Miniature Carpet & Finger-less Mitts

This will be a carpet/ (rug) for my miniature house. 

It's a trial run for me on the new loom that my darling hubby bought for me on his trip to England last year. I eventually found time to warp the loom and 'go-for-it'.

I'm experimenting with the loom to see how it handles making 1:12th scale rugs, so I chose a simple straight weave for this rug in a two colour chunky stripe.

I have actually done about double the amount that is showing on the photo, and hope to have it finished by this weekend (famous last words, haha).

And there is always a bit of crocheting going on in this house.

A pair of finger-less mittens for wearing while riding my bike (winter is coming here in the Southern hemisphere).

My Raleigh bike -- very retro, lol. 

I use this to get to my local craft groups meetings and for a jaunt around the town or to the library and also for grocery shopping. I try to do my bit to save the earth and not use fuel if I don't have to. If the weather is really horrible though I will take the car.

I'm designing a double-pannier bag to sew for the back rack. I have the perfect fun fabric to compliment the bike colours. 

(the basket balancing on 'his' handlebars is the basket for the front of my bike)

Next week I'm off to a remote stitching retreat, so I might not get a post posted here because I don't think there is internet where I'm going, and no telephone signal either, so it will be a very interesting (and fun) week with a great bunch of stitchers. I am sooooo looking forward to it.

I'll show photos etc after the event.

All for now.

Happy stitching.

Cyra

Bits of this and that ~~~

Little bits are progressing on a few different projects.

That is a spiral scrumble to be added to a few other scrumbles (ok, LOTS of other scrumbles) to create something -- I don't know what it will be until I have few more of them made, then it will tell me what it wants to be -- a bag, a hat, a garment, a wall hanging, whatever.

________________________________

Back into drawing again. A quick hand sketch for practice.

____________________________________

The Pilli Pala Dolls House

I don't know how other people have got on constructing this dolls house themselves. The instructions are terrible. The right hand wall of the kitchen is the first piece they tell you to put together, and nowhere does it tell you that the uprights need to be attached with space bellow floor level, hence the 'gap' on mine. I will have to saw that much off the top now and glue it at the bottom. 

All the kitchen walls are up now, and the entrance hall next to the kitchen is almost done.

The checkered floor is a paper sheet that came with the house. Not sure that I like this look,  so I shall probably create some other flooring (and a better quality) than this. 

I think a wood floor would look better - watch this space, lol.

Auditioning some wood strips for flooring. I will remove the bent pieces from this pile first though.

That's my lot for now.

See you in the next post.

Happy Crafting

Cyra

Miniature works are fun

Working on small items for the dolls house is so much fun.

This small blanket/afghan for the bed is finished now and on the bed that I have shown you in a previous post. It is crocheted in embroidery threads, and each block is about 1" small. In real life the granny square blanket would be bigger, but as this is for decoration purpose only, I want the underneath bedding to be seen too.

Construction of the house has started at last now that Tony has cut me a base board to work on.

One downstairs room is almost complete.

And the kitchen table was a new start for this week.

Today is an embroiders guild work day and I shall be stitching on the miniature rug.

See you next time with more miniatures

Happy Stitching

Cyra

Miniature Bed almost complete

Update on my miniature bed - two pillows made, and a crochet blanket.

Now planning a granny square blanket (or something similar) to drape over the foot of the bed.

And in other news - here is the cloth doll with most of her clothes made. Just a few finishing touches to add.

My knitting skills have come on in leaps and bounds this year. Here are two more test patterns that I've tried over the last couple of days.

Woohoo, I'm liking my new craft.

That's all for now.

See you in the next post.

Happy Stitching.

Cyra

The Del Prado Dolls House

The building of the Del Prado House continues.

I thought I'd give you a preview of the house in all it's 125 packages glory.

This is about 90 parts. 

(I found a newish box to put them in as the original boxes from the op shop were dusty and torn and only fit for recycling).

Del Prado are the publishers who brought this set out about 25 (or more) years ago on a fortnightly subscription.

I found 'my' set, complete and with extras, in an op shop 10 years ago but have only just started putting it together (after 3 real house moves and now that all four kids have left home and I have a craft room to work in, lol).

I'm waiting to get to the wood shop to buy a base-board big enough to take the house, and then I shall start the actual house build, but for now I've started on the furniture parts.

Previous posts show the start of the bed, and here it is after the first coat of Antique Green.

Then I used a crackle medium and top coat.

Here it is still drying after the top coat was added. 

It's an antique green undercoat, with a 'Cyra Special Colour' top coat, lol. 

I like to mix my own colours to make a project unique, and also because I know exactly what I want the finished item to look like. I'm fussy like that.

I'm happy with this progress and ready now to make the base and mattress for it.

I am so wanting to dive straight into making the bedding (including a mini crochet blanket) but I'm trying to be good and get the bed itself finished first.

That's all for today.

See you in the next post.

Pilli Pala mini house & some crochet

Pilli Pala mini house.

I cleared half of my work table ready to start on the 1/12th scale house. 

But after measuring up the approximate size of the house, I found out that this space is way too small. So I've had to clear the other half of the table too, so now the whole table is just for the house build. 

This house comes in kit form. It was first published about 20-25 years ago in fortnightly installments, and there are 125 (I think) parts to it. 

(I forgot to take a photo of the packages, sorry, I'll do that for the next posting).

It's the Del Prado Dolls House. I have the whole set. Each part still sealed in it's original packaging. 

No I did not buy it when it was published many moons ago. I had the great fortune to be in the right place at the right time - my local op shop. There were two old and very worn cardboard packing cases stuck in a dark corner with 'stuff' piled all around them. They were very neglected and in need of a loving new home.

I couldn't believe my luck when the lady said I could have it for $5 (NZ). I actually gave her $15 (all I had on me at the time) as it was the Salvation Army op shop, and I like to support them when I can.

That was about 10 yrs ago. 

My idea was to save the set for when I could allocate some proper time for it in the future.

Well, the 'future' is NOW, lol. 

Sorting through the first 6 parts of the set, I realize that this house is not going to be a top-notch sturdy house like the dolls houses my dad used to make. So I need to find a base board big enough for the house and hopefully it will help to keep everything straight and be an integral part of the build. 

I need to search through our outbuildings tomorrow to see if there is something suitable before I go and purchase something. So the main house build is on hold for now.

Meanwhile, I got started on what is called a Sleigh Bed.

This first pic is the footboard. The laser-cut pieces have to be removed from the sheet of wood, and this is what it looks like.

Before

I don't like the rough and rugged edges, so I gave it a thorough sanding to round off all of the edges.

This is it after sanding.

After

Much neater. I am happier with this look even though it took a big part of my day to gently sand all of the parts for the bed.

Anyway, on to the painting, 

(it can be stained instead if you wish, but I want a painted bed).

Primer done and drying. Top coat to do tomorrow after another light sanding.

___________________________________________________________________

I have finished two 12 inch crochet squares. These are already winging their way across the seas to US, where they will be included in two different afghan blankets for a charity auction.

One blanket called for warm colours, and this is my square for that blanket.

The pattern is Marigold on Ravelry

And the second blanket called for neutral colours, and this is my square for that blanket.

The pattern is Dahlia on Ravelry 

(I do not recommend this pattern for novice crocheters as the pattern isn't easy to understand and I had to 'fudge' my way through it in parts).

So that was my week. Hope you had a good one too.

Happy Crafting

Cyra