Illuminating Additions

I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving! FH are heading home today and it can't come any sooner for me.

I'd hoped to make this week's post about the minis going into the storefront, but that didn't happen.  Too busy getting ready to travel and we had company over Monday evening for FH's birthday. I did stumble across a quick project whilst cleaning on Monday and set it aside for Tuesday.

It's nothing fancy... and silly me forgot to take a "before" shot, but here's an aged brass candelabra that used to be bright and shining.

The destination? The Attic Corner Lamp. I also unearthed a tiny lamp made from a plastic "turquoise" bead as I cleared off the buffet. It had been living on top of the real lamp, but someone (probably Artie) knocked it down and it became lost in the clutter. Both pieces are safely tucked away now.

The candelabra is behind the old chair. Someone has knocked it into the chair leg. My money is on the squirrel that's in the fake Christmas tree. Check the picture above to see him. ;-)

Here's the tiny lamp. I'm not sure if it's going to stay there or not. I might re-position it.... or perhaps the squirrel will.

That's all for this week. Hopefully I'll recover from the holiday fast and can get back to work on the store and its contents by tomorrow.

New Build!

I've started on a new building. This project is just for me because it sounds like fun. Something to celebrate being done with the Festival dollhouse and ease the disappointment of not finishing the Aquarium quilt in time for the contest.

As for what it's going to be, I'm saving that for next weekend. ;-)

See you then!

And Done!

The charity auction dollhouse is finished! This is the basic layout for the "set dressing" for the auction, but without the holiday decorations.

Now for the fun part! I may end up doing a tutorial on the angel tree topper at some point. She was fun to do.

And there are plenty of other furniture pieces for fun and imaginative play!

I'll be moving the house and its contents to the auction site tomorrow. I'll get some pictures with the extra accessories and whatnot then. For now, I'm finished!

Four out of Five Ain't Bad

With the exception of baseboards, four out of five of the rooms are redecorated!

The lack of flash doesn't do the colors justice, but I'm happy with how this room has come out. Putting down flooring in one piece, on a tight budget, was maddening  but I finally found some wall repair paper at the hardware store that had a bit of texture, was wide enough, and is paintable. There are a few bubbles, but some gentle rubbing flattens them out without wrinkling.

The bathroom furniture is still being worked on.... and not all of it is going to fit. But this is a house to be played with, so being able to switch out furniture is more fun.

The bedroom had the neutral paper when the house got to me. I kept it as a focus wall and brightened up the room with paint and flooring that coordinate with the border. I cut the border strips from a piece of real-life, striped wallpaper. The threshold is a scrap of "wood" flooring paper that I kept from a previous project.

The bed is now fully dressed. I played with Casey's no-sew pillow design to create the larger shams.

The living room is very neutral. This room will have the option of being decorated for Christmas or being an everyday room, so I wanted plainer colors to let the accents shine. I cut another threshold for this doorway, but it won't be installed until the kitchen is finished.

Once the sofa and chair are in place, you can see just how small the interior space really is. Again, there is more furniture for this room than will fit. But "play with-able" is the key.

This is the bathroom sink. I used a different strip from the same wallpaper I cut the bedroom border from to accent the doors.

Kitchen hutch. This is a Michael's hutch that I dressed up with some real-life wallpaper scraps. The design is the same blue that's going into the kitchen.

Yet another strip of wallpaper from the original striped piece. The directionality of the hearts works well in this piece.

Medicine cabinet. I decided on the same strip used on the sink for this piece and only did the sides.

There are also some more ornaments ready for the mini tree.

That's all I've got, picture-wise, for this week. There are seven pieces of furniture left to embellish/finish painting. The bulk of it is staying "plain" to allow the eyes to have a resting place. Then it will all get clear coat later in the week when it's warm enough (hopefully!) to let it cure outside.

I need to get back to work, so I'll see you next week!

Forward Progress from the Top Down

This is the front of the charity dollhouse. Whomever built this spent a great deal of time and love in doing so. The front door does work, but the windows are all painted on. I'm leaving it as is, but I will be making removable Christmas decorations for the outside.

I forgot to get a picture of the inside before I started slathering everything with gesso. The back wall of the attic room was papered with life-sized plaid wrapping paper... two coats of gesso finally got it hidden enough so it won't show through behind the new wallpaper.

Speaking of the new wallpaper, here it is:

I had that wallpaper lingering in my stash and thought it would be perfect in this dollhouse. And this is the tentative layout for displaying the dollhouse at the auction. The walls need another coat of paint. I'm using Delta Creamcoat's 'Bamboo' for the walls.

While the paint was drying, I hopped over to Casey's blog and searched through her tutorials. I thought I recalled an easy way to make nice bed pillows and I was right. Hop over there to see how she does it. 

