Experimenting Can Be Fun........

For just about as long as we have had a computer I have been making the old tried and true fabric rugs printed on muslin, stuck to freezer paper. This is where I learned to do it. http://www.printmini.com/printables/fabric.shtml Jim Collins has lots of great printies and offers this info on a side bar. It is kind of hard to read so just right click on it and poke "Select All". That will make it visible. If you search I think that there are some other sites that have instructions. The main thing is taking care in preparation and cutting of the paper and fabric.

For these particular rugs, I simply folded under the edges and glued them with white glue and then fringed a separate strips of muslin and glued them to either end of the rug. Yes, I know that the top one needs pressing. They have been in a box for years. They are part of a stash that I went crazy making when I first learned how to do it. I sprayed them with Patricia Nimock's Matte Spray Sealer. The color has held up pretty well.

At my usual 3:00AM "wake up and make plans for the day" time, because I can't get back to sleep, I had a light bulb go on above my head. Don't ask me why. I have no idea, but some of my best "spearmints"(experiments and spearmints were interchangeable words to my daughter when she was little) come to mind at that time of morning.

I said to myself "Self, why can't I iron #22 hardanger cloth that I use for cross stitch to the freezer paper and print on it?" I actually thought about it long enough that it didn't disappear by morning.

Here's a piece with the corner cut out so that you can see what it looks like. I wouldn't run this one through the printer because I didn't cut and measure carefully and I wouldn't want it to get stuck. The fabric and paper must be fused together well, especially at the edges and there should be NO threads hanging when you do any of this kind of thing. Printers tend to get hungry for spaghetti when they see threads hanging and start devouring your paper/fabric from the edges in.

I guess I didn't explain why I wanted to do this. There are many beautiful rugs on the net. It would be so much easier if you didn't have to graph them all.

http://www.1001arearugs.com/ Here is one of my favorite rug websites. The nice thing about these are they are a flat image that you can just use as is. If you poke the thumbnails you get a rug that is about 1/24" scale. If you poke that one you get one that is a pretty good 1/12. If you want it larger you can save it to a file and enlarge it.

Soooooo.....Here is the end result.

Now I will be able to start stitching. I think that if I do it again, I will run a test sheet on regular paper to make sure that the size of the rug will work on my #22 or #24. This one comes pretty close without trying. I was lucky. I also think that this method will be better for abstract designs and non formal.

I will keep you posted on how it stitches. I am off to find thread now.

See you tomorrow.

A Little Bit of ME.

Remember the little shelf unit that I got a couple of days ago at the rummage sale? I couldn't stand it anymore. I stripped it's paper yesterday. I found that the person that made it didn't glue in the drawer front as I had assumed. They just never bothered to put a knob on the front. Thank you, whomever you are. (Is it whomever or whoever? I never can remember the rule on that one.) I pulled the drawer out and proceeded to take the wallpaper off. Thank you again who/ whomever. The wallpaper was glued in with a little white glue here and there and it was really easy to strip. I sanded it because it was gloss white paint. It would not have held onto another coat without the sanding.

I had no plans for what to do next, but it looked to me like something to hang in a kitchen. My real kitchen is mostly black and white, so it got a coat of black Ceramcoat. That alone made a world of difference. This is how it looked with only one coat.

Instead of watching paint drying, I cut out templates for wallpaper. I used illustration board(like mat board only cheaper at Michael's) for the back wall. I am not sure why the makers of this kit opted to make the back part of the wall inset. Maybe they thought that people would only put paper on that one. I like it with three so I traced two side pieces on poster board. I kept dry fitting them and trimming until they were just a bit smaller than the outer walls. I needed to allow for the thickness of the wallpaper wrapping around to the back of the pieces.

I sprayed the pieces of board with Elmer's spray glue and put them face down on the paper. A side note here. If you have something like this paper with noticeable stripes that you want to get straight, hold it up to a window or put it on a light box and position the board on it. I used the family room window. I tried really hard to ignore all of the dirt. Repeat after me. "Miniature making is much more important than washing windows. They just get dirty again the day after you do it."

