Either Tessie or I Are Not Living Through This!!!!!!!!

This morning, when I got out of bed, this is what I saw...

There was a piece of rug material in the living room of the trailer...

I turned around and looked at the foot of the bed... There were piles of fabric there.  Tessie in the middle saying.... These are the fabrics for the Trailer/Castle!

I took one look and made the mistake of turning around to look at said trailer ...castle...once more.

Tessie was very busy while I slept...Not only did she find a lot of fabric to finish the inside of the trailer... As I turned around, she added more rooms to the top.

I told her a few days ago that the trailer/castle couldn't sit on a larger base.

She immediately thought of going up with it.

Now all I have to do is talk her out of going that way!

I am not going to tell her that I like the leopard cage/birdcage that she put on the right end, over the bathroom.

If I say a word about it, she will immediately think that I approve and it is a done deal...

She not only added that one, but she added another layer to the stair tower.  And another room on either side of that. 

She keeps saying, "Casey! You know I need more room!!! And yes she says it in such a way that the three exclamation marks at the end are implied!

I don't know whom is going to win this one, but I have a terrible feeling that I am not coming out on top!

I am going back in and trying to make sense of the whole thing now.  Wish me luck. 

See you tomorrow. If I live that long....

Rain and More Rain...

The rainy season is here.  That makes it nice and cool in the morning.  I spent most of the morning on the back porch and in the back yard, planting and repotting things.

The photo to the left is only part of what I did. 

And there is still more to do.

By noon, the sky was looking like this and now the wind has started blowing... It won't be long until it starts raining once again.

So I came in the house and started cleaning once more.

I am determined this time to get everything out of here that doesn't have a purpose or doesn't belong. 

The cat stays. The fabric also stays if I can get it away from Kota. He seems to like it for some reason. In case you can't see, the fabric is a brick pattern.  I have a yard.  I should have bought more.  This is going to be the easiest way to make a brick wall that has ever been done in miniature! Poke the photo and look at it up close! 

All I am going to have to do is glue it to a wall, use a stylus on the grout lines and instant brick wall!!!

For the rest of the afternoon, however, I am going to be fixing a hole... Walter's favorite bracelet has an Ouchy. He never takes it off unless I am fixing it.

It happens now and then.  It only takes a little while to fix.  I don't think that he lost any beads this time, so it will be quick. Now where did I put that needle, beeswax and thread?  See you tomorrow!

Where's My Dress???

I hate to tell Tessie, but her new dress is at a standstill for a couple of hours.

I picked out a few pieces for her to choose from, but they all could use a good washing.

They have been sitting on a shelf for a number of years.  Sooo.....

 She is going to have to wait for the wash and dry cycles to run.

We both liked these two, so they will probably be what we will use. 

While I am at it, I thought that I would show you a close up of another secret.  The piece of fabric in this photo is a good one to use for petticoats and other places where you can use a plain white fabric or one with very little design in them.

I get it in the men's department at Walmart. 

They are men's handkerchiefs and there are a number of them in every package and they are very reasonable in price.

Anyway, we are going to be sitting here waiting for the washer and dryer to do their jobs.

So I will just say "So long." for today.  See you tomorrow.

None of It Is Right!!!

This morning I told Tessie that she was on her own.  I told her to go find some fabric that she wanted made into a new dress.

I wanted to clean the real life laundry closet without her help.  It worked.... Kind of...

I went to check on her progress every now and then. 

First she risked life and limb to scale the two towers of fabric that hang on the wall in the workroom.

There were a couple of "maybes" there.  None were in the for sure category.

Then she hit the fabric drawer in the living room. The stuff there is probably the oldest stuff I own.  Some dates back to the early eighties. 

The stores where I bought these fabrics no longer exist. 

Surprisingly, she liked a couple of those... Nothing that I really want to work with, but if that's what she wants, that's what she gets...

It doesn't pay to argue. 

Then she hit the closet in the computer room... I had to rescue her from there.  She got lost a couple of times and I heard her yelling for help.

I finally simply removed her and closed the closet doors. 

She forgot that she has the ability to zap them open... Thank goodness!

I then took her in and dropped her in the sewing chest where I am keeping her aprons now...

She peeked over the edge and saw a couple of pieces of fabric in the basket beneath the chest.

She finally agreed that I should finish cleaning the laundry closet today... If I get back to her new clothes tomorrow.

I am trying to think of something that needs doing tomorrow in the real world that will keep me from having to make another new dress...

