Demolition and Reconstruction

The first step in my doll house rehab was to pull off the broken trim and the cardboard surface of the rear roof. I didn't need any special equipment beyond a flat screwdriver, but I felt like I needed to call for a teeny tiny dumpster.

The new trim was cut from lengths of craft trim that I found at Michael's, the big box craft store. I took a sample with me from the pieces I had removed, and they had bins of the stuff. I decided to add shutters to the house, and they had the perfect trim, which I cut to size. I also bought a small craft saw and a utility knife.



Here's the old cardboard back roof. I pulled it off, but underneath the wood was bumpy with old glue and nails. The replacement came in the form of a roll of thin cork, which I found at the hardware store. Its intended use was to replace car engine gaskets. I cut it to size, and glued it down with heavy duty adhesive. All of the rest of the repair has been done with regular wood glue.


You can see the new rear roof in this photo. I painted it, and the front roof, with deck stain and sealant. All of the paints I used in this project have been leftovers I found in my garage.

Here's a shot of the house with it's old trim scraped off and with the roof repaired. The glue and stain were pretty stinky, so the house spent a lot of time on the back porch. The messy brick work around the entrance was sanded flat and pained to match the rest of the house.

The purple was a trial color for the body of the house. I though it might make a good choice for a bright and colorful fantasy palace, but this purple reminded me too much of those plastic Barbie houses, so it was not the final color selected. Next I'll show you the finished exterior, including the side yard.

The Doll House

For awhile I've been thinking about getting a doll house. I scanned on-line sites, thinking I'd buy a doll house kit, which is a popular way of buying a new doll house, but all those little pieces put me off.

When I was a kid I had one of those tin doll houses with the rugs and wallpaper stamped on. It came with hollow plastic furniture all in one color. You can buy them now on eBay and I saw one in a local antiques store and almost bought it. But I wasn't quite ready, and it wasn't quite what I wanted.

Then in late April my dollhouse found me at the Methodist church rummage sale. It was ten dollars, and like some of the treasures I bring home, it needed a little love. Michael thought I was crazy, but he humored me and carried it to the car. He's good that way. He doesn't care much what I do as long as I'm happy.

A broken down doll house is full of possibilities. Each flaw is an opportunity for something new and wonderful.

The back roof of this one was dilapidated cardboard. The staircase is missing, and the interior is dark and full of wood veneer.


The outside is mismatched: a hodge podge of broken trim and unfinished details. I'm guessing it was a kit from the 80s. It's structurally sound, but it needs a face lift.

But what will it be? An artist's getaway? An idealized childhood home? A 60s college rooming house? It's full of choices, full of dreams and possibilities.

I'm going to chronicle my doll house rehab in the next few posts. I've finished the exterior face lift, and as soon as I order the new staircase, I'll start in on the interior. I'll buy furniture last. Watch to see how it turns out.

Lots to Celebrate

I have a lot of reasons to celebrate these days. I rounded up the leftovers of some recent projects and made this little quilt. Maybe it will be a baby gift.


And I took out my pile of string blocks and pieced them into this scrappy quilt top. Even more impressive, I made backings and battings for several finished tops, and they're waiting to be pinned basted. I like to pin baste at night with an old movie, preferably one starring Joan Crawford. Maybe Mildred Pierce or The Women.

And I quilted this top for Allie for her birthday. I'd made it for myself, but then decided that a cake and flowers quilt was perfect for a 21st birthday.

Isn't she a saucy girl?


And my parents and my brother came to visit. Hey, this scenery is a cause for celebration too. This is at Patrick's Point where Alex's high school graduation was held.

Here's my happy boy.
He made a very successful graduation speech.

Life is good.

The Well-Aged Quilt

This quilt has been a long time in the works, and now all the finished top needs is layering and quilting. The pattern is from Kaffe Fassett's book Passionate Patchwork. I love all of Kaffe's work. He combines fabrics in a fearless way.


Several years ago I started this quilt by collecting home dec sample books for the hatboxes at the center. The pieced border is also mostly made up of home dec fabrics from sample books. In the original version of this quilt, there are more hatboxes and less border.


Here are a few close ups of the hatboxes.




Once I got beyond the pieced border I got stuck. Without the blue border the quilt is 71x71," which I considered to be too big for a wall hanging, but I wasn't sure I wanted to use this as a bed quilt. I chose a blue outer border from this sweet toile fabric, but I got frustrated at the prospect of piecing it so it would fit across the width of the quilt, since the motifs didn't seem to line up. So I put the quilt aside for another day.


Recently I took the quilt out, put on my big girl pants, and cut the borders, pieced them and attached them to the quilt. It now seems perfect for a bed quilt at 85x85." Maybe quilts are like wine. They are ready in their own time. That's my story anyway, and I'm sticking to it.