Anyway, I then trimmed the edges about 1/4 to 1/2" all around. When you want to cover a curved piece like this with either paper or fabric, you have to clip the edges. Always remember to cut Vs in the outside curves and just slits in the inside curves. And don't forget to cut a 45° angle on all of the outer corners.

By that time, the second coat of paint was dry. I glued the edges on all three pieces around to the back. I used Aileen's fast grab for this. It does just that. Grabs fast! Then I used the same to glue the pieces in place in the vignette. I put the side pieces in first and then the back.

I cut a piece of illustration board to fit the floor and covered it with a scrap of old black and gold wallpaper that I had stashed.

The last thing I did was find some buttons in grandma's button box and stack them from large to small and glue them together. These are the drawer pull. I don't imagine that I will be using the drawer much, so they will work just fine.

Now about that ME in the title of the entry. In case you haven't already figured it out. It's because of the wallpaper. It is a Mary Englebreit design. Now all I have to do is go look for something ME style to put in the scene.

I am going to go digging through my stuff and see if I can find something suitable. Hopefully I won't have to make anything. Maybe I will get the workroom a little straighter while I am hunting(and hippos fly). OK. I'm fibbing. I will probably totally ignore the surroundings while I search.

See you tomorrow.

Mum's the Word!

Since yesterday a couple of people contacted me by e-mail and asked about a tutorial for the mums. I am in the midst of straightening my workroom, once again. I decided to just say yes to the request. That lets me off the hook for the day as far as reporting on the basket shop.


So here goes! Keep in mind that all of the photos are way larger than the real thing. To make mums from quilling paper you need quilling paper. It should be 3/16" wide or larger. You could make it from smaller, but it would be awfully knit picky.

You also need a small pair of sharp scissors, a needle tool and some glue. I use Aileen's fast grab. That's it.

The first thing you do is fringe one edge of the paper with the scissors. the fringing doesn't have to be perfectly regular. If you really wanted these to look good, you would make them exactly the same and round the edges of each fringe end......I am not that crazy! I am more likely to just tell people that they are fake miniature flowers. In the real world people use big paper flowers for decoration all the time. I don't see why mini people can't do the same. If you want to make them look like the real thing go ahead and round the tips and be sure to curl each individual tip.......As I said before, I am not that crazy!

After you have decided to take the easy way out, grab your needle tool. Place the end of the paper in between the prongs and put some glue on the back edge of the end. When you roll it around toward yourself the glue will automatically catch onto the next layer of paper. I unrolled the flower so that you could see where I placed just a little glue in the center of the strip at the bottom. That's all you need. You don't have to do it on the whole strip. Tightly wrap the strip around itself, jelly roll fashion. When you get it as large as you want the flower, cut it off and glue down the end.

I usually fringe a whole strip at a time. That will make a lot of flowers. You can vary the size.

Before you take it off of the needle tool, use your fingernail to pull the petals outward all around. Then gently pull it off. There will be a hole in the center. You can put a stamen in there if you want with a piece or two or thread. I don't usually bother. No one looks at the bouquet and says "Hmmmm.....She forgot the stamen.". At least they don't have the nerve to say it to my face.

You will find that the back of the flower is pretty flat and rigid. That's why I usually just glue them on the floral foam and stick a few leaves here and there. If you really want to, you can put them on a wire stem by gluing it into the center hole from the back. I prefer the first method for these particular flowers.

If you want to make leaves, just take a piece of the green quilling paper and cut a curve at a 45° angle to the edge of the paper. Then cut another one on the opposite side making a pointed oval shape. I just stick these in between the flowers here and there to fill in.

You will need some kind of pot or vase to put them in, but that doesn't really count as part of the process. In the case of the terracotta pot in the photo, I just used a plain round pot and stuffed it with dry floral foam. I glued the flowers on the foam starting at the top with a large flower and filled it in with various sizes and colors until I got to the bottom edge. Some of the flowers are actually stuck half to the foam and half to the pot, thus giving the illusion of some of the flowers drooping over the edge. After the flowers, just put a dab of glue on the end of the leaves and squeeze them between the flowers here and there.