Wish me luck! I am going to need it!

See you tomorrow.

Quilter's Desert Patch...

I don't get out there very often, but it is one of my all time favorite quilt shops. 

I have featured it on the blog before. 

It is hard to get to, but worth the trip.  I took two other Wednesday Witches with me this morning.

We had a great time and believe it or not, I spent the least!  That's unusual for me. 

The first photo is an assortment that I will use for Tessie and friends. 

The second photo is a brick pattern that will work well for minis.  I am thinking that it will cover the outside of corner boxes and other one room scenes nicely.

The other one could even  be used for tile, with a little imagination and ingenuity.

As soon as I showed the stuff to Tessie, she grabbed the one with the birds wearing blue aprons and said one word. "Apron!"  Then another. "NOW!"  Guess what I am going to do now... I will give you three guesses and the first two don't count.

See you tomorrow with a new apron for Tessie.

Not For Laundry...

 Everybody knows that, if the cat gets there first, you don't have a chance of using whatever you brought home for it's intended purpose...

So much for the laundry hamper that I found at Walmart this morning... Nice.  Light weight.  And full of CAT!

As soon as I put it on the floor, I knew that it was a mistake...

Kota has a new place to sleep and I have NO laundry basket!

This seems to happen with cats.  No matter the size.

Tessie lost her thread chest also.  This is by Pam Boorum.  She does beautiful woodwork. I always wanted one of these in real life size... However, they are an outrageous price these days.  So I am happy with this one.

 The last thing I found at the show was some fabric to play with.

The blue on the bottom is a piece of a silk sari...

The two pieces on top don't photograph too well.  They are hand dyed silk velvet.  Very pretty in real life.  Not so much in this photo.

I am going to try using the latter two for beaded cuffs.  I think that they will look a lot better, once they are covered with bead work.

Unfortunately, I can't find the cards for the people that sold these to me. Sorry about that.

And I suppose that you are wondering where Tessie is this morning? 

I think that discretion is the better part of valor.

I am not going to wake her up.  She would bite my head off.

It certainly is quiet this morning... I hope that it stays that way...

See you tomorrow.

Monsoon Season is Full Blast!

This photo of the back yard doesn't look too bad... But it started to rain a couple of hours ago and shows no sign of stopping.

Rain is predicted for all day today and some tomorrow too.

This is what my workroom looks like with the lights off... Now do you see why I dislike working in here sometimes?

This is what it looks like with the lights on... Even scarier than with the lights off!

Yes.  It needs cleaning... Still...

One task at a time. Since I am having the witches here tomorrow, I decided to go through all of the mini fabric that I have collected over the years.

Some will get tossed.  Some will go in a big box for them to sort through. I am hoping to get all of the stuff that I am going to keep in one place.  Namely the three drawers that you see on the bed.

Wish me luck!  I am going to need it!

This is what it looks like out of the window by the desk...

That birdbath usually needs filling every morning... It was running over the edges this morning!

I don't think that I am going to have to water the plants for a few days..

Back to the ironing board.

See you tomorrow.

Tessie's Treasures!

About three o'clock this morning, I was rudely awakened by someone tugging at my left ear lobe...

This time she went too far!  Tessie was whispering in my ear... "I don't need a vacation after all... I need an antique shop to pay for a vacation. I've already started collecting things to sell!"

Couldn't she have waited until I woke up by myself?

Nope.  She wanted to tell me as soon as possible, so that I could change direction right away...

That's why this episode is called "Tessie's Treasures".  She announced that it will be then name of the shop.  And it will still be the Vineyard Cottage. So... I will be changing course, once again...

I am going to hold off just for today.  She may get another brilliant idea in the middle of the night, tonight.

So. I am working on getting the fronts off of the drawers in the closet.  I was tired of not being able to see into the drawers without opening them.

I need to start soaking the paper off of some of them.  Why did I cover them in the first place?  One of my lesser ideas for organizing...

I did get another idea for organizing.  I started putting my fat quarters of fabric in this old CD case.  I have several.  If this works well, I may just do a few more.  It's much easier than digging through drawers and bins to find something. 

So far.  So good. I am going to go try a couple of other ones for fabric storage.  Wish me luck.

See you tomorrow.

Getting Ahead of Myself...

 No....I haven't finished the house.  Yes.  I am already designing furniture for the house.

Thank goodness, I used to do a lot more quilting than I do now.