I started with some scraps leftover from upholstering the sofa and chair (further down) and played for a bit. Cookie came out of the Trading Post catch-box and decided to test them for softness. 

I ended up needing to trim a bit off the selvage end of the fabric (see her instructions) to make it look right on the single bed, but overall I was pleased.

Then I got serious about dressing the bed. One of my friends who's been helping with the furniture kits had the twin bedroom set in her stash and donated it to the cause. We;re only using one bed, the dresser, and the night table here though. Not enough room for the vanity table or second bed. But the second bed means a side by side before and after photo.

Now the upstairs room will be completely finished once the walls and floor are done! 

I mentioned upholstery earlier. The soft bits are done, but the frames needed one more coat of paint when this picture was taken. As of this afternoon, the frames just need sprayed with sealer and allowed to cure well. Then the cushions can be glued in place. I'll be making some contrasting throw pillows too.

I should get back to it while the weather is nice enough to use sprays. Lots to do today, so I'll see you next week!

Short Update

Things are still moving slowly here. Getting used to new medications is never easy and right now it's miserable. I've done some quilting, but haven't taken pictures of the rows themselves. I did catch my helpers the other day though.

I'm taking my friend, Michelle's, advice right now and just being kind to myself. If something sounds fun, I go and do it. If something doesn't seem like a good time and there's no necessary reason for it, I skip it.

I've helped with some Christmas tress this week and have all the furniture ready to paint for the charity dollhouse. After fighting my thread snapping no less than a dozen times in rapid succession (in the same 3" section of quilting no less!), I've given myself a break from that insanity until tomorrow.

Until next weekend!

Distractions, Distractions

At least they were fun distractions this weekend. FH and I spent the day watching football yesterday after fighting with more furniture kits for the charity dollhouse. I completely lost track of the time until it was past time for us to go to bed. Rather than stay up late to type up a blog, I figured I'd get to it this morning. Of course other things, like doing dishes, got in the way for a bit.

But we now have living room, dining, room, bathroom, and bed room furniture assembled. My friend is done with the kitchen pieces, but I don't have them here yet. She's also donating a child's bedroom set from her stash to the project.

Two more appliqued rows have stitching around the edges!

My sewing machine is giving me fits when I try to work on the edge stitching on the remaining appliqued quilt rows. I had to walk away from it the other night and start quilting finished rows instead. I'm about 3/4 of the way done with the quilting on this row.

The center panel has some more details glue-basted in place too. I'll be working on this as much as possible.

I really don't think I'll be able to get my quilt done in time to win a prize for Row by Row and this makes me sad. Too much has either come up or stood in the way. Getting sick didn't help matters and neither did loosing Gus. Other personal issues have cropped up too and have made life difficult in general, not just difficult to play with my quilt.

The charity dollhouse is one of the issues as it has the same deadline. I wish I wasn't obligated to work on it, but I am so there's no getting around that. I did tell them that if they want another dollhouse furnished/redecorated next year than I'd better get possession of it in April or May. Not only will there be more time and fewer conflicts, but I'll have the time to organize the miniature group here and we can all work on it.

But I'm determined to finish my quilt this year, even if I miss the Halloween deadline. Maybe the Row by Row people will see it even if it's not a winning quilt.

Anyways, it's time to get back to work.

Three Ways form Sunday

At least those are the directions I've been pulled in lately.

The quilt is still progress, albeit slowly thanks to me breaking my sewing machine's bobbin winder. Apparently I dislodged something when I oiled things and messed up the timing on the winder. The machine itself works fine though. Happily a friend who'd moved away left her old machine with me and not only does it work, but the bobbin winder is perfection!

Albuquerque, NM is completely finished and ready for sandwiching.

San Antonio, TX is fused and ready to be stitched down.

Granbury, TX is now stitched and ready for sandwiching.

I'm still getting the other fused applique rows stitched down. There is more work to do on the center panel as well. Hopefully I can get back to it this week.

I've also been helping a friend with a project. A dollhouse was donated for a charity auction and it needed some redecorating and furniture. I ordered one of the Greenleaf 6-room furniture kits and have been assembling them room by room.

Right now the bedroom and living room pieces are together. Some of the pieces aren't fully together because I need to paint them before final bits are put in place. About half of the bathroom is together. Another friend has the kitchen and is taking care of its assembly. She's also going through her stash for other bits and bobs for the project.

Mercedes is the third direction. We're working on her social skills and training, with lots of breaks for the park in between.

That's all for this week. Hopefully lots more will be done this coming week. See you then!

More Mercy

I've been sick all week so nothing really got accomplished.

Here are some pictures of Mercedes that are adorable.

I'm going to go back to bed now. See you next weekend!