Printed Mini Books

Last week was really busy. Ellie had to be put on a course of oral steroids to combat the current outbreak of "rodent ulcers," aka eosinophilic granulomas on her mouth and left hind leg. She's not thrilled about being pilled twice a day, but I'm just happy the medicine is helping. She's still on the smaller side size-wise. Not even 5.5 pounds, so her doses are small too.

I was also fighting my way back into my miniature studio space. I managed to get lots of things properly put away and a couple of boxes that "belonged downstairs" sorted through and dealt with properly. Only a few more of those to go, which is nice. I"m refusing to ignore them during this round of studio reclamation.

One of the unexpected and time eating things I had to deal with over the previous weekend was the aftermath of Artie knocking my possessions off shelves. Several cherished stuffed toys from my childhood ended up on the floor... where Ellie peed on them. Repeatedly. Lots of soaks with enzyme cleaner and rinses in cold water later and I managed to save them all. I was less than pleased though. With Artie around, merely keeping things where they belong (not on the floor) is difficult on a good day.

The naughty duo!

Oh and did I mention that I irritated my left knee, probably whilst dodging around things trying to get into the studio area. I'd built a wall of tubs to keep a certain dog out of there un-supervised because at one point she was having issues with housebreaking. Apparently my wall was trying to keep me out too! So I'm moving slow as I get things done.

Anyways. On to the fun things!

Miniature club members, myself included, went back to our late friend's home to go through even more of her mini supplies. I came away with a tidy haul of "printies" (printable miniatures) and found several pages with items I wanted to use in my memory scene.

A Mother Goose book that came out of a NAME Miniature Gazette and a sketch pad, with some drawings, from a Dollhouse Miniatures magazine.

This one I had a bit of fun with. It's a coloring book from a printie page in Dollhouse Miniatures. I decided it should have some color added to a few pages. Good thing I didn't need to worry about staying in the lines!

I still need to make the inserts for the walls in the room and glue the carpet in place. Also there's a duffel bag kit that I plan on putting together. Then I'll find (or make) a pet of some sort that will be lounging amongst the disturbed bedding on the sofa bed. Probably right around the squished up
pillows.

I need to get back to work on regular laundry and clearing accumulated stuff from the desks in the studio. Hopefully I'll have this room finished next week. See you then!

Purging

I've started off the New Year with a big project: I'm clearing out the storage room.

So far I've filled up the 95 gallon recycling bin twice... to be fair, the first time was topping off the regular contents. But I pretty much filled it again the day it was emptied. I have to wait for another month for them to come back. The 95 gallon garbage bin is also filled to bursting. Good thing they come on Tuesday morning.

Fabric that I will never use is being given away. Some has been traded to a plumber friend of ours so we can get our upstairs shower fixed. The rest is being picked up by a couple who hauls fabric, notions, and sewing machines up to a Reservation in the Dakotas. Not sure which one, but whichever it is, they have a sewing class program.

Lots of things have been earmarked for Goodwill donations and will likely be hauled over there in the coming week. FH just carried up the old TV to be loaded up. I'm not sure when he thinks it's going, but now it has to be loaded as it's blocking the door to the garage.

Mercedes is enjoying short trips outside to play in the snow. They are short trips as the temperature here is in the single digits... not fun when you're using Fahrenheit!

It snowed all yesterday afternoon. So far it's the largest snowfall this winter. I'm just wondering if it will stay winter or try to be fall again in the next couple of weeks.

On the quilting front, I did get my machine in for repairs and servicing. Hoping to hear from them this coming week. Even if it's, "we need another week because you managed to do a number on it." ;-)

On the mini front, I did get a few more boxes made for Tinsel Towne. They are printies I found online, but the website isn't working at the moment.

Also FH bought me a mini Eames chair in mini for Christmas. I've been wanting one for a while now. A friend gave me a doll that had been given to her.... honestly I'm not sure where he came from originally. But he's going to be dressed in a silk robe at some point and will set in the chair.

The pillow is for modesty. Someone added a few details to his body with polymer clay.

That's all for this week. I need to get back to the studio and start sorting through quilting UFO's and suchlike. Hopefully I'll be done with the major sorting and furniture rearranging in a week or two.

Quilting Commission, Mini Style

It's been a busy week. A friend of mine has a mother-in-law who quilts and love miniatures, so she asked me if there were any bits from the stash of items for the Patchwork Peach quilt shop that I'd be willing to part with. Other than a couple of fat quarter bundles, I really didn't have anything available. Luckily for her I love her dearly (I was there the day she was born as her brother and I were in kindergarten together) and had some time after the Festival of Trees dollhouse was done.I finally finished everything yesterday and can mail it out tomorrow morning. I'm so excited!

The big quilt's design is from the Venus A. Dodge mini needlework book.

I should say here that none of the printies are being sold, because the original images aren't my own. However I'm gifting them to my friend and what she chooses to do with them is her choice. I'm betting they end up in her mother-in-law's dollhouse.

One of my favorite quilting books in print!

Can't have a mini quilting studio without rulers!

I used scraps of white flannel for the batting. I tea-dyed it to be the right color.

 The rotary cutter started out being a charm for a bracelet.

This is my favorite... a hand sewing/quilting project in progress. The top of one pillow is sandwiched and basted while the other is still being put together. The project that I based this on is by Pamela Warner and is in her Victorian embroidery book for minis. I made a printie of the "pattern" for this using an image from the book. It's got her name on it, just like real life quilting patterns have, and on the back there is a tiny materials list.

While I waited on the last of the glue to dry yesterday, I started some orange springerle cookies. My neighbor gifted me for a lovely bunny-themed mold for an early Christmas and I wanted to try it out.

They're still drying, as springerles need to dry for about 24 hours before you bake them. I'll be baking them tonight and then tomorrow I'll start another batch of dough with another flavor.

That's all for now. I need to get some laundry done and perhaps have a chance to walk Mercedes in between periods of rain. See you next weekend!

Not Even Halfway

But it's a start! Here's what I'm putting into the storefront build. The boxes are from the blog,  Amber's House. She made the printies for personal use only. Poke the link to see her instructions and check out her other tutorials while you're in the the neighborhood.

For the icicles, I ended up using metallic embroidery floss. It's laid out evenly across a piece of double-sided tape, which is attached to a scrap of cardstock. The cardstock is glued directly to the piece of transparency film I used to close up the box.

The boxes of "snow" have a section of glitter-covered scrap booking cardstock showing through their openings. I thought the glitter looked enough like fake snow and I wouldn't have to worry about it leaking.

There are still more boxes to fill. Most of the others are made though. But I've got a long way to go yet. Only one box of lights is done and there are many more ornaments to make.

I doubt it will be finished by this Christmas, but it will be a fun thing to work on and maybe get finished in time for next year.

Right now, I've got a commission that is taking up my time. Quilting miniatures for a friend's mother-in-law. I'll try to have them finished by next weekend. See you then!