slats from 80s wooden blinds. When I finished I antiqued the whole thing to tie it together. Yes. There is dust on the roof. After all, it is a witchy place. No dusting required!

This is the front of the Mystery house. On this one I used regular L shaped roof cap molding. I found that the peak was really too sharp for the angle of the roof cap. In this case I would have put the extra blue on anyway, but It served a dual purpose. It accents the roof line and it covers the fact that the angles were not the same on the roof and the cap. I used the same 1/16" square stock around the edge of the roof. Now the roof doesn't melt into the body of the house.

I also put a piece of quarter round molding down the inside corner between the dormer and the main roof and painted it the same color as the shingles. It makes for a neater seam between the two.

Last, here's today's work. I didn't get too fancy with this one and I think that I am going right back out and change it when I get done here. I wanted to show you that you can finish the roof line no matter the angle with two strips of wood and a small dowel. I contrasted the dowel by painting it the same color as the house so that you could see it. If you do it this way, you will have even strips on both sides of the roof. You simply glue both side pieces on the roof line and wedge the dowel between the two. I put a piece of double bead molding at the bottom of the side piece. I am not happy with it yet. The roof peak is melting into the rest of the shingles so far. I want it to stand out more.

Back to the drawing board. See you tomorrow.

I Have Shingles.....

No. Not the medical kind! The kind that go on the roof. Katie is a bad influence. She made a comment on an earlier blog that she wanted me to start shingling so that she could get tips. I don't really have any special way of doing it, but I will explain the method to my madness when it comes to shingling.

First of all, I don't like the size of the pre-cut shingles that the dollhouse stores and websites sell. They are usually about 1" by 2". I order from miniatures.com. The first thing I do is cut all of them in quarters, once horizontally and then again vertically. I know that theirs are supposed to be 1/12 scale, but to my eye they seem out of scale. They look too large. The ones I get are the ones that are 1/32" or thinner and can be cut with an old pair of scissors.

Oops! I misspoke. First I stain them and then I cut them. For staining I just simply hold them one at a time with a pair of jeweler's needle nose pliers or tweezers and paint both sides at once with a light coat of Minwax stain. This is my brand of choice for all things mini. This time I used Provincial. Then I lay them on a couple of paper towels to dry. I try to get as little stain on as possible. Some people dip them in the stain. That is a waste of stain. most of it goes on the paper towel where you have to wipe off the excess. The reason for doing both sides at once is to prevent warping. With dipping you stand a greater chance of this.

Here's the first step of putting them on. I put a small strip of wood the width of the roof at the bottom edge. This may seem like an unnecessary step but don't skip it. It makes the first course of shingles lay at the same angle as all of the rest. If you don't put it on the bottom row seems to be sagging a bit.

BTW, I am using Aleene's Fast Grab for this. I am not crazy about regular Tacky, but I like this because you can just keep going. You don't have to wait for one row to dry before putting on the next one. It is just what it says. It grabs on fast!

If you haven't done a lot of shingling and want your courses to be straight you will have to draw lines at 1/2" to 3/4" rows across the whole roof. I have been doing this for a long time so I am exempt from that rule......Why? Because I said so!

Here you can see a partially finished row. I draw a line of glue on the previous row of shingles and one on the bare roof along the imaginary line that I just said that you have to draw. I always start at the inner corner if there is one. It is much easier to adjust the size of the shingle at the edge than it is in the corner. The first row you start with a whole shingle and go across. The second one you cut a shingle in half vertically and start with that. You want the seam of the shingles in the second row to lay on the middle of a whole shingle on the first row. Keep alternating the first and second row until you have the roof panel covered.

I didn't want the roof to be neat and tidy looking. That wouldn't go with the storybook style at all. I just winged it and made a few of the shingles look as if they were slipping a bit.

The glue's not quite dry on the top row in this picture. It will go away in a few minutes. I have to go get a wet paper towel and wipe the excess.

Up at the peak of the roof you will see that I just kept on going with the last row of shingles. They stick up above the roof line. After they dry, I will come back with the scissors and trim them off.

Then I will shingle the other side, doing the same thing.

I will trim that side the same way and then put a cap on the top.

