Getting there with the attic...

Joanne and I went to see Les Miserables on Saturday afternoon. What an incredible movie!!! I saw the play years ago and always watch the anniversary productions on PBS and have always loved the music. So I've been singing the score for the last few days. LOL

Saturday night after I posted here, I did some work on the gable for the attic. Installed the window and window frame and painted the inside. Then got started on installing the siding. By last night I had the siding on the sides but was NOT looking forward to siding the front.

Yesterday afternoon I went next door to Mom's to take some pictures of items I want to make in miniature for both the attic and the quilt shop.

DS Carol made this beautiful quilt for Mom. I'm hoping to make it in miniature for the quilt shop and display it on a quilt rack as a focal point in the shop.

Had a terrible time trying to get a straight on picture of it. We hung it on a screen that Mom has and I practically had to crawl into her closet to get back enough to get the whole quilt in the frame. VBG

The front of the quilt. The lace fan effect is from  sections of crocheted doilies.

Back of the quilt

Mom also has Vern's mother's china cabinet which she uses as two separate pieces. I'm hoping to make these for the attic but I don't know how successful I might be. It's a gorgeous piece of furniture but it has so many curves, molding and different looks in the wood.

Bottom of china cabinet

Top of china cabinet

Christmas of 1976, Vern gave me a jigsaw, sander and electric drill for Christmas. I was THRILLED! And the talk of the neighbourhood - none of my neighbours could understand that I had actually asked for them.

The first things I made were toy boxes for Sean and Leanne.

I had two of these wonderful lidded wooden boxes in my stash - think I got them in dealers' grab bags at the Edmonton Show and Sale but not sure.

So I took one (without the lid) and painted it yellow as Sean's toy box had been. (Leanne's was painted white enamel with a large cursive L in gold on the side.)

Even then I loved casters on RL furniture (Vern worked out of town a lot and casters made moving furniture SO much easier!) So, of course, I had to put casters on the toy box as they were on the original.

The casters are Houseworks #1104. Alex at Miniland has them on his website as do most dealers. They have little pegs on the base so you just drill a tiny hole for the peg and glue them in place. One of those little touches that really impress non-miniaturists.

Okay, I had avoided siding the front of the gable long enough!

Commercial siding cuts pretty well if you're working with large pieces but when you're working with narrow pieces and cutting across the grain, it tends to split. ARGGHH! So I had to do some piecing and I ended up with a gap between the top and bottom pieces that I didn't fill in very well. But the lines of the sides and front pieces were pretty well matched and, of course, the corner angle molding helps.

What a great feeling to get that done!

Now just have to paint the siding then glue the gable in place!

The end is in sight for the building of the attic then I can begin the fun stuff - making the pieces to go in it!!!

And almost all the boring stuff of construction is behind you, my dear followers, and hopefully I'll start getting some tutorials done.

I wanted to mail a package to a friend this afternoon but it was -10 C and I debated going until I checked the weather forecast for tomorrow!! So I took care of that little errand. The temperature has already dropped to -22C and the forecast for tomorrow morning is -28C with a windchilld of -41C. For my American friends, I've not translated them to F. but you may know that -40C is equal to -40F. So it's going to be COLD! Wish I had taken the garbage out!

On the bright side, the temperature on February 1st is supposed to be above freezing. It's already been a long winter since our first snow in October and the huge blizzard the first week in November. Fortunately, for every few days of VERY cold weather, we've had some really nice days with temperatures above freezing.