Quilty Pleasures

To start my post this evening, I have to take a moment to show you our first blooms of the season: my pjm rhododendron is in full bloom. If you walk towards it you clearly hear the sound of hundreds of plump honey bees feasting.

When these blooms start to fade, our lilacs will just be coming into bloom. They will be followed by the peonies which will be followed by everything else - white coneflower, delphinium, pink tickseed, deep purple campanula,and whatever annuals we can get our hands on including the geraniums (pelargoniums) we overwintered in our basement windows. So much to look forward to!!

As for my mini work, on May 4th, I decided I should do something special for my sister's birthday that was coming up on the 17th. Not that it was a special birthday, just because she's a special sister (although at our ages, every birthday should be celebrated!). She has always been interested in my fascination with miniatures, though not enough to try any herself. Instead, her creative outlet is quilting - and she does some truly amazing work. So, to celebrate both her birthday and her talent, I wanted to make her a quilt shop - and I had just under 2 weeks to complete it!

Now, I want to say right up front, this is not an original design of mine. Several years ago I fell in love with a shop made by Casey Rice of Casey's Minis. She called her little shop "The Rusty Needle" and you can find it by looking through her list of labels. Casey was kind enough to share with me the basic dimensions of the box itself so I figured out windows, doors, etc. from there and, from 1/4" MDF, cut out two kits that I could use to make whatever kind of shop I wanted. Did I mention I cut those out in 2016?? Bottom line - I had a room box kit cut out and ready to go which was a big help.

I don't have pictures of the pieces but I glued together the front, back and 2 sides using Quick Grip glue then set the box on the floor and traced around the inside so I could determine where the inside floor would be. It should be noted that mine is a mirror image of Casey's - not for any creative reason, but simply because I'm lazy. The door I had for the front was hinged on the wrong side and I was too lazy to take it apart and re-hinge it. Hence the mirror image. *smile*

Then I painted the inside walls "leprechaun green" and I used Popsicle sticks and tongue depressors for the floor. I quite liked the pattern of two rows of Popsicle sticks, one of tongue depressors. The narrow and wide planks together turned out well. I sanded them, stained them and put on three coats of matte-finish urethane. The picture below is before the coats of urethane.

At this point I will temporarily step away from the building itself and talk about all the things I needed to put in a quilt shop. First - furniture. I found these three pieces in my stash. The large piece will be used for fabric bolts. I took out the bottom centre shelf because I wanted some bolts to stand upright and the shelves were too close together. Then I found an old Michael's hutch that had two doors in its upper portion - which I removed. This would hold a finished quilt and whatever else I could come up with. I also had an old House of Miniatures kit for a bookshelf that was meant to sit on top of a drop-down desk. Here it will be hung on the wall to hold crochet thread, ribbons, and who-knows-whats.

Now, I needed a table to hold the cash register. I was just about to make one when I spotted this buffet and hutch in my furniture stash.

I can't remember where I picked up this piece but I never used it because it always seemed a little "clunky" to me. I think it was the mullions in the doors that threw me off for the most part. They seemed way too thick to be in this size door. So, if I cut the top off, and sanded and sanded and sanded the top of the bottom half to remove the glue, I could stain its top and use it for the cash table.

So now I had all the furniture painted with a few coats of white. Oh yes, I also found a small table to which I added braces between the legs and glued in a bottom shelf. And you can just see the top of a little white pressed-back chair sitting in the middle. I also gathered up already made bolts of fabric - some I bought, some were made for me by my friend Louise, and a stack of fabric scraps I had wheedled out of my sister without her knowing exactly what I wanted them for. I cut 3/4" wide strips of mat board which I then painted white on the coloured side, and cut into 2" lengths for the bolts. Then I was off to the races.

In the tall buffet cabinet I folded up a "quilt" - actually a piece of pre-quilted fabric in a tiny floral pattern, a couple of cushions, two bolts of patterned flannelette suitable for a nursery quilt, a collection of sewing patterns and a couple of quilting books.

Speaking of quilting books - here are the 8 book covers I made, then used mat board to wrap them around to look like books.

Here's a picture of the smaller wall cabinet, mostly filled. In the top shelf is an actual mini quilt, folded. I made the balls of crochet cotton by wrapping 3 strands of embroidery floss around pony beads. I also made a wall holder for DMC floss. Agghhhhh - I don't know that I will ever make skeins of floss again!!

Here is my first try at floss skeins. I used a couple of posts in my wire-bending jig. Nu-uh!! DID NOT WORK FOR ME!! After several failed attempts I put two layers of black foamboard together and stuck two tapestry needles 1/2" apart. I taped down one end of the floss, wrapped around the needles 7 or 8 times, slid little pieces of paper underneath and wrapped it around and glued before cutting off the ends of the floss. I started getting a little better with the last two I made but I can't see me making a career of it!! It was truly one of the hardest teeny things I've ever worked on.

