Hopping Along to Class

Well the hopping is more Victor's department. He's settling in nicely and the other animals are getting used to him. Artie is very comfortable around him and pretty much ignores Victor.

Pixel on the other had likely to sit on the pet stairs to Victor's house and not let him in/out. She also likes to eat his food.  That doesn't stop Victor from exploring for long. He's quite the ATB, all-terrain bunny.

Gus has been acting strangely and after taking him to the vet, we're trying to rule out kidney failure and the possibility of diabetes insipidus, aka "water diabetes." We'll know more once his blood tests come back this coming week.

FH and I joined a local "makerspace" last year and have access to more types of tools and technology these days. The group is a non-profit and focuses on teaching uses for technology and building a community workspace filled with tools that the average person might not have access to otherwise... like 3D printers, computer controlled routers, laser cutters, large saws, and specialty electronics.

The "class" bit refers to me taking a CAD/CAM class through the makerspace so I can learn to draft drawings to be used for laser cutters, computer-controlled routers, and 3D printers. I've got some furniture designs drafted on paper that I'm going to transfer to the computer this week. In a few weeks, we should have an operational laser and I can finally cut the pieces for all the shelves I need for fabric bolts in the Patchwork Peach! I'm very excited about it.

The other neat thing about the makerspace is getting to meet and work with other people who know all sorts of different things. One of the guys works with plexiglass often and has said he'll show me how to make display cases for my minis. Another gent is an electrician and is going to help me remember the basics of wiring from my electronics class in high school so I can make some tiny LED lamps!

There's another particular man who understands and uses technology, but has an artist's soul. He does "light painting"... changes the exposure times on his digital camera and uses LEDs to create stunning effects in his pictures. He asked me a while back to bring in one of my scenes for him to "paint."

I chose the Vermeer Vignette my Aunt Pat made. These are pictures I took a while back.

Now look at the work Jay did with his camera and an LED pen.

It took the better part of an hour to get the light just right for the candle flame, but wow! I'm going to see if we can "light" the fireplace at some point. I think Aunt Pat would love to see it.

That's all for this weekend. I'm going to go see about drafting up some shelves. Ttfn!

Victor von Bunn

Victor came into our lives on Wednesday last week. He is a four month old Netherland Dwarf. The girl who gave him to me was being abused by her boyfriend and was leaving him, but couldn't take Victor with her. She was terrified to leave him behind because the man had already thrown him a couple of times into walls from across rooms. With Victor safe and sound, she was brave enough to take her little boy and leave.

As you can see, he and Gus have become fast friends. Gus absolutely adores Victor and will pace behind him whenever Victor is playing outside his cage.

Pixel and Artie are being pretty gentle with him too. Although I've been watching them pretty closely. Pixel was more afraid of Victor than he was of her.

He's a spunky little guy and somehow knows he won't be hurt here because he's already given FH and I loads of kisses every day since he's been here.

FH is insisting that Victor be given to a rescue that I contacted last week, as soon as he's old enough to be neutered. I'm hoping Victor will win FH over and can stay. We have a month or two to see how that shakes out. I'll be spending that time supervising his play times and attempting to potty train him. Unaltered bunnies are difficult to potty train. I lucked out with Tempie as she was a bit older and preferred things tidier.

Running Late

My desktop PC has found some malware somewhere and is enduring a thorough scan, etc. I thought we'd be finished with the process by now, but alas ''tis not to be. Happily I figured out how to get pictures from the camera onto my new tablet, so now we're in business!

It's currently grey and snowy here. The sun's almost down so it's really not fun to be outside at tne moment. However this is really a heat wave considering the wind chills we experienced during the week. For the most part the critters and I didn't do much but cuddle under blankets. I did come out for air long enough to check the mail and this was waiting for me. Now I can start looking up all the furniture I received from Aunt Pat!

I also wrapped most of the furniture up in acid-free paper and got it stashed in the archival box I purchased. The box is big enough to hold a queen-sized quilt and came with about two dozen sheets of the acid-free tissue. There are still a few pieces that still need more work before they're stored though.

These three need minor repairs. Thanks to Casey, I'll be using E600 to get the job done.

With the exception of the pink dresser which is just really dirty on the back, these pieces all have an odd white residue that smells of acetone on them. I haven't had much luck with soaking or scrubbing it off. I'm not quite sure what to try next, but I'm doing some research into the matter.

Yesterday was fun though. I had my teenaged niece here and we started working on her quilt. She picked the pattern and all the fabrics. We got everything pressed and cut, but only had time to get the centers of the blocks done before she had to go home. But we had fun!

That's all for now. I'm off to find someplace warm to curl up. See you next week!

Renwal Restoration

Happy New Year! I hope 2015 is a good year for everyone!

