Quick and Very Easy.....

I have been working on real sized Christmas gifts today, so I had to dig around for something to put up for the holidays that would be, as the title says, quick and very easy.

I looked in the fabric closet for hints and found the material in the first photo. Red velveteen and a piece of Christmas print that I bought especially for minis a couple of years ago.

Most people, even beginners, have made Christmas stockings to hang on the mini mantle. I just thought that I would throw these in for the one or two that haven't.

If you can locate some of the material, it is a real time saver. You simply cut out the sock, back it with another fabric and put on some trim.

If you don't, it is simple enough to draw a sock shape or even put "Christmas Stockings" in the images command of your favorite search engine and trace one. If you cut it out with the back of the sock on the fold of the material, all you have to do is run a line of glue around the front, toe and bottom of the sock and squeeze it together. Let it dry and then decorate. I didn't have any fake fur so I simply used white braid, lace or low loft, bonded fiber fill on mine. White felt would work also. If you leave the top open, you can put toys and candy in the top. Oh! and don't forget to put a loop of thread at the top of the back to hang on the fireplace mantle.

I finished the 7 that you see in less than a half hour. Just as I finished, Tessie came waltzing in. She settled on a pincushion with her cookies, candy cane and hot cocoa. The first thing I knew, she had drawn up all of the stockings around herself.

"What are these for?" she asked.

"People hang them up on the fireplace and Santa puts small gifts in them."

She thought a minute and then said, "So the person hanging the sock gets the presents?"

"Yes. That's the way it is usually done." I answered.

"OK. I'll take these. How many more can you make before Christmas? If you make all of the socks on that piece of fabric, I can really make a haul!!!".....Then she started counting the socks on the fabric. She turned around and looked at me....." There are 137 stockings on the fabric...... And make a few bigger ones while you are at it. Can you make one that Spiderwort Manor would fit in?"

I ignored the question and pretended not to hear.

She grabbed the six socks in the photo, put them under her arm and left. I have heard a lot of hammering coming from various room boxes and houses that have fireplaces. She is hanging them wherever she can find a bare spot on a mantle. Did I mention that she has added a tag to each one that says "PRESENTS FOR TESSIE GO IN HERE!"

Santa is going to be very busy collecting coal to put in Tessie's socks this year.....

See you tomorrow.

'Tis the Season.....

It is now starting to look a bit like Christmas around here. Sort of. I am getting the bins of decorations out a little at a time.

Tessie has been watching carefully this year. Last year she wasn't much interested. I think that was because she really didn't know what to expect. This year she is embracing it with open arms..... She keeps wandering around the house, pointing at things and saying "Hmmmm, possible present for me.....". Then she sits down and puts that particular item on a list that is growing by leaps and bounds. She gets up, wanders on, dragging the list behind her and does the whole thing all over again. She has about half of my belongings on her "list of presents".

She approached me this morning very shyly.....Not our Tessie.... I knew it had to involve me making something for her. It did. She said sweetly, "Casey, if I pay you, would you make me a Santa Witch hat and a new Christmas apron." Since I had been thinking of doing that anyway,(Don't tell her that!) I enthusiastically joined the search for the right fabric. We found bright red with pin dot, polka dots and some of the fabric that looks like patchwork in a red colorway.

She wisely chose the pin dot for the hat. I made a cone shaped Santa hat....She insisted that it must have a brim. No self respecting person would wear a hat that didn't protect their nose from the sun! I finally gave up the argument and added the brim. I guess that is what she meant by Santa Witch hat.

I simply decided how tall I wanted the hat, drew a straight line down the material, then drew a semi circle at the bottom to fit Tessie's head. I seamed one straight edge with glue and turned it under. Then I ran a line of glue up the side and closed it into a cone shape.

Then I sat the cone on a double layer of the material and drew a circle around it for the brim. I cut a center circle out a bit smaller than the cone opening so that I would have an edge to glue the pieces together.

First I glued the top of the brim to the outside of the hat. Then I turned it over and glued that other piece to the inside with the right side facing out. That covered the edge of the cone.

About that time, Tessie came in without her old apron and announced that she was ready for the new one. There is no arguing with a witch that wants new clothes and wants them now. I grabbed the patchwork fabric and cut the skirt and bib of the apron from that. Then I cut straps and a waistband from the polka dot so that it would match her hat.