Projects New and Old

I made another crocheted bag: this time a smaller one, but from the same pattern as the last one.

This bag was a gift for my niece Maria, who just graduated from high school. I spent a lovely weekend visiting with my parents, sister (Maria's mom) and my brother and sister-in-law.

I drove the 6 hours and back by myself: I really like solo travel. I get to stop where and when I want and I get to pick the music I listen to in the car. I like to put my ipod on shuffle so that the next song is always a surprise. I also caught up on episodes of NPR's This American Life, and I started an audio book, Fanny Herself, by Edna Ferber, which is a nicely-read free download from Librivox.

I lined this bag with a black and white fan print, since it's kinda girly.

And I finished piecing this quilt for Debra's charity efforts. It looks the same as the last time I showed it (though the stripes were going the other way in earlier photos), but now it's actually sewn together and soon I'll get it in the mail. Soon.

Thank you for all you sweet comments on the Fall Madonna. Having finished these two projects, I'm now working on some UFOs. I quilted one, and put borders on another. Photos will follow.

Fusibles

The Quilt Studio web ring is encouraging members to post on their experiences with fusibles. Since I used fusible web on the Fall Madonna, I'm going to throw in my two cents.

I generally stick to the basics in terms of products: I use Heat and Bond, both the sewable and the no-sew versions. The no-sew version has a stronger glue, and it is stiffer. However, it will not last forever through repeated washings nor through hard wear. The sewable version will hold as long as your stitching holds up because you don't have to rely on the product alone to keep your pieces together. It also has a softer hand.

If you try to sew through the non-sewable one, your needle will get gunked up with the glue and you'll have to keep cleaning it, which will drive you crazy. Recently I made denim patches with the non-sewable Heat and Bond by mistake, and patched some jeans, and since I needed to also sew through the patches, I cursed my way through the whole thing, though I did finish it.



In the Fall Madonna I fused individual motifs on the sunflower fabric with small pieces of Heat and Bond (no-sew). Because it will not be worn or handled, I'm not worried about the motifs coming off. I cut a piece of the product slightly larger than the motifs I wanted, and I ironed it down on the back of the floral fabric. Then I cut out exactly the motifs I wanted, positioned them on my background, and ironed them down. I used to be very precise in following the manufacturer's directions about how long to fuse and at what iron setting, but lately I just wing it, and everything seems to turn out.

On the Fall Madonna, I also ended up doing silk ribbon embroidery through the fused motifs, and my fingers were screaming in protest by the end. It would've been better to have used the sewable version, but I used what I had on hand, and wasn't thinking ahead very clearly.

When I'm working with any thing sticky, I iron a piece of freezer paper to my ironing board to keep it clean. I've also found that a crumpled up piece of waxed paper rubbed on a hot iron's surface will clean it thoroughly.

Fall Madonna (16"x16")

I've put the last stitches into the Fall Madonna. It's been hard to take photos I'm happy with, but these are the better ones of the bunch.

I like the way the foliage on the vintage napkin I used as a background seems to create movement, as if the whole piece is windblown.


I added a bird button. The Virgin of Guadalupe's appearance in the traditional story is heralded by bird song. I studded the background with small beads in lieu of quilting.

I may take out the cluster of flower buttons below her hands. As you can see, I put a stack of plain buttons underneath because the flower buttons have long shanks, but they still flop over, exposing the white button.

Here you can see the combination of fabric and silk embroidered flowers.

Now that this piece is finished, I've started working on some UFOs. I've surprised myself with some of the things I've found almost finished in my closet. I'm also making a slow transition from work to summer. I've got a few work projects to finish, so I'm not quite on vacation yet. Plus, Alex will be graduating, and my parents will be coming to visit, so I'm catching up on some deferred house keeping. No rest for the wicked, as my mother says. Not yet anyway.

Almost Done

I'm almost done with both the Fall Madonna and Spring semester. I've got a bit more beading on the Madonna, and I've got a pile of papers to grade before Wednesday. After Wednesday my Summer begins: Alex's high school graduation, a few short trips, some camping, some work, re-civilizing my garden, some sewing and knitting. I can't wait.

I'm really loving this piece. The blend of raw edge broidery perse and silk ribbon embroidery has worked very well, though pulling the needle through the extra fabric and the heat and bond isn't for the weak-fingered. The sunflower swag mimics the moon the Virgin of Guadalupe stands on in the traditional image. I've filled in some the empty spots with spider web roses and beads.


I've had these leaf beads for awhile, and I'm going to add more of them to the background.


Another close up.


Here's where I've been working. Both Bunny the cat and I like the light by the window.

Next week I'll move to the back porch with the lovely Louie. He always looks so pretty in the sun.