After I finish the whole roof I will put a sealer on it to keep it clean.

That's about all there is to roofing. I am going back to do the other side now. I will show you what it looks like on top tomorrow. See you then.

The Cat Ate My Homework......

Honest. He did. After I finished writing the blog entry yesterday I went back to work on the dragon and this is what I found laying on the bed where I had been working. OK the cat's out of the bag. Pardon the pun. When I can, I work sitting on the bed with my feet up and watching TV. I left the dragon on my lap desk when I went to write. Thirty minutes later he was missing an ear, two of the pointy things on the back of his neck and a few scales. Mookie strikes again! Poor dragon!

I looked at him this morning and decided that I needed to do rocks instead. I wasn't in the mood for doing details.

I got quite a lot of the rocks at least sculpted. I finished the front and part of the third side. Do you realize that I have gone through almost a 2.2 lb. brick of DAS doing this? I did get another brick at Michael's earlier this week. I won't run out. The house is now 2 lbs. heavier than when I started. That's why I love working with Greenleaf, Corona, and Duracraft. They are so light weight when they are just a shell that you can add lots of extras and still be able to move them around without having to call in one weightlifter or two skinny guys to move it.

I will finish the rest of the rock formations today and then tomorrow after it has dried, I will paint it.

Then it is the joy of shingling.....Did I mention that I don't like that job either? I don't mind putting them on. It's the staining that I can't stand. I don't have an excuse not to start doing it. I ordered several bags of them from miniatures.com months ago. I knew that I was going to need piles of them. Remember the houses under the bed with the trolls still have to be done, not to mention the others in the workroom.

I feel like I am getting a lot accomplished. I think Mookie feels that way too. He doesn't like to eat poly clay, fortunately. He just thinks that it is fun to mess with. Strange cat. I am getting worried. One of these days he is going to take over the sculpting. Anything he sees me doing, he thinks he can do better.

I have to go see what he has destroyed this time.......See you tomorrow.

Here There Be Dragons.......

I started the morning talking to friends on MSN. We did some catching up. We haven't done that for a long time. It was great fun. After a couple of hours of that I got to work making rocks....Again....Some more.....Still. The white areas are the new rocks. Nope. I didn't get too far. Did I mention that I'm sick of rocks? Yes, I think I did...A few times.

I got sidetracked. The gang from this morning agreed to meet again at noon and do more catch up. I was 18 minutes late because of the rocks. They have to be carved while they are still wet.

After another hour of chatting I went back to work. I was completely disinterested in rocks by that time.

I decided dragons would be more interesting. The attention span of a six year old came into play once again. I went to the computer and started looking at images of dragons. You ask what does that have to do with the Buttercup Bookshop? I got the idea that there were way too many windows on the front of the shop. I decided that the round window at the top was not needed. Thus the dragons. I am going to put a stone dragon head up there and perhaps wings on either side too.

If I have to, I will put a buttercup blossom in his teeth to tie him into the bookshop. Or maybe his name is Buttercup.

Anyway, this is as far as I got. He is Super Sculpy. He is very crude so far. I will do a lot more detail work on him before painting. As I said before, he will probably have wings that will fit up under the eaves of the shop.

The lines around him on the tile are the shape of the underside of the eves. That will be my guide for the rest of the piece. Here's his other side. I do have a long way to go. He needs a lot of tender loving care. I think that I am going to like him better than a window though.

Just keep this thought in mind....."Don't annoy the dragon for thou art crunchy and taste good with catchup."....With that I will leave you for today. Back to the rock pile.

See you tomorrow.

Normality Has Returned

Yesterday I had to clean up the table in the family room where I was working on the Buttercup Bookshop. The witches needed a place to work on their minis and eat. It was freaky to see the actual top of the table, to say the least. This is what it looked like this morning when I got up. It just didn't look right to me.

To add to the scariness, the termite people were sending a man out for the yearly check of the house. Here in Arizona that is the normal way of doing things. During the monsoon season the little creepy crawly things come out to chew. They are almost as bad as the trolls.

Anyway, I went straight into my work room and made it freaky clean also. I thought that it would be good if the inspector could at least see the floor. By this time I was getting really paranoid about not having any kind of mess to look at........ He inspected and left. OK.