I glued under the two short sides of the skirt and one long side for hems. Then I did the same for the bib, leaving one side unglued on each piece.

I glued down a hem on both sides of the waistband and straps.

I gathered the waist of the skirt with needle and thread. I glued that and the bib to the back of the waistband.

She quickly pulled it around her waist and had me fasten it in the back. It fit. I glued one end of either strap to the inside front of the bib and then pulled the other end to the back and fastened them to the waistband.

After that was done, she condescended to "let"me finish the hat. I put on a band of fancy braid around the base of the cone. Then I glued bunka to the very edge of the brim to cover the raw edges. Then I put a knot of it on the tip top.

She grabbed it out of my hand before the glue was even dry. She plonked the hat on her head, jumped into a candle ring that was sitting beside us on the table and struck a pose......

She said, "Ho! HO! HO!!! Merry Christmas!". Then "OK. That's done. Now, what else can you make today? Are you up for starting Spiderwort Manor? If you start now, you might have it finished by Christmas!".

I walked out of the room laughing insanely. I heard, as I left. "Why are you laughing??? Don't laugh! This is serious! I want a new house for Christmas!"

As I seem to say so often since she moved in, "Don't hold your breath, Tessie!"

See you tomorrow.

OK! What Just Happened???

Tessie just made a BIG mistake! She erased the memory of my typing an entry for her, but she was very careless with allowing the entry to stay where I could see it. Of course, I am not sure how she could hide it unless she did something drastic to delete it. I don't think she has that ability. Good thing for me!

So....She thinks she's top dog? Hmmmmm....I am going to have to see about that.

She did talk, or should I say harass, me into making her a new place to sit whilst watching me work on projects. I am not sure if it will be useful to others or not. I am going to tell you about it, with the hope that it will spark some ideas.

She sits and watches me work a lot and she says she is tired from all of the zapping of chairs and chases. "It would be much easier if I only had to zap myself." she said.

So to humor her, I decided to build a seat into the lamp that I use all of the time for close ups. It has a base with different sized holes around the weighted base for pencils and other supplies. I don't use them because the lamp gets moved around a lot and they would just fall out.

You could use this method to build all kinds of overstuffed furniture. If you were to do that, I would suggest either ceiling tile or foam core for the base piece. I just used what was at hand.

We buy Fancy Feast cat food in a box of 12 cans. It has one or two pieces of really nice cardboard between the two layers. I save it and use it for all kinds of crafts. Actually, that's what I used for the cover of the "Vines" book the other day.

Anyway, I whipped out a piece of that and cut three shapes the same as the bottom of the hole I wanted to fill. Then I cut a long strip about the height that I wanted to fill in, in the space.

I then glued two of the shapes to the top and bottom of the strip, making a hollow form. This will never be seen, so I wasn't too worried about pretty.

I played around with the leftover piece, bending it this way and that to make the back and arms of the seat and trimming as I went. I should mention that all cardboard has a grain to it just like wood and will bend and form in one direction better than the other. If you run it over the edge of a counter or a desk, you will easily be able to force it to curve. That's what I did with both the strip and the back piece.

Next, I took the pieces and dry fitted them into place. They worked. I drew a line on the back where the base hit it. From that point up, I glued on some high loft quilt batting and cut the top to shape with a little extra for roll over. I covered this piece with the fabric. I glued down the bottom edge where there was no batting first and worked up to the top, rolling over the batting and fabric, then gluing the fabric to the back side.

I made this piece so that the lamp hole would just meet the edge of the roll.

Then I put two layers of batting on the last of the seat pieces and wrapped it with fabric, gluing it to the back.

The last step was simply wedging the pieces into place. I didn't want to make them permanent, just in case Tessie changes her mind.....We all know that happens.

I made a pillow with the remaining cardboard, some batting and a piece of the zebra patterned fabric. Now everything's coordinated and all's right with the world again.

With this technique, you can make other overstuffed pieces. They don't have to be in a hole. Experiment. Have fun.

Shame on you, Katie, for encouraging Tessie! She has been next to impossible to live with all day. I must go and follow more of her orders now.....

See you tomorrow.

Ohhh!!! A Sleep Over!!!

I got a bee in my bonnet to do a new tool roll this morning. I have made several over the years and the last one wore out a while ago. I thought that those of you that sew might like a tutorial "how to".

