Playing the Slots

Several weeks ago, when I was in one of my favorite quilt shops, I took a photo of the slotwall hung with lots of luscious accessories. Today I recreated it in mini. The photo is a bit skewed because of the camera angle, but you get the idea. I prepared the image by tweaking it with a photo program -- sharpened it, adjusted the color, increased the saturation a bit, etc. I tried to make the clearest photo I possibly could. I sized it using MSWord, printed one black and white copy to check the measurements, and then made three copies on glossy photo paper.

One copy served as the background.

A second copy was cut up and most of the individual items were glued on top of their counterparts on the background. I didn't want to make all of them the same depth. The glue I used is Glossy Accents, a clear dimensional embellishment by Ranger. I got it at Michael's, in the scrapbook/stamping area. Its two main properties are that it dries without shrinking or going flat, and dries crystal clear. It permitted me to add more depth than just the thickness of the paper.

A third copy got special treatment. I put a little blob of Glossy Accents over the raised areas of each item. The blob magnified the image beneath it and made it 3-D. When it dried, there was too much contrast between the shiny blob and the photo paper surface. I painted each item with clear nail polish; that makes it look as if the whole display card is covered with plastic.

The photo below shows the work in progress. The top photo is the one with the blobs and nail polish. The middle photo is the background. Most of the plain photo cutouts have been glued in place. The smallest photo is what's left of the plain photo to be cut and glued onto the background. You can poke the photos to enlarge them if you want to see details.


This is going to go behind the counter, against the stairs. This is becoming a very nicely stocked quilt shop. :)

A Carpentry Session

Today I built a couple more cabinets for the main shop room, a cabinet to hold the thread rack and a shelf/counter to hold fabric bolts below and miscellany on top. The fat quarters will be part of the miscellany. I used balsa wood. The white is painted with gesso, the oak is stained with the MinWax golden oak. I ran an emery board over the gesso to knock down the little "hairs" that stand up. It was so smooth that I decided not to put a coat of satin finish house paint on it. The cabinet needs door and drawer handles.

This is what the main shop room looks like now. The new shelf is front middle. I think the furnitures and fixtures are pretty much where they'll end up. Subject to change, of course, when the accessories and display quilts go in. I glued feet on the new shelf and the three smaller units -- sage green pony beads. It works with the floor and gives them a little lift that they needed. I'm not sure that the tapered shelf in the back left corner will stay. We'll see what there is to put on it when the accessories move in.

I want to build cupboards for the kitchen. And there are quilt racks to be built for the show display. It is coming together.

Filling the shelves

Today I added some dividers to the big shelf unit to hold yarn and magazines. In four sections on the right, I put in some filler to back up the magazines. Here's what we have so far. The magazines are glued in place but the yarn and crochet cotton balls are just staged. I need to make yard skeins in more colors. And I'm not sure about the jumbled balls of crochet cotton. Should they be stacked neatly (in which case the colors wouldn't be seen easily) or left jumbled this way? The jury is still out.

The fun begins ... staging

The fun really began this afternoon when I pulled the furniture out of the storage box to begin staging the quilt shop. This probably isn't where the pieces will end up, but it's a start. The bolts will be sorted by color and type of fabric before they are glued into place, and the shelves will be filled. I'm thinking to make a cabinet to hold the thread rack and a long cabinet one bolt high and one or two bolts wide to run from the front to the far side of the tall bolt shelf. This will provide surface space to display fat quarters and other small items. I'm really liking how the workroom is shaping up. I just had to put a couple of quilts in here to see how they'll look. They probably won't stay. (I think the prime wall on the right will get the crazy quilt when it's finished.)

The kitchen is pretty plain. It needs a counter to hold a nice big coffee pot and a tray with cups and maybe some donuts. Not sure about the baker's rack or Michael's hutch in the used-to-be dining room. This is the room where the quilt show will be hung and we may need room for quilt racks.

Wallpaper is Up

The railing is in place on the stairs. I had hoped to make the upper part removable, but in order to run the handrail all the way to the top, it was necessary to glue everything in place. None the less, I like the way it turned out. The rest of the baseboards have also been installed, both upstairs and down. They lack only the quarter round to finish them off, but I haven't ordered it yet.

Then -- I did the wallpaper in the kitchen, finally. Making the templates took waaaaay longer than hanging the wallpaper. I used liquid starch for paste and really like the way it handled. I could slide the paper around to get it seated properly, which was very helpful in such tight quarters. It was easy to paint on with a brush, and it did not bleed through the paper. The blue tape is holding the baseboard in place and holding together the two sections of linoleum while the glue dries.