As soon as he left I started to get things back where they belonged. I won't show you the workroom. That is pretty boring. Nothing on the floor. Don't tell anyone that the messes were all shoved onto shelves and still have to be sorted. I looked at that and felt somewhat better. I may still get up the gumption to go in there and do some more straightening now that the floor is clean. Therefore, no messes in there. I did however fix the family room.

The table is still way too neat for working purposes. I can live with it. I can now run around like a mad woman looking for a lost miter box or my favorite Exacto knife. I have 5 or 6, but I like the soft handled charcoal gray one the best.

After I got it back to a partial mess I went to work on the second floor windows. I managed to get all of them done all but the big one in the center. I still have to do the leading on the outside of that one. I glued the others in place and you get to watch the glue drying. I just promised to go back to work today. I did not promise to do anything exciting!

Maybe tomorrow I will try for "exciting". I'm not making any promises though. Maybe I will just cross stitch a mini panel and frame it. It will read, "Bless This Mess!

See you tomorrow.

Minis That Aren't........

I am cruising around the house looking for something to put on the blog today. Wednesday is always difficult because of the witches. Today the meeting was at my house, so the getting ready took most of the morning. The meeting took about 3 hours and the cleaning up is yet to be done.

I didn't get anything done in mini. I hit upon the minis that I have that aren't really minis. For years I have been picking up things that are full sized objects that are disguised as minis. One example is all of the terrariums and birdcages that I use.

If you have been doing minis long un-mini minis accumulate. When I first started doing minis, cast metal pencil sharpeners were all the rage. They came in a lot of different forms. Some were stoves, some were spinning wheels(top floor of the Witches' Warehouse). Then there was the gramophone with the morning glory speaker. They all came in an antiqued copper or brass finish. I discovered, and probably so did a lot of other people, that they could be painted with Ceramcoat. This one was all copper when it started out. I went wild painting roses on the inside of the speaker like a real one that I had seen in an antique shop. I think it is finally going to find a home, after 30 years, in the attic of the bookshop. That's the mini-ing that I did today. I put it in the attic.

After that, Goolob put out a line of wind-up toys that were in the form of "real" items. I got a table saw and a microwave oven.

The blade turns in this one when you wind it up. The turntable in the microwave goes around. Unfortunately, the microwave is a bilious green. When I use it, I am going to have to see how the Ceramcoat works on it.

Next came a line of refrigerator magnets. They are plastic. It was only a few years ago that I found them, but they seem to have already disappeared from the scene. They are more like half scale. There were Old time stoves, new stoves, other appliances and my favorite is the sewing machine. The only problem with some of them was that the magnet was in a little box molded to the back and sometimes they can be hard to remove. I had a washer and dryer too. Those are lost in the workroom somewhere at the present time. Please don't tell me that I need to clean again!

One of my all time favorites is this dog from Japan. He is ceramic and was not meant to be a miniature. He is the perfect size and moves from scene to scene. There is some kind of a process that they use to make hair that is kind of like making pasta. It is squeezed out through a tube and then attached to the figurine. I know that he doesn't look altogether real, but I like him so he lives in any building that suits his fancy.

What is the point of all of this? I think that I may have said it before, but I'll say it again. Keep an eye out. You never know where you are going to find the perfect mini that isn't really a mini to other people. It's just a cute pencil sharpener or refrigerator magnet.

Tomorrow I will get back to work.

See you then.

New Glue Tool!

The sum total of my mini work today was two leaded windows. The photo is about as exciting as glue drying........ I have an excuse. Our microwave oven died a horrible death! I had to go find a new one. I went to three stores looking for one like our old one. Didn't find one. Had to settle. Not happy.

Anyway, I didn't get started doing minis until after I got back. That's my excuse and I'm sticking with it. I am not mentioning that I had coupons for both Michael's(2 for 50% off) and Jo Anne's(1 for 40% off). That netted me half price DAS, half price Yes Glue and 40% off of the silly glue pen(see below).

See the little gadget in the photo? Maybe some of you already have one of these. It is put out by Aleene's Tacky. I paid 63 cents for it with coupon. I think that it is going to be a cult classic. Those that find it will love it.