I will save a look at the other furniture pieces until my next post which will show the progression of the quilt shop itself. I hope you like the progress so far. TTFN!! - Marilyn

A couple of spring projects

I know I've been absent for several weeks but I haven't been completely idle. First of all, thank you to all of you bloggers who aren't as negligent as I am - I have been enjoying reading your posts, for sure.

First, for those of you who aren't aware, after the Montreal show had to be cancelled ( I am SO disappointed!) I had a few emails back and forth between myself and Bev Lunn and Michèle Castonguay of the Montreal Club. I mentioned that one of the things I was going to miss the most because of the forced cancellation was the exhibits from their club members. As a result - we all get to see them. Michèle has provided a "virtual exhibit room" on the website for the Miniature Enthusiasts of Montreal where we can get all get a chance to see examples of the fabulous work done by many of their members. Be sure to pay a visit - such great projects and so inspirational.

So, I have spent my "isolation time" trolling through other people's blogs like Elizabeth's at Studio E, Jodi's at My Miniature Madness, Marijke's at Pulchinella's Cellar...okay, too many to mention you all individually but I just want to say, thank you for the joy and inspiration you have all provided with your posts. Incredible work is being done by very talented people.

As for me, the 15th of March was my friend, Louise's birthday. She had mentioned a few times that she would like to try making miniature wicker furniture. So - I gave her a kit for her birthday and one for myself. Then, with the covid-19 isolation rules, we set a date and time for a Skype call and worked on our chairs together. We both really miss our regular Wednesday mini meeting times but this virtual option was way better than nothing! Here is the chair I was working on.

I used this kit from Barbara Richmond:

It came with a pre-drilled base and pre-cut wires as well as waxed linen thread for weaving. Some kits have larger wire for the 4 corners and smaller for the ones between. This one required you to use 4 wires together in each corner then the single ones for the in between ones. It's important to note that the holes on the corners are, of course, larger and that the back and two sides are drilled all the way through while the holes for the front are drilled partly into the bottom - not all the way through.

I followed instructions to a "T" - not one of my usual strong points as we all know but I thought it might be important for my first wicker project. Turns out I was right. *smile*

I started by weaving the upper level first, regular weaving to start then followed a different pattern for a few rows for a decorative accent. At that point the wires on the sides were to be bent to almost a 90 degree angle, gradually straightening toward the back, and the weaving continued.

When I finished enough rows for the upper part of the chair, I followed the instructions for the lower section, matching the decorative section under the seat as well. To finish off the legs, I added a few wraps to the bottom which were not mentioned in the instructions. Any wicker furniture I have ever owned always had a little "bulbous" wrap to end the legs so I took the liberty of mimicking them. I then cut off the extra wire and made a braid to go around the upper and lower edges to hide the wires and make a more finished look. I made a double braid to go around the edge of the wooden seat.

Now, the kit came with a fabric, already pre-cut for the seat cushion. However, it was a flowery blue which just wasn't my style. I dug out an old silk tie that my husband had thrown away (I have no idea how it could have ended up in my fabric stash) *grin*. It had a dark blue background but had all these really neat squares and rectangles with really attractive designs on them.

Much better! The original blue fabric is next to the finished chair. I really like how it turned out in the end and, with such easy instructions I can see myself doing more wicker furniture in the future. It was really fun.

So, speaking of fun, I was also thinking about a real-life spring arrangement I had seen online and decided I wanted to try to make a mini one. I didn't have any real measurements so just used my usual "fly by the seat of my pants" technique. I cut two ends, a bottom and two sides for the container. I first folded a piece of paper in half to draw out the shape for the ends because I wanted to make sure they were symmetrical and the same size.

Then I put the container together and used some "dirty water" to make it look a little aged. Using a really cheap white facecloth (the thinner, the better), I covered a medium sized bead with glue and stretched a small piece of the terrycloth from the facecloth around the bead. I took a small bit of cotton batten and rolled it with a little glue to form a tiny white puffy ball and glued it to the covered bead. Then I cut two tiny shapes from thin white felt and put three pink dots for toe pads and one for the main foot pad on each little felt foot and glued the little feet on either side of the little bunny butt.

I put a small amount of floral foam in the bottom of the container, glued in the bunny butt and tiny bits and bobs of floral material and Easter eggs I had lying around. I just adore how it turned out. I think I'll make more of these because they are just so cute! I know, I know, we're not supposed to use the word "cute" to describe our minis but hey, I calls 'em how I sees 'em!!!

Here are my two little projects together. I am happy with both of them.

But, if you'd like to see something bigger...I actually have accomplished something else you might be interested in. Of course, you will have to wait a few days for my next post to see! In the meantime - stay safe, stay healthy, work on minis!! TTFN - Marilyn