I went through my closet stash and found this bright, happy print. I laid the tools that I wanted to include in it on top of the fabric to determine how big it had to be. In this instance, I cut it half the width of the fabric and nine inches high. I cut two of the blue and one of low loft quilt batting.

I also cut a lengthwise folded piece of a contrasting fabric(orange) that was just a couple of inches longer than the base fabric. That, I lined with a layer of flannel. Some of the pockets will have to have a bit of depth to hold the tools. That will take up the extra inches.

I pinned the pockets in place over the tools. Then I basted all around the case and up each of the pocket lines with black thread, so that I could see it.

I took the tools out. then I started stitching.

You could do this part by machine. I like to hand sew. I am using a stem stitch and a blue Perle cotton about the same color as the blue in the background.I am stem stitching between the pockets, making sure to catch the batting with each stitch. I am not worried about going all the way through for now. I usually add some French knots and other stitching to the outside just for fun.

This is what I have done so far. Here you can see it with some of the tools in place. The black and white check bias will be the binding around the outside edge when I get to that part. I went crazy and cut bunches of that particular binding because I use it a lot. It is really handy to have it all cut and ready.

This is what I first cut the bias for. There is a wallet and a purse organizer. The organizer is essentially the same thing as the tool roll, only it doesn't have a tie or Velcro closing on it. You can tell that I also am a big fan of the blue fabric.....

Anyway, this will give you some idea of where I am headed with this.

Unfortunately, I think that this is going to have to be a two day project. I have only gotten as far as the third photo shows. It is already 4:00PM... I took the tools out to prepare to start stitching again.......Never turn your back on your work when Tessie is near!

She has it all figured out. Since I probably won't get the tools back into it tonight, she has confiscated it. She has proclaimed it a four person sleeping bag, with smaller pockets for pets and invited her sisters from the Witches Warehouse for a slumber party. Let's see....Three witches, a gypsy, several dogs and various cats, a couple of snakes and a few lizards, not to mention the alligator and the tiger......I am not sure that I am going to want to use the tool case when they get done with it! I am, for sure, going to have to launder it first. I just hope that bug beer comes out in the wash!

See you tomorrow with the rest of the story.

More Cleaning......

Yesterday I did more cleaning out and I found a lamp that I put together years ago. I thought that you might be interested in making something similar for a mini display.

It is a very simple thing to put together, but it is very nice to put a couple of minis on that you want to show off.

Here you see the basic lamp and parts for the shade. It was a "Christmas candle" type of lamp that I found at a garage sale. This one was pretty fancy because it came with the shade. I added a wooden plaque from the craft store. I had to sand, stain and finish it. Then I simply glued the candlestick to one corner.

When I was cleaning out, I found it and decided it needed a new shade. I carefully removed the paper form from the old shade. I traced around it onto card stock. Then with spray glue, I fastened the fabric of Tessie's choice to the new card stock form. I left about a half inch of excess fabric all around. I clipped the top curve and made notches in the bottom curve.

Then I ran glue around the edge of the top and wrapped the smaller ring with the paper shade. I glued the fabric around the frame and back onto the inside of the shade. Then I did the same with the bottom. I lined the seam up as I went and glued that also.

Since Tessie had to have black with spider webs, I did line the inside. If you did it with something lighter,you could probably skip that step.

Now for something to display on the plaque. I decided that Zar could use a breakfast tray for his bed.

Basically all it took was some scrap wood, some scrap needlepoint canvas, 1" wide and some mini trim. Oh and some stain or paint for the top. I used some "Golden Pecan" by Min wax.

I cut a top from 3/32" bass wood. It measured 2" X1 1/2". I rounded the corners. Then I wrapped a piece of 1" wide canvas around the top, gluing as I went. I overlapped on one side by about two mesh of the canvas. I then marked and cut an arch in the long sides. I didn't cut the short sides.

I wanted a magazine holder on either end. I cut a couple of pieces of bass that were the depth of the table and 1/4" wide. I rounded two of the corners on each one. I cut a piece of canvas long enough to go around the rounded side plus extra on each side to glue to the legs of the tray.

Here you can see how the bottom of the magazine holders were attached. The bottom is glued to the side and the sides are glued to fit over the first piece of canvas and trimmed even.