It is made of soft squeezy plastic and has a very fine point. It is filled with fast drying Aleene's. I am not sure that I will keep using that. What is nice about the little softy is, it's refillable. They don't tell you that on the outside, but I imagine that they had to make it so that the top comes off if it's little nose gets stuffed up. And the other nice feature is that handy dandy top that is airtight. When it runs out, I will probably fill it with something other than the fast drying stuff. I always fight with that. It is faster than I am.

I am probably the only person that gets excited about a new glue bottle. So.....I will send you site seeing to make up for it.

The first site is one that has lots of free patterns for stained glass windows and such. They are about the right size for minis. If they don't fit, you can download them and change the size yourself. I do that in my Print Shop program. http://chantalstainedglass.50megs.com/

The second one is a rug hooking site that I ran onto a couple of days ago. The patterns would be suitable for either bunka rugs or punch needle. There are even a few crazy people that do mini rugs with the dreaded french knot. That would work too. I saved the website for future use and I thought that others might like some of the things on there too. http://www.punchneedlepatterns.com/pnphome.html

This is a great use for the new glue applicator. I may have to make a bunka rug to see how it works. You go site seeing and I will go play in the glue.

Oops! I forgot to mention that I finished this last night. All it needs is black pen along the edges and a quick press.

See you tomorrow.

Tufting 101

Today I started concentrating on the second floor. I decided to fill in the blanks on the bay window seat. I didn't want it to be the same as the first floor. I am tufting the seat and the front panel. Here's how.

First measure the two areas that are to be padded. Then cut mat board to fit the areas. I chose to do a simple 3 button tuft for both. You can pick any sort of pattern in diamonds or squares. Mark the places that you want the buttons. Poke a hole in each spot with a needle or hat pin. Next pad with batting. I did two thicknesses of the thin stuff for the seat and one for the front panel.

Next cover the padded boards with fabric. Miter the corners and glue all around to the back.

Using 3 strands of knotted embroidery floss, come up from the back side through one of the holes. Either do a double twist french knot or put a seed bead on the needle and then go back down through the same hole. Do this in all of the holes and then tie off on the back side.

You can use this technique on the top part of a chair cushion before gluing it to the body. This can also be used to make padded headboards for beds among other things. I put the pads in place in the bay. I haven't glued them in yet. I still need to do the windows.

I also did a bit of wood trim on this side of the room. I plan to make lots of cushions to put in the space.

It's a long way from done. I guess it's about time to break out some more wood scraps for the dollhouse eating trolls under the bed until I finish. I definitely need to work faster!

See you tomorrow.

New Seat for an Old Chair

I am still gathering things to put in the bookshop attic. I went through a bunch of older furniture that I had in a drawer. I knew that somewhere I had a small wicker chair that would fit in the corner of the attic. The space is so small that it needs stuff that is on the small side.

I found the chair, but didn't like the cushion that was on it. I knew that I wanted to put a tuffet there, so I dug out some fabric that matched the side of the tuffet.

This is all you need to do a box cushion for a chair or even a box pillow. I cut the seat shape out of 1/4" foam core. Then I cut a top piece from poster board. I don't have it in the photo, but I also cut padding for the top piece from the thinnest quilt batting.

Next, cut fabric to cover the edge of the foam core and wrap around the top and the bottom and fabric to cover the top and wrap to the back. Clip all around.

Glue all of the edges down. Then glue the top piece to one side of the bottom. Cut a piece of fabric to cover the bottom of the cushion. It doesn't have to be fancy. If you are lucky no one will ever turn it over to see what you did.

After this dries, glue braid on the line between the two pieces. In this case I used braid to match that of the tuffet.

I made a pillow to match with the method used in the previous bed tutorial.

You can make any shape of box cushion using this method. If you are doing a lose cushion that will be moved around, I suggest that you pad both sides and use the braid or other trim along both edges.

Here's the finished chair and tuffet in the corner of the attic. At least now there are some books and a place to sit and read them in the attic.

I guess I should go see what else I can dig up or start building more furniture. Let's see.....I still need a place to store all of the books in the attic and maybe a work space for mixing potions. Back to work.

See you tomorrow.