I use this hexagon template much more for minis than I ever did for real quilts...I have a couple of those started, but I am doing them all by hand and they may never get finished at this rate.

For minis, this template is just what I needed to make a hexagon table to go in the bedroom.

 I designed two different sizes.  That way, I will have one that will fit.  I am not sure how big I want it yet.

I am playing around with doing piercing with a drill on the Dremel.  We shall see...

There is also the possibility of layers of wood and screens over the openings.  Lots of options.

This one is two inches from point to point and two inches tall.

This one is a little over 1 1/2" from point to point and 2 inches tall.

In case you are wondering, I ran away from home and went over to April's house this morning, where Amare made me felt pancakes and invisible tea.  He is into play food right now.  Yummy???

Anyway, I didn't get a lot of mini-ing done.

 I sorted through the fabric stash and found a few possibilities for the bedroom.

I am thinking of using this faux quilted fabric for the floor of the bedroom.  It kind of looks like a woven mat.  I don't want tile in both the bedroom and the bath.

These are still in the "possible" stage.

I also found a lot of patterns to play with.  Even some zebra like Tessie's apron and some leopard skin. 

There is one right in the middle that looks like small mosaic tile that might be useful somewhere also.

That's as far as I got today.  I was too full of felt pancakes and invisible tea to do much.

I am going to go have some real food now....That fake stuff makes you fake full.

See you tomorrow.

Out of the Closet!

 It may not look like much to you, but this is two complete days of hard work.

I should have taken a before photo.  You saw what was piled on the bed.  I whittled it down to this!

In the process, I weeded out even some fabric that I brought from our previous house...We have been here around 15 years. 

Does that tell you how bad the closet needed cleaning?

Now...Not today, but in the near future, I will clean out the closet in the computer room...It is a regular sized closet with double folding doors. 

It used to be April's room and there are still a few remnants from when she lived here...Long ago...

It has fabric, yarn, books, and other odds and ends...I am not looking forward to that one.

While I was cleaning out, I found these two bags that I started and haven't yet finished.  I am glad that I didn't.  Now I can put a pocket on them for my cell phone...Yup.  These were before I broke down and started carrying my cell phone in my purse.

I also found the start of a hand pieced quilt.  I am going to have to work on that one of these days.  It may change it's mind and want to be a pillow instead.

Today is the mini meeting, so I am taking it easy until then.  I dragged out this start of a rug.  There is a full pattern somewhere under rugs, from when I first designed it.  There are now 96 rug entries in the label section....Good luck finding it...I do know that it's there.  I just don't know where.  I am going to have to put in a new category...Rug Patterns.  But not right now.

I am going to put my feet up and stitch. 

By the way, the URL  for the bog coat entry, yesterday, was wrong.  It is http://caseymini.blogspot.com/2010/01/tessies-sewing-box.html Sorry about the mix up.  It is at the bottom of this entry.

See you tomorrow.

In Cahoots

 The fight continues....Between me and the closet.

I got quite a bit done yesterday.  More than half is off of the bed now and either in the closet, thrift store bag or garbage. 

Widget has been a close supervisor for the whole thing.

He's not happy that I am not working on his house.

I did make a lid for the top.  If I can't get it to look good just by closing it upwards, I can always make it a  lidded basket and say its easier to clean if the top is open....Good story.  I'm sticking with it.

We are finding all sorts of goodies in the closet.  Tessie found her favorite Christmas Quilt and her bog coat. 

After finding the bog coat, I am in the mood to make one for myself.  I haven't had one for a few years now and they are fun to make and wear. They are possibly one of the oldest clothing patterns to come to light.  Made of one piece of rectangular material with one seam at the underside of each arm and across the chest. The top part is folded down to make the sleeves.  The bottom of each side is folded around the front to make the side fronts... If you are interested, go here.
http://caseymini.blogspot.com/2010/01/tessies-sewing-box.html I accidentally put in the wrong URL yesterday.  This one is correct, thanks to Lene, for pointing it out! It should work now.  It is at the bottom of this post.

I see a new bog coat in my future...

Not only was Tessie helping, she was hanging out with Widget.  They have gotten quite chummy lately. 

I think that she is a bad influence, but what can I do?

She and Widget kept playing hide and seek under and around the fabric piles...I kept having to refold what they unfolded.

Tessie rustles the fabric and Widget chases her....I think that she is living a bit dangerously...

Widget stops every once in a while to see how I am doing...He really wants his house.  NOW!