I dug through my stash and found a perfect braid to trim. you could use anything that you had for this. You could even braid your own with unraveled canvas if you wanted it to match exactly.

Tessie was standing by when I finished the tray. She plonked a hamburger and a cool drink on it and parked herself on the refinished lamp....."My lamp! My tray!"she proclaimed!

I am not going to give her an argument. She had her "Big Book of Evil Doings" stashed in the side pocket of the tray.

I will make another one for Zar. It didn't take that long and it will be easier than trying to fight Tessie for possession of the first one.

Back to work. See you tomorrow.

There's a Tiger In My Tub!!!

It seems that Tessie is not a very good provider. This morning Zar found Theo in his bathtub, fast asleep like Goldilocks, only without the bears. Theo has been sleeping there regularly, since Tessie didn't think to make him a bed at her cottage. Poor little tiger.

Zar was raising such a fuss. He wanted his bathtub back. He was planning to finish the bathroom today, or at least get more done.

I decided to swing into action and make Theo a cat bed. After all, he is just a big cat. That reminds me. I need to talk to Tessie about putting a "permanent cub" spell on him. I certainly don't want an adult tiger running around eating everything and everyone in sight!

I sat Theo on a scrap of 1/8" thick basswood. By doing that, I could see that he would fit in a bed about 2 1/4" long and 1 3/4" wide. I drew out the measurements on the scrap and rounded the corners. A penny was handy for that. You could make the bed any size and shape you wanted, to fit whatever animal you have just by doing the above steps.

I didn't feel like dragging out the jigsaw just for one piece, so I used my handy dandy jeweler's saw. Jeweler's saws are great for intricate cutting and handy when you are lazy and don't want to set up the large saw. It took about two minutes to cut it out.

I sanded the edges and then drew around the piece and made two of the same thing on card stock. I cut them just a hair smaller than the base. One will be covered and go on the bottom to finish and the other one will be padded for the bedding and stuck inside. I also cut a long strip of card stock that was 5/6" wide. This will be the sides of the bed. I stretched this piece around the bed and determined how much of the front I wanted to leave open.

Here you can see the outside half(face down) covered and glued around the edges. It is ready to have the fabric folded down over and glued. Then I trimmed it even with the ends and the bottom edge.

I glued a scrap of fabric around the base where I wanted the opening to be. Then I glued the covered strip around the base. That takes care of covering the rest of the base.

The piece in front is the one that I stuck on the bottom just to make it look neat and it also gives a good base on which to stick the bead feet. You need four.

Next I padded the other piece of card stock with high loft quilt batting and then wrapped and glued my fabric around that. I tufted it in two spots. I did that by using a double length of thread and sewing through all layers twice. On the second pass I made a french knot on the top surface. That is optional. It makes the tufting look like there is a button there.

I glued four 1/8" beads on the bottom and glued the pad in the top.

Theo is now the envy of all. No more sleeping in the cold tub.

I am off to do more cleaning on the real house now. Monday seems to be a good day to get things done.

See you tomorrow.

Sewing on the Square.

This is for the people that wanted a "Pattern" for the folded star quilt. As I said before, I can't really draw you a pattern. I can give you measurements for cutting and folding.

All of the strips that I cut were 3/4" wide. All of the folded corner pieces were 1" square.

I cut the base, white squares 1 1/4". I used the rotary cutter to make a fast job of the strips.

I decided to use a base piece to make the back of the quilt look a bit neater.

Down in the lower right of the photo you see the foundation piece with a black square added to the center.

I eliminated the thin white pieces around the center in the original quilt. It only added to the bulk. Instead I added a strip of the yellow all around. As you can see, I did not fold the piece in half. I folded about an eighth of an inch back before adding these strips. That's how I did all of the strips to try to get rid of some of the thickness.


Here you see that I have trimmed off the part of the yellow that will be covered by the next layer. I did this in every step. The original quilt was not trimmed at all and was very thick and stiff. It was also very messy on the back because there was no base fabric.

The next layer was done with green squares. In the photo you can see that I have cut off most of the second layer and left about 1/8" folded under.Then I turned the corners to the center point to make the square. I have one turned down in the photo.

I then sewed the top point of the green to the center of each side of the yellow. I stitched down the top sides of each square. I did this in white so that you could see where I stitched.

After they were stitched down, I carefully folded the bottom point back and trimmed away any excess green beneath it.

