Mini Earthquake!

Here's the before photo. Do you recall the general store that NJ made from the Greenleaf / Corona Concepts Adams kit for the Hobby Builders Supply Creatin' Contest a while back? This is what the inside looked like when it was finished. It won an honorable mention. She's doing a major spring cleaning and asked if I'd take custody for a while until we figure out what to do with it. It was her entry, but we both worked on it. Poke the picture to see it larger. Details, details, details!

Here's what we learned yesterday: when a well-waxed general store sits in the back of a truck during the lunch hour on a not very hot day, the wax softens enough to cause chaos. It made the trip from NJ's house to the diner just fine and waited patiently while we had lunch. It went from her truck into the back of our van very nicely. But when we turned out onto the highway, I heard a little noise back there that I knew wasn't good.

This is just part of the damage. There's a custard bowlful of accessories that I picked up from the back of the van that came off the shelves that used to stand against the right side wall.

The plan is to clean off all of the wax and then glue the bits in place. Not sure what to use to clean off the wax. You can see in the photo that there are some really ugly oily wax stains. Lloyd suggests using rubbing alcohol. If you have any suggestions, I'd like to hear them, please!

You may have noticed I haven't posted lately. Real life has intervened once again. What a busy spring! When I do find mini time, I've been working on Greenleaf Dollhouses Spring Fling, and all mention must remain a secret until the contest closes. I'll be back -- the quilt shop is waiting impatiently, and the Pierce is rattling in its box!

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.