I would love to see the results if anyone makes these. Have fun with them. I am bravely going back to the work room now. Wish me luck.

See you tomorrow.

Happy Halloween

That says it all today. I have rounded up the trolls and put them in their cage. They tend to get really rowdy on Halloween. The eat every piece of wood in site.....Oops. I think I made a terrible mistake. The cage is partially made of, you guessed it, WOOD!!!

I am not at all sure that they like candy corn. I can only hope.

My friend George has been around for Halloween for many years. He doesn't eat at all. He just guards all of the mini buildings that I have made over the years and holds off the dollhouse trolls. Good old George!

I will give you a quick tutorial today. This is a class that I taught the

Wednesday Witches last Halloween. All of the things that I made it from are either cheap or free. The skeleton came in a garland from Wal-Mart. The little fence, Spanish moss and pumpkins came from the craft department there. The plot of land came out of an aerosol can from there and the tree came out of my back yard.

We started from the bottom up. I actually did the basic ground and tree before the witches gathered.

The land is made of "Great Stuff" insulating foam sealant. It's the "big gap filler" kind. You will find it in hardware along with paints and Spackle. It is really great stuff. You have to be careful with it. It is really sticky and they warn you to wear gloves and protective eye wear. I did just fine with garden gloves and my usual glasses. I took it out on the back patio and laid out some wax paper. Then I shook the can and squirted out a pile of the stuff for each plot of land. The stuff grows, so you have to kind of experiment with how much and what shape you want.

You have to let it dry well. If I do it again I think I will plan on overnight. This, I let dry for about 4 hours. Anyway, when you get it the shape that you want it, take a branch and poke it in the foam where you want the tree. I propped them up with various devices shoved under the branches and not touching the foam. This stuff will stick to anything so don't get anything too close to it.

After it dries thoroughly, the tree will stand up by itself. Then I sprayed the ground with basic brown paint. I had the witches put on other colors of brown and black to give more reality to the ground.

Then they decided where they wanted the fence and the skeleton to be in the scene. The fence is easy. It comes in long strips and you just cut of as many pickets as you need. You can push things down into the foam just like you can with Styrofoam. They made indentations, put in some white glue and then stuck the fences in place. They glued on the greenery here and there. Then they put a few little pumpkins, etc. around.

The fun part was placing the skeletons. Mine is fairly boring. One of the witches had her skeleton climbing the tree and another had hers hanging in a noose.

I think that the most valuable part of this whole thing is the Great Stuff. The possibilities are endless. It would be great for landscaping in lots of different situations. All we have to do is learn to control it. It's kind of like the monster that ate Cleveland when it starts growing! Did I mention that you can carve it with a steak knife if it gets out of control?

I will be back at the basket shop tomorrow.

See you then.

Mini Tole 101

I am trying to keep the blindfold over your eyes until the grand opening now. So today I will teach you some mini tole painting.

My thanks go out to Carol Duvall for this idea. For those of you that don't know who she is, she is "the queen of crafts" and used to have a daily show on HGTV. It is still on a couple of time a week in reruns.

She had all kinds of tutorials on her show about how to do real sized crafts. She swore up and down that she couldn't tole paint, but on one show she taught this technique in "big" with the wrong end of a paint brush. A light bulb went off above my tiny brain while she was working. Paint brush handle in real life = toothpick end in miniature. I started experimenting and came up with mini tole painting like her life sized version.

All you need to do it is some of the fancy toothpicks with carving at one end. Most import shops carry these and I pick them up at "Cracker Barrel Restaurants" on the freeway. You can use regular toothpicks, but I like the carved ones because that gives you two different sizes of circle to work with.

In the case of the flowers that I did here, I used the ever present Ceramcoat in red, white, blue and green. You can use whatever colors you like. You do need a pretty high contrast duo for the roses. For practice, I used plain old card stock to work on.

Here you see the basic steps. I should mention that the practice photos are way larger than the real thing. That's so that you can see better.