Next I stitched a folded strip of peach to each corner. I did this carefully to make the green appear to form a diamond on each side. Then I trimmed the edges to match the white foundation piece.

I decided to put a square of black in each corner using the folded square technique. This time I simply folded a strip that was turned under on the top edge and trimmed the corners when I finished stitching. I think that this would work on all of the squares if you wanted to do it this way.

Here's the finished block. It's not perfect, but with practice I think that it will get better. After all, this is the first try at sewing one.

Here's the back side of the foundation. I don't think that it looks too bad. Go look at the original if you don't believe me.

If you want to make it a whole quilt, just make as many squares as you need to cover your bed and sew them together with an eighth inch seam. Then bind it all with bias tape. You can use purchased tape or make it yourself.

One square was enough for me for today. Tessie wanted nothing to do with this project. She said it was too much like work.

See you tomorrow.

A Way Out.....

Since I finished the workroom, it was only logical to work my way out to the rest of the house. I wanted to see if I could replicate the folded star quilt. In order to do this, I had to find some solid colored fabric.....In order to find solid color fabric, I had to venture into the hall closet just outside the workroom....Good intentions are often not good. I wound up taking everything out of the closet(mostly fabric) and starting from scratch. This closet is kind of around the corner and hard to take a photo as proof of work finished.

I can actually see everything in there now. Before it was like Fibber Mc Gee's closet....OK. I am sure that some people don't even know who that is. He was famous for having a closet that, when he opened the door, everything fell out on his head.

I did find the fabric in the process. I drew a diagram of the quilt blocks from yesterday's entry. Literally. I put the quilt away and already it has been swallowed up by the evil workroom.

I grabbed a pile of plain colors and a glue stick and went to work. I didn't expect to turn out a finished quilt the first try, so I just temporarily glued the pieces together to get an approximation of how to do it.

I will show you the steps. If you try it, please sew. Do Not Glue! Don't do as I do. Do as I say! That is, if you want a finished product that you can use. I didn't measure I just snipped off some strips and squares and went at it.

It was pretty easy. First I laid down the center piece. Then I folded the white strips with some glue inside to hold them. Next I cut some pink strips and did it again.


If I were sewing this, I think that I would cut about half of the back side of each strip off to lessen the bulk.


The third layer was the blue diamonds. I simply cut a square about 4 times the finished diamond and folded it diagonally, with the glue inside again. Then I folded the two corners down to the center point. I glued the folded point of one of these to each of the four sides, centering them.

Then I went back to strips and glued the light blue on to make the next layer.

The yellow layer was once again the folded diamonds like the blue. This time there was one in each corner and one in the center of each side.

The last layer was simply a single diagonal folded triangle, placed in each corner. They are alternate colors on the original.(See yesterday's photo.)

My assistant says that when I make her a quilt "we" are definitely going to sew it! She is not crazy about puce school glue. Too sticky!

Anyway, there you have it. In the original quilt, each block was a different color arrangement. The edge was simply more long strips to fit around the quilt and the final edge was wrapped around to the back and stitched down.

Maybe one of these days I will do one the proper way. For now, this will have to do. If any of you try it, I would love to see the results. Have fun!

See you tomorrow.

Hat Trix....

After all of the fudging I have been doing for the past week, I thought that I should give you something to play with.

This morning, to make up for the shoddy treatment, I made Tessie a new hat. I thought that you would like to see how I did it.

I pulled out the hat straw that was AWOL for a few years( I have been keeping a close eye on it since I found it.) and started pulling strings.

Not everyone knows about the magic string in the edges of straw braid. There is a handy, dandy string very close to each edge. Make a tiny cut lengthwise on the side that you want to pull, so that it will be easier to grasp. Then just pull.

The braid will not gather enough to close a hole in the top of the hat, so be sure to cut off a small piece to glue on the under side where the hole is.

Some people glue the hats all the way. I only do it at the start and finish. I find that I have an easier time of shaping them if I "lace" them together with sewing thread and a blunt tapestry needle. I try to get the needle between the straw.

I pull on the string as I go. You can do this from either end.

On this one, I only did the top round with the thread on that end. I did the rest from the other end so that I could shape it as I went along.

