Good Intentions and Certain Roads....

Spring has sprung, and the St. John River is giving us its annual flood. I have bright yellow crocuses up in the garden, the first of the new bulbs planted last fall, and I hope the others we planted do as well. We also had our first real guest in two and a half years, so maybe things are getting back to normal? We are expecting our younger daughter to be with us for nearly 3 weeks in June, and our older daughter is planning a visit in late summer or early fall. Our son's ability to travel has much to do with his work load, but he too is hoping.

The photo is of at least 3 of the UFO's (UnFinished Objects) in my house that are trying to make me feel guilty, but I have, in fact, been finishing up UFO's in my other hobbies. My sewing machine and serger needed some work, and for that we had to travel two hours up the road to find a qualified repair person. 

Our little mini group of 3 has been getting together, and little things have been worked on, but not enough work has happened to make it worthwhile to share with you. However, hope springs eternal, and I do hope to get at least one of those projects DONE soon!

There is, however, some springtime garden maintenance that needs doing, removing piles of wet, rotting leaf mulch from all the flower beds, and as our days seem to alternate rain with sunshine, so it may be a little while yet....

My intentions have actually been good, but the carrying on is sometimes harder to achieve. Thank you all for sticking with me, and do stay tuned to encourage me to keep on going on!

 

Just Checking In!

Since the  Russian invasion of Ukraine, I've been unable to concentrate on much, and have spent far too much time reading or watching news programs. Some years ago, I sponsored a boy in Ukraine; Olek is now in his mid-teens, and I worry about him and his family. They became eligible for sponsorship because the family were internal refugees following the 2014 annexation of the Crimea.

I have done some mini work, but it is not really worth blogging about. But on Monday night, when I just could not sleep, I took photos of a fairly unusual house-plant bloom. At least 25 years ago, I purchased a very large old Sanseviera (Mother-in-Law's Tongue or Snake Plant), at a yard sale, split the thing into two separate very large flower pots, and both of  them now bloom regularly. I was told that the plants have to be quite mature to bloom, and mine are well over 30 years old!

This is the living room plant, the other one lives in our sunny front hallway, which has lots of south-facing windows and a terra-cotta tile floor that captures the sun and heat from the skylight. The flowers are night-blooming, and are likely pollinated by bats and moths. When we lived in Jamaica in the early 90's, I'd regularly smell this incredible scent at night. I discovered that it was sanseviera, which is often used as a hedge in there. The scent is like orange blossoms or jasmine, very lovely, and comes in waves.

The blossoms are very delicate and beautiful, and grow in spikes. They also produce a lot of nectar, so the plants have to be kept from walls and furniture, to prevent the nectar getting on walls and upholstery. As I was sitting in the living room, drinking chamomile tea in the hope of getting some sleep that night, the scent came and went, just gorgeous.

I hope to get some mini work done this weekend, as I'd really, really like to call the Christmas Market Stall finished.....

Ice, Snow and Sand Have Arrived

I have added a skirt of glossy varnish all along the newly applied snow boundaries, and then followed that up by dripping triple thick varnish in some of the spaces between the cobbles. It is more visible in person, but the idea is that this is a European market stall, there is not that much snow, and it is melting quickly. The proprietor of the stall has swept the area around her stall clean, and the meltwater is gathering in the cobble seams here and there.

In front of the stall, where the customer stand, the ice has been sanded. The sand is freshly ground pepper, which adheres nicely to the freshly applies gloss varnish....

Now I need to make a stiff broom, which I will place by the door at the side, to complete the story of the base of my market stall.

For the inside, I have three tilted bins that will hold Christmas decorations, a tall bin with a cut-away front for rolls of wrapping paper, and a flat bin for a collection of Christmas gift bags. It's coming along, but there is lots more to do still. I'd like to make a portable shelf unit, for example, to hold the two crates of moss balls and giant pine cones. The stand will likely be an A-frame, with a couple of shelves for the crates, and a handle on the top to allow the proprietor to move the unit inside easily at the end of a working day.

But I am still missing an important item, the name of the place! Suggestions for that will be gratefully accepted and seriously considered. It can't be too long, as it has to fit on the fascia over the opening, and it has to make it clear this is a Christmas decor shop. I need a name!

 

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions!

The decision I'm pondering is whether I need to add more snow along the edges of my vignette base; I wanted the scene to look like the snow had been removed, just remaining around the edges of the stall and the posts. However, I am not sure I am giving that effect. Any ideas, please?

I made a trio of crates last Thursday, that will eventually go onto an inclined plinth and will hold the many Christmas tree decorations I made. None of them are small enough to fit into the boxes, and there really is not a lot of space on the shelves for hanging displays. 

We have been going from snow storm to snow storm here, which has kept us in the house most of the time. It has also been quite dark because of the overcast, and I've wanted nothing as much as being able to hibernate like a bear and ignore winter altogether! Most of my time has been spent knitting or sewing, but I did sort out some more stuff to put together for the market stall. And I still haven't got a really good name for it....

 

And Back to the Christmas Market Stall

 

Today I was finally able to wire up the lights of the market stall to my satisfaction, and this afternoon in our virtual meeting, I was able to mount some of the stock onto acetate bases, which will eventually be glued into place.