One of the gifts I received this Yule was my Aunt Pat's Renwal dollhouse. It's not her childhood dollhouse, that was lost many years ago. But she found one nearly like it at an antique shop about 20 years ago. It needed some work then and, well, now needs even more work.

The second floor has to be completely replaced.

 At least I won't have as much carpet residue to remove that way.

 The walls need new paper/paint.

The outside is in fairly good shape. It needs a gentle cleaning and the porch columns need tightening.

 Three window and the front door need replacing, unless Aunt Pat finds them in her storeroom somewhere.

 The roof pieces need cleaned and re-attatched.

She had been collecting the plastic furniture from Renwal and Ideal as well. She has a habit of over-buying for projects, but that's half the fun!

All of the furniture needed washing, and that's how I've been spending my free time this week. Eight of the pieces (dining room table and chairs, buffet, and blue chair) have some kind of residue that smells like acetone on them, so I'm still working on trying to get them clean. It's to the point where I'm having to scrape the residue off with q-tips and toothpicks. It won't wash, soak, or brush off.

As for the rest of the furniture, it's clean, dry, and waiting for the archival box and tissue I ordered to get here. I'm going to store it nicely until the house is ready. Whatever furniture I decide not to use will have safe storage this way as well.

That's all for this week. I'm going to make myself a cup of tea and watch the birds at my feeders. It's snowing, so everyone is wanting to eat a good meal. See you next week!

Filler Post #2

FH, Gus, and I are on the way back home from spending the holidays with family down south. I hope everyone had a safe and happy time with their families and friends!

Filler Post #1

Today is the Winter Solstice, and therefore I'm celebrating our wedding anniversary with FH. Seven years together and going strong.  According to the Julian calendar, our anniversary is tomorrow, but we decided to celebrate on both days, because why not? ;-)

Of Sewing and Strep

The past week has been interesting to say the least. Mr. P moved back to his bachelor pad, which means he was finally strong and healthy enough to live on his own again. Then I came down with strep throat. The timing was irritating, but I caught it fast (Thursday) and am already starting to feel normal again.

I didn't get as much done as I'd hoped in terms of cleaning, decorating, and projects but given the circumstances, I'll take what I've got.

I finished the cleanup work on these eight autumn napkins. I love the contrast of these too fabrics. The picture doesn't do them justice.

 The placemats are "pillowcased," trimmed, trimmed, turned, and pressed. They still need the side opening slip stitched closed and quilted. However I'm tabling them until after I get my holiday gift sewing done. I'm thinking about quilting them with autumn designs and that will take longer than I have time for currently.

 And whilst I was cleaning I unearthed these 6 1930's reproduction prints that I'd purchased to make quilt shop bolts from, so I got them cut last night. Like the other 59 from last weekend, I haven't cut the individual fat quarters yet. None of these particularly appeal to me for more use in miniature, so the remaining fabric will get put in my life-size quilting stash.

I finally found where I'd stuck this picture. I took it back in June. It's the quilt shop bolts I'd made to date, organized by color or collection. I need to get an accurate count at some point. There was one, but apparently the note was "put in a safe place." Plus I think I finished a few more bolts since then, not to mention the 65 bolts ready to be completed.

The hard part will be resisting the urge to buy more fabrics until I can get my custom shelves cut and assembled. That's actually going to be an issue for a few months. My friend who built a laser cutter sold it. He wants to build a larger one and needed the capitol to start the project. It will be a while before a new one is finished. I was also going to have him cut the other windows I need for the 1930's Nursery roombox. So that project is on hold for a while.

Now that I have access to the actual Patchwork Peach building again, I will likely start in on painting, flooring, and interior accents after the holidays. Perhaps by then I'll have found someone else with a laser cutter in the area who would like to help me out.

59 More Bolts Prepped

What you see below is 59 more pieces of fabric cut and pressed in preparation to make into miniature quilt bolts for the Patchwork Peach Quilt Shop. I've had lots of remnants and fat quarters for the project laying around the dining room since I hurt my shoulder in July and since I want to decorate for the holidays, I needed to put them away.

So instead of shoving the fabric into a box and putting it "in a safe place" for a bit, I went ahead and cut my strips from everything and pressed them. I haven't cut my mini fat quarters from all these yet. I'm holding off on those. I am putting the readied bolt sections in the same box as the soon-to-be fat quarters though. But at least I'll hopefully have a better idea of what I'm doing when I get the box out again.

I'm still waiting on access to a laser cutter to make the shelving for the Peach. Hopefully in the coming year I will be able to get my hands on one. I'm also waiting on Mr. P to be sound enough to be able to return home so I can actually work on the interior of the Peach... the building is located in our guest room.

That's all for this week. I'm hoping I will have the dining room tidied up and decorations up by next week. We'll see how that goes.