In the third photo you can see that I have pulled the thread for the first and second row and then did one row that was not pulled so that it formed the sides of the crown. Then I started pulling again when I wanted the brim to flair. All the way along I kept shaping as I went. I got it going flat for the brim by pulling the inner side of the straw.

When I finished, I tucked the end under at the back and glued it as well as stitching.

I then decorated the back with roses and a bow......I did say the back. Tessie would only wear it sideways. She said that she couldn't see the roses if they were in the back.....So on the side they went.

You can see where the straw ends and is glued under. Normally I would put some ribbon tails hanging down, but Tessie grabbed it and put it on before I could do so.

OK.....Now you try one! They are pretty easy after you practice on a couple.

See you tomorrow.

Yet Another Way.....

In the past couple of days, a couple of people that I follow have put up tutorials on how they do quilts.

Debby of Petit http://petitpunt.blogspot.com/ has a wonderful one with a blue quilt made of men's shirts.

Mercedes of Liberty Biberty http://libertybiberty.blogspot.com/ did a scrappy block quilt of many colors.

They are both beautifully done. Go to both sites and check them out. Worth the trip. Both tutorials are great.

Theirs are both machine made. I am way too lazy to dig my machine out of the cupboard and put it back after I'm half way done. Then dig it out again to do more.....So I decided to throw in my two cents, for what it's worth.

I learned to do English paper piecing years ago for real quilts. I have don a couple of mini quilts that way. Unfortunately both are gone to other homes and it was before I learned to take photos of everything.

Everything that I need fits in a small box. It is very light and doesn't have to be plugged in to work.

I use the hexagon on a protractor as a pattern. You can use any shape that will make a quilt piece. I usually do the paper pieces on graph paper. I did these on unlined paper and it is harder to keep them straight. Anyway, I drew up a bunch of hexagons and cut them out with a pair of small scissors. I keep thinking that I should look for a paper punch in that shape. It would be much easier and more uniform.

Next I use a glue stick to stick the paper pieces to the backside of light weight cotton fabric, being sure that one of the straight edges of the pattern is running with the grain.

Cut them out with about 1/8" all around. Fold the edges to the back and making a crisp corner fold, stitch twice in each corner to hold it down. The back will look kind of messy but It will look better later. The front of the block is in the second photo, the back(messy) is in the last one.

Now you pick out a couple of hexes and, holding them right sides facing, whip stitch them together, trying not to catch the paper. Select another one and whip stitch two sides of that one onto the two that you have done. Keep doing that until you have six hexes around the center one if you want to make a Granny's Flower Garden type of quilt. Each seven hexes will make a flower. If you want a traditional looking quilt you will add a strip of green hexes between all of the flowers. If not, you can do any pattern that suits your fancy.

I have a large quilt started that has black as the center and scraps all around each one. That makes a pretty pattern.

After you finish piecing the hexes press the quilt. Then you can take a pin and pull out the papers. from the back. To finish, I usually simply sew the hexes with their uneven edges to a base fabric and turn it under and hem. If you get bored or frustrated after one flower, you can always applique it to a pillow.

Any more I can't seem to finish anything with out Tessie butting in. I guess she got bored with trying to get into the secret room.

Now she has her favorite piece of puce material and thread to match. She is threatening another do it yourself project if I don't make her a purple quilt. Have I mentioned that I hate puce with a purple passion?

Back to the RED and WHITE quilt.

See you tomorrow.

A Rockin' Good Time!

I don't have the faintest idea who first thought of the egg carton rocks idea. It has been around more that twenty years. It is the bestest, fastest way to do rock walls that has so far been invented.

I decided to use it on the fireplace in the bedroom. I like it so much that I may just do it in the living room and on the exterior chimney also. I haven't used it for a long time and I had forgotten how easy it is to do. And yes, I am saving the carved surrounds to use somewhere else.

Tessie has "lost" the wand again and has been very bored all morning. I asked her to fetch me a piece of heavy paper. I forgot to specify the color.....Yup. Purple. Rather than search for gray, I got out the Ceramcoat Hippo Gray and painted it. Needless to say, that didn't make her happy.

For any wall or other surface that you want to cover with rock this way, you can apply directly to said wall or cut a template. I choose to do a template for the fireplace since it is already in place and I didn't want to stand on my head to install it. I do use a gray background for this. It makes the process so much easier.