For the roses....Using the blunt end of the toothpick for practice, pick up a dot of red and place it on your practice surface. Then put a dot of white overlapping it by about 1/2. Take the pointy end of your stick and dig into the two puddles and stir. Don't stir too long or you will end up with solid pink. The bottom rose is what you want to end up with .

For the leaves.... Same dot with the big end of the toothpick. Pull out from the center with the pointy end again to make a leaf shape. The pointy end will be away from the flower. Then if you want to get really fancy you can fan the points by repeating the process several times in a fan shape.

For the little daisy like flowers you simply put 3, 4, or 5 dots (small end) in a circle and put a contrasting dot in the center.

Last but not least, the little blue sprays of lilac like flowers are just a series of dots in an arc. The largest on closer to the flowers. You do this by not re dipping the toothpick in the paint. Load the small end well and you can get about 5 dots before you have to dip again.

Once you get in some practice, you can do smaller flowers with the pointy end of your stick. When you look at these up close they seem sloppy on the practice sheet. When you put them on a piece of furniture they look pretty impressive.

I did this armoire this morning in about 20 minutes. I drew the stems on the doors with dark green. I tried to make them match up as mirror images. Then I started with the roses first. Always do the largest element first and work down to the smallest. I did roses, daisies, leaves and last was the lilacs.

Once you get the hang of this technique you can branch out(pardon the pun) into other flowers and different designs.

Have fun with it and let me know how it goes.

See you tomorrow.

Step Right Up!

I ran off another copy of the shop sign and while I was at it I made some signs for inside the shop. No. You can't see them yet.

I got to thinking about what else the shop needed. I was wandering around and in the warehouse I found an old step stool. The customers need it to get to the top shelf on the second floor. I decided that while I was at it, I would give you the directions on how to make one. It is one of the earlier pieces that I made. I got the directions out of a magazine for the real thing and miniaturized it.

It is really simple and was a woodworking project for beginning woodworkers in the real world. Anyone just starting to get interested in minis could probably tackle it. There are only 4 pieces to it.

You will need tools...Exacto knife, sandpaper and white glue. You will need supplies. 1/8" thick bass wood stock. You can get this at a mini shop or Michael's. Please don't use balsa. It will not hold up and it stains weird. You can leave the stool raw or buy stain or paint for it. I use either Minwax stain or Ceramcoat paint that you can get at Michael's also.

When you poke the photo you can see the dimensions better. It is pretty straightforward. If you are going to do mini furniture it is a good idea to have a quad rule planning pad at hand.

Simply draw up plans to match the one in the photo. Cut them out with an Exacto knife. Bass wood is semi soft and with a few passes of the knife you can cut it out. Use a cork backed, metal ruler as a guide and stand up over the top of the wood as you cut it. You will get a straighter line if you do this.

After you get it cut out, sand it. Try not to sand the edges where you will be gluing too much. Stain or paint if you wish. Then glue it together as in the photo. I have better luck if I glue on the bottom step first. The front edge of the steps will stick out about 1/16" on both steps. You can either glue the ends on a little bit inside the end, making the overhang the same on all three sides. The back of the top step should be flush with the back of the sides so that it can sit flush against a wall or, in this case, a counter. I further distressed the one in the photo. After the stain was dry I sanded wear marks on the front of the steps. You could also do some tole painting on it if you want to get fancy. Maybe tomorrow I will teach you an easy way to paint roses on it.

This would be a good little stool to go in a children's room or kitchen, as well as a shop. Have fun making it.

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.

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.

Now That the Books Are Done.....

I was going through some websites looking at neat book covers this morning.....The only trouble was there were only front covers. Then I remembered some of the book covers that I have been using from the web. The lightbulb went on above my head. It was kind of a "Duh" lightbulb. You know the kind. The one where you sit and say to yourself "That is so easy! Why didn't I think of that?".

I opened my trusty Print Shop program. These are photos that I took directly from my computer screen so they aren't the brightest, but they will do for explaining. I pulled up a "blank page" to work on and started copying the books that I wanted to do.