So far today, he is not having too much success in distracting me from the closet cleaning...

I suspect that Tessie had a hand in this.  Widget gave up and went to sleep in the fabric pile.  I know that he can't handle a pen...Therefore, she must have made the sign. 

They think that I will feel sorry for Widget and stop this madness to work on his cottage...  Maybe...  I'm bored now...

See you tomorrow.

Dizzy, I Get Dizzy......

That was Widget last night...I worked on his cat cottage....He refused to leave, so as I worked around the shell, he got turned right along with it.

You can tell by the look that he is giving me, he either wants me to stop working on it or get it done fast.

That's the back view. He has his own picture window.  He keeps using it for a back door when cornered.

He went round and round for a while and then just decided it was easier to lay down and sleep, than to try to keep his balance.

I only have a little bit more to do.  I would leave a hole in the top, but I fear that he would think that it was a smoke hole and try to build a fire to keep warm.  Not a good idea in a paper house...

I finished four of the kits yesterday...Building wise. 

Three went together like a dream.  The fourth(the one on the right)was more like a nightmare.  It had a couple of the larger pieces that were warped...The wood was old and I suspect that this was the reason for the company wanting to get rid of them at such a generous price.

With lots of glue and clamping, I did manage to do it, but not without a few bad words....

This morning, I decided to clean out the hall closet, where I keep a lot of fabric.  I don't usually take everything out and move it physically to another location for a thorough cleaning.

Since it is mostly fabric, I usually pull it all out on the floor, sort and fold, rearrange and discard some of it as I put it back in.

This morning, I decided that it needed a thorough cleaning....Very Thorough...

I made many trips between the closet and the bed.  When I stood back and looked, I couldn't believe it all came out of one small closet.  I am washing and ironing most of the fabric.  It was just such a mess.

Tessie came in.  She took one look at it and asked, "You want to play "Where's Tessie?".  Yup.  She then proceeded to plant herself in the middle of the mess and demand, "Take my picture!".  Essentially, she is hiding in plain sight... Hey! It made her happy and I don't have to argue with her about doing it. 

I have to get back to work now, if I don't want to sleep on the floor tonight...

See you tomorrow.

My Inheritance

And nobody even died!

Walter is retiring in a couple of months and will no longer be in need of dress up clothes anymore.  He was about to toss his ties. He knows better, so he gave me first dibs on them.

This first bunch will probably be saved for larger crafts.

He seldom wore them for work, except for special occasions.  Most are almost like new.  All are silk.  Need I say more...?

I love the two ties on the right.  The outer one was designed using one of Jerry Garcia's(Grateful Dead)paintings.

The second one in looks quite normal until you get up close...Then there are Warner bros. cartoon characters carefully hidden among the paisley print.  I have to do something with that one soon!

I could also call this entry the anatomy of a necktie.  Probably a lot of you have seen the value of men's silk ties in mini, but for those of you that haven't, here goes.

Years ago, we used to be able to buy big bags of ties in the thrift shops for a few bucks.  Nobody wanted them.  Nowadays its a different story.  They are at least a couple dollars for the good silk ones.

I seldom buy them any more unless needed or I see one that I know that I will use.  If you do go looking, make sure there is a small tag on the inner seam that says 100% pure silk.  That's the key for good mini work.  The synthetic ones don't glue well.

When you take them apart, don't throw anything away.  Well maybe the labels.... The rest can be used.  The cheap stuff that is the lining of the bottom maybe.  The outer skin is at least a quarter of a yard of silk cut on the bias.  You do have to be careful how you use it because of the grain of the fabric.  If you want it to fit around curves it is good to use it on the bias(threads running diagonally).  If you want it to hold shape, use it on the grain.  The bias stretches.  The straight of grain doesn't.

The very inside of the tie often has a couple of even weave white pieces that can be used for cross stitch and other purposes if you are desperate for materials.  I used to make quite nice kitchen towels from them with a cross stitch band across the bottom and a fringed edge.  Waste not, want not.

This is the end results of a couple of ties from the 70s or 80s.

Both are silk.  Most ties will make a couple of chairs like this if you cut them carefully.  Need I say, the wider the tie, the better.

OK...Everybody run for the nearest thrift shop...do not cut up the ties of the man of the house!  He will not be happy.  No matter what beautiful minis you make from them. 

Under no circumstances are you to use the phrase, "Casey told me to!"  or "Tessie said I could."!

See you tomorrow.