I used the carved fireplace surround as a template. After painting, I let it dry so that it wouldn't curl. Then I proceeded to cut random rocks. In this case, I wanted them to look as if they had been shaped. I used regular scissors to cut the shapes and nipped off the corners. If you have to cut angles, be sure that you have the rough side facing up so that the angles are going in the direction that you want them. For example, I had to have pie shaped pieces to curve around the top. I made sure that the rough side was facing me so that I would get them going in the right direction.

As you can see, I didn't try to make the pieces fit exactly. They can easily be trimmed after they are glued to the template.

I started at the center top and worked out to the bottom of each side. I made sure that the inside of each piece overlapped the paper. That way when I get it glued in place I will be able to glue matching pieces inside the fireplace for dimension.

Tessie is sitting on a pile of the egg carton tops that I have saved. Some people save the bottom parts as well for more curved rocks. I don't. If I ever need those, they are easy enough to collect. You can also save the carry out cup trays from theaters and fast food places. They are a little rougher texture if that is what you need.

Here is the painted surround. I used a pallet of charcoal, hippo gray, trail tan, old parchment, light ivory and leaf green. They are all Ceramcoat. I just dabbed and dabbed with a stiff brush. I don't clean between colors. I will hit the stones with a couple of coats of flat varnish to finish and protect them.

Tessie is now raising a fuss because she doesn't have a fireplace in her cottage. I knew this was going to happen. To quote her,"A witch needs a place to keep her cauldron! Spiderwort Manor is

going to have a big stone fireplace! Is that understood??? After all, it's so easy I could do it myself!".

I replied, "Have at it Tessie!"

I am leaving soon. I have to go to Wednesday Witches mini meeting. I don't want to listen to her complain all afternoon! Sweet relief. I just hope that she doesn't find the wand while I am away...

See you tomorrow.

Never Give a Witch a Wand.........

Sorry I'm late. We went to see Harry Potter today. I already gave my opinion in the comments over at Nikki's Witch and Wizard Miniatures http://nikkinikkinikki72.blogspot.com/ . She shared my opinion.

Anyway,in the movie, Olivander's Wand Shop was destroyed. So much for buying Tessie a nice wand......

What made me think that buying or making Tessie a wand was a good idea? Sometimes the six year old in me just doesn't think before she leaps. This was one of those times.

I came home and got out some index cards, fancy paper, velvet ribbon, and a couple of Japanese carved toothpicks. With glue, scissors, an Exacto knife and an emery board in hand, I went to work.

First I drew spirals on the toothpick from the "handle" to about an inch out. Then with my trusty Exacto I carved the barley twist on it by making a "V" on each line and smoothing it with the emery board. I stained it with Minwax Provincal stain.

While that was drying I built a box for it. If Olivander had boxes for his wands, Tessie will want one to store hers in when she is not madly waving it at everything in site.

Then using the lines on the index card as a guide, I did a 1/4" box that was just a bit longer than the wand.

You can build any box this way. All you have to remember is to make the inside box just a smidgen smaller than the outside. In this case, I made one about 1/16" longer than the other and for the width, I simply folded the inside box inside the lines on the bottom and the outer box on the outside of the lines. I glued fancy paper to the outside top before folding and some velvet floral ribbon to the inside sides and bottom.

Before I was even half way done, Tessie grabbed the wand and started waving it around, pointing at various items and trying out spells. There were things flying this way and that. She finally calmed down when I told her if she made the mess, she cleaned up the mess. She knows that threat is a solid and very serious one. I did have to get Mookie down from the high plant shelf, but other than that everything was back in place.

Remember how Spike was sitting attentively in front of her, watching every wave of the wand? I was looking through the magnifying glass, marking the second wand so that you could see how I did it. I saw a flash out of the corner of my eye......

"OK, TESSIE!!!! THAT'S ENOUGH!!!! Spike does not want to live his life as a gigantic gargoyle! You have sixty seconds to turn him back!" That was me....

Tessie's reply? "But it is such an improvement! He can fly!"

I then pointed out that if he was a gargoyle he was made of stone and couldn't move or breathe.

She quickly waved the wand and put him to rights. He is now hiding under her bed and wouldn't come out for even the T-bone steak that she offered!

I am either going to have to wrestle her to the ground and take back the wand or go somewhere and hide too. I will have to ponder the choices for a little while. What was I thinking?? Tessie with a wand???

See you tomorrow.