As I said, they were only front covers. That's all I needed. Here's what you do. You make three copies of the cover in the size that you want the finished book. In this case, I wasn't too exact because I didn't want to have the books all exactly the same size.

You squeeze one of them sideways until it is as thick as you want the spine of the book to be.

Then you put together one of the wide covers, one of the spines and another wide cover. Don't overlap or leave any gaps between them.

Of the ones that you see here, the last one in the middle row and the two bottom ones were done like this. I got lucky on the other two. They had the front cover and the spine together. I only had to crop the front cover to make the back.

After that, you print them out, cut them out and score the edges of the spine. Then you glue a piece of "Foamies" kids' craft foam, the right size inside and there you have it. One new book, made to order! Or in this case, lots of books made to order!

Book of the Month Club has a website with lots of covers. Have fun!

See you tomorrow.

It's Complicated.......

I had a comment from Star this morning on the swags, asking "Were the Victorian curtains the same as the ones today or were they more simple?". A one word answer will do it. Nope. They were definitely more complicated! The Victorians were crazy about fancy decoration. If they could add an extra trim, flounce, or fancy shape to the curtains, they would.

This is the illustration from the front of the book. I don't think that I will get in trouble for showing you this one. This is one of the simpler designs! They were in love with asymmetrical designs and the more layers, the better. This window has three different fabrics. The curtain on the right is what they used to call "glass curtains". It is what we would call sheers. The one on the left would be lace. The top blue one would probably have been a darker color than the illustration and probably velvet or other heavy material. The trim would have been gold braid and gold work embroidery with gold tiebacks. Notice the cord tiebacks all have tassels on the ends. Another use for our mini tassels! The nice thing about this design is you don't have to make anything match. Even the height of the tiebacks on the inner curtains is not the same.

And now for more mini variations. With the pattern that I used yesterday, you can do a double sized window simply by making two of the swag pieces, two of the end pieces and the piece in this photo. All you need to do is first put the two swags over the bar. Then add this piece over the center, between them. Then proceed with the outer jabot pieces as per instructions. BTW, I noticed that in the book the end pieces and the center piece are called festoons. I kind of like that.

This next one is a valence that was used with long curtains. It is simply a 3 sided box with fancy cutouts on the largest side. This is also from the book. In there they show a variation where they put stained crown molding around the top edge of the valence as an accent, with a carved cartouche in the center of the molding. I think I am going to have to try that variation sometime in a formal setting.

This is fairly straightforward. Cut the pieces in the photo out of mat board. Glue them together.Glue a piece of fabric to the front that is about an inch larger all around.

Trim it like the first photo. Make little ears on the top edge. Fold them down and then glue the sides over these.

Trim the outer edge flush with the mat board. Clip the inside edges as shown in the photo. Turn them under with glue. Don't worry about it looking nice on the back side. When you glue the draperies in place the inside will be covered.

Now turn it over to the front side and cover the edges with braid or bunka. Spread some glue on the backside and insert the draperies. I cheated this morning. I didn't want to fuss with draperies, so I put some striped material under the valence to illustrate what they would look like.

Don't forget to poke the little photos to make them big.

The last step is to put it in the dollhouse and enjoy.

Once again, I need to clean up the mess that I made working on these. See you tomorrow.

Good Old Swags

Back in the 80s I taught classes on making draperies,cornice boxes and swags. The book that you see in the photo is my bible for all things to cover windows and lots of info on draping beds and vanities in the Victorian style.

It was written in 1889. Someone re issued it in 1979. I grabbed it and guard it with my life. It has patterns and diagrams for every form of drapery and curtain known to man from that time back. I don't think that it is in print anymore unless someone has re issued it again. If you ever run across a copy grab it!

Anyway, I decided to re draw my patterns for swags this morning. The old patterns were actually turning yellow and had age spots! It's scary that I drew them that long ago.

Now for the directions. The patterns that follow are for the swag and jabot. If you sew, you can line the pieces by machine. I did them this morning with Wonder Under. I ironed two contrasting fabrics together(about 12" square) with the WU bond in the middle.