I must confess, I did only three walls. The other side of the wall that divides these two rooms was just more than I wanted to deal with. It is painted white, but I think it will be covered over with shelves on either side of the doorway and maybe a shelf above the doorway as well.

So, except for the quarter round, I believe the house is finished, except for the fourth wall, which needs to be cleaned up and painted. Yet to come, landscaping and interior items.

The Upstairs Floor is In

For the past few days I've been working on the wooden flooring. The sheets were stained and coated with satin finish polyacrylic (water based), templates were made, sections were cut and fitted like a jigsaw puzzle. Today I glued it into place. The flatiron is holding down a place where two sections met and wanted to buckle. They are perfectly flat now. This is the room that will have the work tables and quilting frame. This is the room that will be the studio apartment. I like the look of the rug on the oak floor. The baseboard is just leaning against the wall. Fitting and gluing that into place will be the next step.

I gave the stair rails a coat of polyacrylic so they will blend better with the floor. They can be installed now. And we bought a 2' x 4' piece of 3/4" plywood at the lumber yard on Saturday that now needs to be painted green. It's to replace the quarter inch board under the house; it is too flimsy to provide proper support.

Oh ... I bought a bottle of liquid starch today. I'm going to use it to hang the kitchen wallpaper. I'm thinking about getting to the wallpaper ... really.

Avoidance Techniques Honed

Another day avoiding the wallpapering. I'm getting good at it.

What I did is paint the inside of the stairwell, using a mirror. There was a pretty steep learning curve as I adjusted to working in reverse, but the job is done. Did you notice the difference in the height of two steps? It must be a flaw in the original construction. But really, no one would notice unless they stuck a camera up there, or a mirror, so shhhhhhhhhhhhhhh ... we'll keep this our little secret. I also used the mirror to paint the hidden parts in the kitchen, so there's now a nice undercoat, ready to receive the wallpaper.While I was in a paint slinging mood, I painted the inside of both fireplaces black. In the quilt shop, they'll be hidden by shelving, but they're ready for a log fire if or when the building turns back into a residence. Then the former dining room got its linoleum and baseboards. I put the back wall on to be sure it still fit, and then added a piece of quarter round molding to finish off the edge of the linoleum in both the living and dining rooms.I told myself the paint in the kitchen wasn't nearly dry enough to contemplate wallpapering, so I made a template of the floor of the upper room that has the staircase, thinking to start putting in the planks. But then decided to stain all of the flooring first. For these three sheets, I rubbed the golden oak stain in with a piece of cloth. Here's the job in progress. I remembered to use a plastic glove, so my fingers are not stained this time. :)

And after that I tidied up the worktable, put away paints and tools that won't be used soon, and swept the floor. By then it was time to stop to make supper.

Wallpaper? What wallpaper?

Mini OHSA is now Welcome

It has been a while since I worked on the quilt shop. I know I have to jump through hoops and worse to wallpaper the kitchen, so I've been practicing avoidance techniques. I'm good at them.

But I've missed doing minis, so today I worked on the stairway railings. I bought the components from Hobby Builders Supply and stained them Golden Oak with a stain pen. For little bitty bits, I like the felt tip touch-up pen better than a brush or rag. The upstairs rail is simple, an L shape. You can't see the short leg of the L; it's on the left. The ballusters are three quarters of an inch apart, the equivalent of nine inches in real life. I used my magnetic jig tray to put it together. What a treat!

The railing is not glued in place. This floor will have golden oak wood flooring laid to cover the damaged original floor. I'll glue the railing in place when the flooring is finished. The downstairs rail, which follows the pitch of the stairs, is a bit trickier. I made individual treads for each step, since the original steps were very plain. These are stained golden oak, too. For the handrail, I glued one balluster to each step. The handrail is leaning against the wall. None of this is glued in place yet. First I had to figure out the height of the Newell post and couldn't do that until the linoleum flooring was installed. Had to add a piece to the bottom of the Newell post to adjust it so the handrail will hit it properly.

At one point, I took a photo up the stairs, a view that isn't easily seen but is visible if you look in one of the windows. Luckily, I took the photo before I glued in the treads and handrail. Notice the right side wall of the stairwell. It isn't painted! The treads in the photo are already glued in place, so it will take some creative taping to protect them from a paintbrush that needs to spread paint where it can't be seen while one is doing the painting. What a pain. Anyway, I decided it's way too late to do any painting, so the lower treads and handrail will just have to wait for installation at a later date.

If you look to the right in this last photo, you're looking into the kitchen, where the dreaded wallpaper caper must eventually take place. I wish I weren't quite so set on wallpaper in there.