ThanksgivingThat's Finishes

I'm a day late thanks to traveling for the holiday, but it was lovely.

These are the gifts I made for my SIL's birthday and first wedding anniversary. She'll be hosting Christmas at her house this year and I wanted her to have something elegant to enjoy.

I finally finished hand sewing the binding on my little runner. I'm not overly happy with this one, but it's finished.

That's all I've gotten done this past week. I'm hoping to finish up a few more things so I can start cleaning up all my sewing and decorate for the winter holidays.

Napkins, runners, pieces, and a baby quilt

In contrast to last week when I didn't have much to show, many things were worked on this week. First up are my fruit basket napkins. I've had two of the fabrics (blueberry and blackberry) for a couple of years and finally picked the basketweave and other fruits this summer. However they were sidelined in favor for doing projects for other people. 

 I also finished piecing the "Holiday Mystery Runner" from a Facebook group I belong to.

 It still needs sandwiched for quilting.

This runner took a front seat as it's an anniversary gift for a family member that we'll be seeing at Thanksgiving.

 There are also coordinating napkins that I started Friday, but I'm waiting on more of the silver leaf fabric to arrive.  None of the local quilt shops still had any in stock, so I had to order it online. These are the eight I've cut and started sewing already. They need trimmed, turned, and top-stitched still.

I also started some autumn napkins for myself. They're currently in the same state as the napkins pictured above.

There will be a runner like the black and red one too, but I forgot to get a picture of the cut pieces. I do have a picture of the coordinating placemats that I pieced. There are two of each.

A couple of years ago I designed a quilt top to sew for my dad. I finally figured out how I am going to do the background and cut the fabric for it. One hundred and eighty 5.5" squares in white-on-white tonal fabrics. I still need to cut the pieces for the main blocks.

Finally here is the quilt top a friend and I finished Saturday night. A mutual friend is expecting a baby girl in January and we wanted to make something for them. The mother-to-be likes deer and the nursery is going to be green. We've got a matching diaper bag in the works too. 

We're going to sandwich this quilt and another one later today. The plan for the deer quilt is I'll do the quilting and my friend will do the hand sewing on the binding. We both worked on the piecing Saturday. I made the blocks and put them in rows, then she sewed the sashing and borders. We also managed to get the center of a quilt she's been working on pieced on Saturday and some rows added to a second one she's been slowly piecing. Not sure if we're going to work on either of them again today or not.

Hopefully next week I'll have pictures of the quilting on several pieces to show you. Until then, I hope everyone has a wonderful week and a Happy Thanksgiving!

Running Late, But Still Here

After the misfortune my right shoulder caused me last weekend, I've been taking it easy all week. Mostly I've been reading. The pain finally subsided enough for me to start working on the Mystery Runner again.

 It's not much to look at yet, but I think I'm happy with the way it's turning out.

Pixel and Gus seem to be getting along better... at least when Pixel is asleep. She forgot he was on the couch too and actually snuggled him in her sleep.

That's everything I've got for this week. Hopefully next weekend I'll have something more substantial.

Forth Time's the Charm?

I tried three times to post this yesterday and I kept getting error messages when I tried to add photos.

Last Tuesday I cut the pieces for the Holiday Mystery Table Runner and put together the first clue, i.e. the sashing.

Wednesday I made myself finally start piecing yet another baby quilt that's been cut and ready to go since August. I've been dragging my feet because I'm both tired of this pattern and irritated by the poorly written instructions. But soon it won't matter anymore because I'll be finished.

 The top is done and ready to be sandwiched and quilted. I'm hoping to start that today. It will be bound in the dark brown, which will frame it nicely.

Saturday I decided I'd had enough of my windows being filthy and started cleaning them. Not a smart move whilst recovering from a torn rotator cuff. I've been in pain ever since. I've also been resting since then, but I will try to work on the baby quilt today and/or tomorrow. The next clue for the table runner comes out today so I can always play with that if the baby quilt is too heavy to work on without FH's help.

See you next week, hopefully without the technical issues!

Getting There, Almost and Finished

As the title alludes, I've worked on three projects this week. First up is the Mystery Quilt's top, now with borders and waiting for me to have help sandwiching the layers. FH is holding it up for the picture since it's too heavy for me at the moment.

 I did get the binding on my little runner too. Just need to sew it to the back by hand.

 Here's a close up of the quilting so you can see the variegated thread colors.

 And finally a set of eight placemats for a Christmas gift.

Next project goals are a baby quilt that is already cut and waiting to be pieced, finishing the binding on the little runner, and I'm doing another Mystery project. This time it's a table runner. We've already been given cutting instructions for our fabrics and get the next clue tomorrow. I haven't cut my pieces yet as my fabric is still in the wash, otherwise I'd be showing them off too.

Until next week!