Out of Chaos

Late this evening I looked at the worktable and couldn't comprehend how I'd managed to get anything done in all of the chaos. I tidied up somewhat after I snapped the photo but it's still nothing to brag about. The clutter in the lower left is the creation of a display frame prototype.
The quilt-in-progress is put together and in the workroom. I like the strips yet to be added that hang on the chair. I wish I'd shaped them a bit better with hairspray before I glued them, but they look okay in person. Did you notice that the quilt hanging by the worktables has a sewing theme? :)

This is the third table in the workroom. The pieces aren't glued in place. I want to show a pile of quilt blocks and some sashing in progress. This fabric has alternating one-inch solid blocks and blocks made of four half inch small blocks. It would be a good candidate except that the colors are so blah. I need to find better fabric for this one.

I did get some new smaller quilts made. The top left and center quilts will be on racks in the show room. The smaller ones below them will go on the walls. The one on the right -- not sure what will happen to that one. It needs to have a border before I decide.

The bulk of the afternoon was spend fiddling with quilt frames for display in the showroom. This prototype is a bit unstable and about an inch and a quarter too tall, but has provided the research I needed to make better ones. There will be two quilts on each frame, back to back. I'm not sure how many frames this room will take so that a) visitors will be able to see both sides of the frames and b) the view of the kitchen/workroom won't be blocked entirely. Did you notice the little clothespins holding up the quilt?

Details, details, details!

Here's an overview of the quilt shop. The shop (lower left) is coming along nicely. The workroom (above the shop) is also coming along. The bathroom needs wall hangings. My friend NJ says she has just the thing for in there. :) The apartment (upper right) is still in chaos. The furniture is there just to see what it looks like with furniture. The Murphy bed will stay. Not sure about anything else. Below the apartment is the large room where the quilts will be displayed, and behind it the kitchen/workroom. Poke the picture to see the details.

I'm debating whether to have the Murphy bed open or closed. NJ says it should be open or people won't know what it is. But I wonder about it being open during the day. Makes the owner seem a bit lax with her housekeeping!

Remember the empty spot on the counter? It has been filled with spools of thread in a basket.

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Here is the finished shelf unit. The little wall hangings across the top were cut from fabric. I really like the detail in this. Too bad most of it won't be seen because the unit is toward the back of the room on a side wall. I hope folks peek in the window to see it.

I started hanging quilts to add color to the walls. The big quilts, back and at right, are glued to a bamboo skewer, which runs through screw eyes. If this reverts to a residence one day, the tiny holes can be filled or papered over. The smaller quilt also has a skewer glued to it. The skewer holds it just far enough from the wall to look more "real". I think the smaller quilts are light enough to be held up with miniwax. Note the quilt in progress on the far worktable. The nearest chair holds sewn strips for another quilt. More about that later.

Here's a better shot of the apartment. The resin lady appeared in a box of minis given to me by a friend last May. She's knitting. The furniture, except for the Murphy bed, is in there to be auditioned. Still not sure what this room will look like, but it's beginning to feel like a personal hideaway in a commercial establishment.

This is how the quilt on the worktable (above) got to have such realistic folds and draping. This is the quilt for the near table. The quilter is sewing a strip in place. The pink contractor's foam is standing in for the table and the bit of foamcore board is standing in for the sewing machine. I didn't want to get them gunked up with hair spray.

Here is a strip of wall hangings that will go over the doorway between the show room and the kitchen. They have also received a dose of hairspray to give them some life. I want them to appear to be fluttering. The two bundles in clamps are quilts. It's nearly impossible to fold a quilt this small and keep it from popping open. A few drops of fabric glue help considerably. I hesitated to fold these up, but what would a quilt shop be without some folded quilts on a shelf?

I talked to my friend at the local hardware store today about plexiglass for the back. I think some U-channels ought to do the trick. I want to have it enclosed for the show.

Back to the Quilt Shop!

I can't believe how long it has been since I posted about the quilt shop. Real life in the guise of gardening and travel took precedence, and the craft area got pretty cluttered from inattention. I did spend time making bits and bobs and filling in the shelf units. This is the shelf unit in progress.
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All of the accessories in the shop will be glued in place. I want to be able to take out the entire shelf unit and not have to worry about dropping skeins of yarn or books. Ditto fabric bolts and everything else. The shop will eventually be put on display at the quilt show, so it needs to be easy to set up and take down. All of the furniture units will be removable. When the quilt show is over, everything can come out so the house can revert to a residence.
The next photo shows the shelf unit finished and against the right wall. What tickles me about this shot is the lighting -- it is lighted with two battery-powered LED lights from Walmart. They turn on and off with a touch of a finger. No wires! The light is very bright and wouldn't do for a residence, but in this commercial setting, it works very well. You can see some of the details I've been working on: bolts of fabric glued in place, center shelving nearly finished (note empty spot behind the jelly rolls. I'm sure I'll think of something to put there).

I wish I could take credit for the lighting idea, but it was the brain child of Deb Roberts of Deb's Minis. I was lucky enough to meet her and see some of her remarkable houses in person last fall. I've been carrying this lighting idea around ever since, waiting for a place to use it. I love that the LEDs will last for thousands of hours, but mostly I love the idea of no wires and no need to hide battery packs in the furniture! The sleek white plastic of the lights look like commercial lighting.

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Two of the most fiddly bits to make were the button and embroidery floss racks. In the photo above, they're sitting on the sales counter. The button cards are printed on glossy photo paper. A dab of 3-D gloss give depth to the buttons. It looks better from a distance!

Did you figure out the floss rack? I cut a wooden spool in half crosswise and glued in a piece of plastic the same size as the top bit, which is the stopper from a dairy product box with its pull ring cut off. The sign is stuck into a slit in the stopper.

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We'll be traveling again August 18-25. My goal is to get this project finished before we leave. With more excessive heat indexes predicted for the next week or so, I should get in a goodly amount of mini time while keeping cool. I bought fabric to make a quilt skirt to hide the taboret that serves as the base for the shop. That could be a challenge!