****Additional note since yesterday when I wrote this! I used the Wonder Under yesterday thinking that it would be a time saver. It was. It worked like a charm. I glued the pieces together with my favorite Elmer's glue. When I got home from Wednesday Witches mini meeting I picked up the curtain and the three pieces fell apart. Evidently the WU releases chemicals into the fabric when heated that prevent Elmer's from sticking. I went back and tried Tacky this morning. It is a heavier bodied glue. The Tacky worked. When I got back from town a couple of hours later they were stuck together just fine. I guess Wonder Under just likes heavier glue! ****

Here is the pattern. It is two simple pieces. You do have to make sure that you cut mirror images for the jabots so that they will slant towards the center of the window.

Remember that all of the pieces should be cut lengthwise of the grain of the fabric in order to match.

I cut the sides of the jabot 1/2" narrower since I didn't need a seam allowance. Five inches is a good length for the outside on an average window. You can vary that to suit tho. I didn't change any measurements on the swag.

I always do my curtains on a pin board with graph paper on it. It makes getting things even much easier.

Start with the swag. Turn 1/2" of the top edge over a 1/4" strip of wood and glued it on the front and back. I pinned the top and wood strip to the board. Put a pin in the center of the fabric about 1/2" down from the top of the board. Now bring about 1/3 of the fabric edge on either side up in a pleat and pin it in place. Again, put a pin in the center about 1/2" down and bring up another third of the fabric and pin on the ends. Do it a third time and it should look like the photo. The edges will naturally draw into the sides as you pull the center down with the pins.

Now take a jabot and pin the long side to the board with the pins slanted away from the material. Put a pin 3/4" away at the top and bottom. Bring the lose fabric back in a pleat. This should be 1/2" wide over the preceding fabric and there should be 1/4" of the edge that isn't covered. Pin this. Make a last pleat. The whole thing should be about 1" wide. Do it again with the other side. It doesn't have to be exact.

Spray all of the pieces with heavy duty, unscented hairspray. Let it dry. Do it again. Now gently release the pins and put some glue in all of the pleats and re pin. Let that dry. Do it carefully if you are sewing. With wonder under the glue is not likely to bleed through the fabric.

The last step is to fold the jabots over the top of the rod and glue. Let them dry. You can either cut off the rods so that nothing shows or put some fancy beads on the ends to represent finials on the rods.

I forgot to mention that this will fit a standard single Houseworks window. You can just glue it to the wall over the window and hold it down with painter's tape until it's dry.

There are a lot of variations on these curtains. I didn't trim them because I wanted you to be able to see what was happening with the folds. You can fancy them up with braid or other edging.

This is all you get for today. I am thinking that this needs to be more than one entry. I will put up a version for a double window and some different patterns for valences tomorrow.

See you then.

To Quilt or Not to Quilt.....

Someone asked yesterday about how to do mini quilts. There are many ways. I thought I would throw in my favorite.

Let me explain. I prefer doing it like the blue and white one that I showed you the other day. That is, I like doing it with stitchery. If I have to do it the real way, I like English paper piecing. So here goes.

Here are a couple of hexagon blocks that I did this morning to show you. The one on the left is done with some material that had stripes of the blue alternating with stripes of the roses. So theoretically you only need one piece of material to do this one. It would end up looking kind of like a lattice work piece. The other one is two compatible materials that would end up looking kind of contemporary, considering the patterns.

This is the pattern that was popular back in the depression and called Grandmother's Flower garden. If you do it in the traditional pastels it would look totally different from either one of these.

I prefer not to follow that pattern because the original hexes in that pattern are only about 2" across. It would look way out of scale. I have done these with a 3/8" hexagon that came from a template that is used for drawing diagrams of furniture by designers in 1/4" scale. It is actually for a lamp in the layouts. As you can see, I drew a bunch of the hexes side by side so that it would be easy to cut them out.