More Fall Madonna

The Fall Madonna is going on a re-purposed napkin background. I have a set of 4 of these pretty ivy print napkins from the 60s or 70s. Debra has added machine embroidered ivy sprays and I've let down the hems and then trimmed the napkin to 16 x16.


Right as I started beading I found two of these heavy glass luncheon plates at the thrift store for a dollar each. They're perfect for beading trays.


So here she is: appliqued to the background, and then attached to a thin piece of flannel for the batting. I've fused some sunflowers that I'm going to hand embroider between with silk ribbon. If you enlarge the photo you may be able to see where I trimmed the Madonna's cape with beads.

These cute leaf beads are perfect accents for the machine embroidered leaves. I'm making progress.

Fall Madonna

It feels a little funny to work on this fall themed piece when we're having unseasonably hot weather in in California, but over the weekend I added this embroidery to the Madonna. You'll notice that the two sunflowers on top are darker than the one on the bottom. I have gel pens and I'll use them. Actually, I'm trying to see if I can use up the silk ribbon I have and not buy more, but I think I'm going to have to bite the bullet and get some more ribbon for this piece. I don't mind buying it, but I have to order it on line, since none of the stores around here carry it.

I need a couple of more orange roses for this piece, and when she's appliqued to the background, I'll fill in with beads. I'm very proud of my corn, but the ones on the bottom need fatter kernels.

Next, I'll work on a fabric collage on a very special background. That will probably wait until after I shake this flu. Yes, I have the flu. Again.

Watching Yarn Dry

I've developed a knack for reclaiming yarn from thrift store sweaters. There is an excellent tutorial on how to do this here. Now when I breeze through the thrift store I look at the sweaters with a new eye. There are plenty of natural fiber sweaters in good shape to choose from around here, mostly for under $5.

The yarn in the photo is from a 100% cotton sweater in a heavy worsted weight. The sweater's been unraveled and the skeins have been washed to take out the kinks. I had to hang these skeins for about a week before they dried because cotton holds moisture, but wool dries much more quickly. I'm using old shower curtain rings and a coat hanger to dry my skeins. I love the color of this yarn, but the sweater was practically new due to an unfortunate design. "Ah ha!" I thought. "I can fix that."


I think this is the third sweater I've "upcycled." I like this term: it conveys the idea that you can make something even better than the original when you re-use an item. I've invested in a swift, courtesy of Ebay. It wasn't very expensive, and these are manufactured in the the U.S.


My ball winder is from Jo-Ann.com, on sale.


These new tools allow me to turn an old sweater into cakes of yarn that look new, so it's fun to use them. I'm planning to knit a summer stole from this yarn.


Here's the original sweater's label with the re-wound yarn. Cheap thrills.

And Debra and I are embarking on another Madonna project. Wait until you see what we're up to.

The First Suit

I spent this past weekend on a trip with my son Alex, who’s graduating from high school in June. We went to visit two colleges where he’s been offered admission, and to buy him his first suit for graduation.

The college visits went well: we learned what we went to learn. One school he’s excited about, and the other not so much. As a back up plan he’s also been admitted to the university where I teach. But for an 18 year-old young man straining for independence, there’s something anticlimactic about going to your mom’s school. It’s an option, however, if he doesn’t get housing at his #1 choice.

It’s a treat to get one-on-one time with the boy-man. We spent some of the long drive listening to hard-core music (or whatever it’s called) until my nerves and eardrums couldn’t take it any more. We talked about the future. I made myself let him drive on the long straight parts of highway. He’s going to have to know how to do these things soon.

As a young person who wants to leave our small town for the big city, actually seeing the possibility up close is an eye-opening prospect. Like the best cultural critics, he noted that so much of California is an alternating pattern of highways and strip malls so that people are locked into a rhythm of mobility and consumption. That’s my boy, smart, insightful, thoughtful. He’s also a talented musician, writer and speaker.

The suit has been part of an on-going discussion. I want Alex to take a portrait for graduation, and I wanted to buy him dress-up clothes. He resisted at first. Unlike his sister, he’s not a clothes horse. He likes to have only exactly the number of plain t-shirts, un-logoed sweat shirts, and jeans that he needs to get through to the next laundry day. But gradually he started to like the idea of a suit. He can wear it to teen court, a local program where kids who get into trouble at school are tried by a jury of their peers and are defended and prosecuted by teen “attorneys.” Alex has been invited to play the attorney role. A suit finally sounded like a good idea.

And so we went to about 3 Target stores until we found one that had his size jacket and matching pants. He picked the blue shirt and the stripped yellow tie. He picked out dress shoes and a belt. When we got home, he took off all the tags, Googled instructions on how to knot a tie, and at 10 pm, posed for this picture. The suit is a celebratory outfit for high school graduation and he’ll wear it for his senior portrait. It’s also a test of the adult identity that is coming, little by little, slowly but surely, whether we’re ready or not.