I remembered that I had a box of Christmas items suitable for miniatures sitting somewhere, so I found it and one of the results is the little Christmas creche on the counter shelf; the floor and the back are pieces of tongue depressor, reinforced with a card hinge on the back. On to that I glued a tiny Baby in the manger, and an equally tiny Mary next to that. There is also a sequin star, with gold wire rays, which is not so visible here; it may be enlarged for better viewing, I hope! There is also some "straw" here and there on the base, made from tiny snippets of fine raffia. I do like the way it turned out.

In the box I found some other items I'm now working on, including a half dozen gift bags, which need a crate to sit in. That is on my list. As well, I intend to make some shallow crates or boxes to hold loose Christmas tree decorations. 

The lighting consists of two strings of dollar store Christmas lights, one around the opening and one around the perimeter of the setting. It took three tries to get the opening swag arranged to my satisfaction, as I didn't want clusters of lights and large bare spots. It also wore out two swags of plastic holly leaves - I've left trails of them all around the house, they're very staticky - and am not sure if I will ever use those leaves again; they were so very fragile!

All in all, I am happy that I can now work on filling my little market stall with merchandise....,.

How I Finish My Rugs or Carpets - Photo-heavy!

Here's hoping this is of interest to you, my readers. Over the years, one of the refrains I hear all too often at miniature shows in my part of the world, is "I can do that myself, and it will be way cheaper". Minimum wage here in my province is around $13.00 per hour. It takes me an hour, on average, to work a square inch (2.5 x 2.5 cm cm) of carpet  or rug, depending on the intricacy of the pattern and the colour changes. This rug measures 4 5/8" x 7 1/8" (11.7 x 18.2 cm), not including the fringe, representing about $375.00 hours worth of embroidery work. The edging would be another $39.00, and the finishing and  fringing a similar amount. We are looking at upwards of $450.00 for the work alone. As costs of thread and backing aren't huge, I'll forgo material costs here.

Offered for sale in my part of the world, I would charge $75.00 - more than that people would not pay. Hmmm! Here's how it's done:

The edges of the embroidery have been trimmed, and the corners mitered and stitched down. 

( The photos insist on being vertical, so I'm sorry, we can't figure out how to get the photos to behave. I've gone to the editing function and flipped and saved them but it isn't carrying over to the blog.) Anyways, the edges are then sewn down using a herringbone stitch, which is flexible; this is important because the continental stitch, the main one used in the rug, pulls on the bias. It is necessary, once in a while, to re-align the sides by pulling and then gently pressing with a steam iron. The diagram for this stitch is in the book, which is of course sideways.... The red centre of the rug is worked in basket-weave stitch, done diagonally and alternating vertical and horizontal rows, which minimizes the bias stretch of the canvas.

This is a view of the long-arm cross-stitch I use for the edges; it gives a braided effect, helps with a crisp folded edge, and doesn't show any of the white background fabric when the carpet is on the floor.

Another vertical photo! I give up. The fringe is formed by wrapping floss around a ruler, and then cutting it off along one edge of that.

This one remained horizontal! (There are gremlins in my computer for sure.) Front side of the carpet, with some of the cut floss fringes. These still have to be separated into bundles of 3 strands of floss each, see below.

 I lay these out on my knee.

Each little bundle of 3 floss strands is doubled, pulled through 2 threads of the edge canvas, and then pulled through the loop formed, using a very tiny crochet hook. These fringes are placed in every second hole in the canvas.

We flipped this one, but it wants to be vertical. Oh well. The fringes are all in place, but are way too long; the next step is trimming them.

The fringes are brushed out nice and straight with a toothbrush, then taped in place, ready for cutting to scale fringe size. Below is a photo of the advantage of doing it this way.

The cut-off bits of floss stick to the masking tape, making them very neat and tidy and easy to dispose of!

And this is the finished rug. Altogether, I spent about 5 hours today, finishing the braided effect edge, preparing and placing the fringe, and bringing things to this point. And my customers balk at spending $75.00 for all this work....

Many miniature rugs have fringes made of frayed out fabric, glued on to the ends. Many also have glued hems, rather than sewn ones. I find that glue eventually darkens and ruins the work, and prefer to work with an eye to the longevity of my handwork. I enjoy seeing the lovely little carpets and rugs grow as I work them, which is probably why I continue making them....

Hope you found this photo essay, gremlins and all, an interesting one! I now deserve a cup of tea and a cookie.  

Progress on Another Front

 No progress has been reported on this since September 1, apparently! I decided to go back to filling in the corner motifs on this carpet, and just did the last one. Now the inner, wide border, which is about half done, is up for completion.

We are once again in complete lock-down here, thanks to the meteoric rise of the Omicron variety of Covid. Our hospitals have more than 100 people in ICU, and provincially, only 200 can be accommodated; my annual mammogram was cancelled, and it will likely be months before my new eye specialist can see me, and then there is another long wait that may need postponing, after that, if surgery is needed. I did fine, until today, when the colours on my embroidery chart started blurring and changing again. I'll give it a day before trying again....

As far as the market stall is concerned, the wiring for the perimeter is in place, and the wiring for the stall itself - a lighted swag around the front opening - is ready to be placed. That's next. I've decided to try and finish some half-finished, small projects while I am under pandemic "house arrest", just to keep my sanity. I am doing a minimum of 10 rows daily on a current sock project (one is done), as wool socks with temperatures well below zero seem a good idea! With the wind chill, we are dealing with -30 C.

Stay well and healthy!