After you cut them out, you cover them with fabric by putting a spot of glue stick glue on one side and laying it on the back of your fabric. You have to allow enough space for about 1/8" inch of fabric all around each piece.

By laying the template over the fabric you can pick and choose what you want on each piece.

Here you can see that I aligned the pieces so that they would form a pattern. You need to keep the grain of the fabric straight. That is, you need it running from point to point or flat side to flat side. Otherwise you will have trouble with fraying.

Now you baste the fabric over the back, folding the points under as you go. The top mostly white piece shows the seam allowance. The second one is the back after stitching and the bottom one is the front.

Starting at one corner, whip stitch the edges of one side together. Do this with the patches facing.

Next, one piece at a time, yo will add the next four pieces. Whip stitch two sides. You will have to bend the center piece to do the second side.

The last patch is added by sewing on three sides. Again you will have to do a bit of manipulating to keep the sides together as you sew. To finish, you will pull all of the paper pieces out. When you do, you will be surprised at how "quilted" it looks. You can back it with fabric or if it is not going to show you can simply iron on a pellon backing.

Now for the good news. You don't have to do hexagons. You can do squares for a nine patch or long strips to do a log cabin.

If you decide that you don't want to do it by hand, you can opt to use a machine and do foundation piecing. If you are interested in that method, try this site. http://www.quilt.com/HowTo/FoundationHowToPage.html It goes into much more detail than I could here.

I am going back to finish the blue and white quilt now. Then I am going to make a bed. It will need a home. See you tomorrow.

Today is Monday......

Monday equals washday. Well it does according to the old kids' song. So.....How about some things to help you do your wash? Technically these are for the drying part.

I am going to put you to work making clothespins, bag and a hanger on which to hang it.

I saw some clothespins at the first NAME National House party that I went to back in the early 80s. They were turned and made the hard way and were very expensive. When I got home I pulled out some of the fancy turned Japanese toothpicks that you can buy at the import stores. Here's what I came up with.

I cut most of the fancy part off with my razor saw and miter box. It takes only one stroke but turns out better than doing it with an Exacto knife and the pieces don't tend to fly so far.


Then I marked the toothpick at 3/8" long and cut again.

After that I held the toothpick bottom up between my finger and thumb and cut the slit down 1/4". That seems to control the cut and keep it in the center.

I then used an emery board to smooth the end into a V shape. That's all there is to it.

For the hanger I use a plastic coated paperclip. I get them at Wal-Mart. They come in lots of different colors in the package. I even found some that are striped! For hangers you need a pair of chain nosed pliers(Both points are round and needle nosed. They are usually found in the jewelry section.)and a pair of regular needle nosed pliers with flat openings. You bend one end in a circle. Straighten a neck. Bend for the shoulder. Use the chain nosed pliers to bend the curved end and do the same about an equal distance from the center. Bring the tail back up to the neck and cut the end off where it meets the neck. You can use the drawing in the photo. The bottom of the hanger is about 12" across. I do them this length so that they will fit into any of the clothes that I make, including children's sizes.

The bag is made of a scrap of cotton material. It is cut 1 1/4" wide by 2 1/2" long. In one end cut a "neck" out of the top. Then fold it in the center and cut a quarter inch triangle off for the shoulders. Put glue on the two long edges and across the shoulders. Sandwich one of the hangers in between the front and back. Press the front and back together. Let it dry. If you want a pocket on the front simply cut a strip to fit and glue the sides and bottom to the front. I used bunka for the trim. You can use anything you like. Perle cotton will do if you have it or silk ribbon. If you want clothespins on the edge of the pocket, put them on first and then put the trim around them. They will fit over the thickness of the fabric, but they will be difficult to push down over the trim.

Now I am going to go do my real laundry. I am not going to hang it out to dry. My excuse is that it's raining here........Well OK.....I wouldn't hang it anyway. The dryer is right next to the washer and the only clothespins that I have are the spring kind. I use them for holding together things while making minis. Nope. They have never touched laundry. Thank goodness for automatic washers and dryers! They make more time for mini-ing! See you tomorrow.