MEE summer get-together

Each summer, members of the club get together. Usually it's at the home of a member who welcomes the club to see her treasures.

This year, Sunni arranged for the club to meet at The Little White Schoolhouse in St. Albert. It was of particular interest to miniaturists as it is also the home of Lorna Naves' Dollhouse. Lorna was a long-time member of MEE and a founding member of St. Albert Miniature Club.

A staff member from Le Musee Heritage met us there and Sunni made arrangements for club records concerning Lorna and her work to be transferred to the museum. Lorna was well-known for her needlework carpets and there are several beautiful examples of her work in this house.

In addition to viewing Lorna's house, we spent some time making trees. We were fortunate to be able to borrow a tree-making machine from the Edmonton Railroad Club.

Unfortunately, I did not get any decent pictures but I did find this wonderful video on Youtube that shows you the machine and how we made our trees. The video is over 25 minutes long but it's very interesting. (You could only watch the first couple minutes to see the machine itself.)

Erika demonstrating.

We used twine rather than the rope in the video. We had quite an assembly line going. Someone would cut the twine in 5 to 6" strips and others would separate the strands. As the strands were separated, people took turns using the machine to make their trees.

The trees would be taken out, sprayed with black paint, then trimmed to shape. They would then be sprayed with hairspray and dipped in a cake pan filled with the chopped foam.

 Because of the heat and wind outside that day, there were a few problems with adhesion. The size of our trees (1:12 scale) may have been part of the problem.

Another way to do this is to spray the bare tree with spray adhesive then add the flocking.

My basic tree (about 14" tall) sprayed with paint but the flocking to be added.

Sunni brought in a bunch of branches and moss to share and make bushes/trees.

Lorry brought some lovely mailbox kits with plants at the bases that some members worked on.

We started at 4 p.m. and about 6:00 p.m. we stopped for a picnic dinner supplied by the St. Albert members. We ate that upstairs in the classroom that contains Lorna's house and members shared their memories of her. Then we were back downstairs to finish our projects.

Jennifer and Hoanie joined us (with their daughters) as new members. Lovely to meet them.

What a wonderful day! Thanks, Sunni!

Quick note re the quilt shop

I would have liked to have mentioned this yesterday about the Quilt Shop but blogspot was throwing a hissy fit and I finally gave up on making any changes.

Other than the quilt on the right wall and the counter on the right hand side (and everything on/in it), everything in this shop was hand made by me.

Which makes it one of my absolute favourite pieces!

The Quilt Shop is finished!

Yesterday I hung the quilt on the right wall. I had hoped to hang a miniature of the quilt that DS Carol made for Mom but although I had a great picture of it, it just wouldn't print in the colours that were vibrant enough - too washed out - so I decided to go with the quilt that I bought at the last Winnipeg Gathering.

Made some rolls of batting today and it's finished!

The outside of the box is covered with fabric.

The room with the lights on.

Left side

Right side

Back wall

With table in place

Quilt Shop boxes

First, I made a simple box for the quilt box trims:

 Here it is in place:

 Then I started on the box for the spools of thread:

This was a "by guess and by golly" thing so I didn't take measurements - just went by the seat of my pants:

I took a small sheet of 1/16" and glued four uprights on it:

that would fit the two different sizes of spools:

Because they would be at an angle, needed to have length on the left.  (Actually, if you're planning on doing this, the top piece should be at a right angle.)

 The top pieces have been trimmed and a back piece glued in place.

 Then it was painted:

Given another coat of paint, then the areas were given a coat of Miniature Moveable glue and the spools of thread put in place.

And put in place on the back shelf of the room.

Sorry. As I said, it was "by guess and by golly" so I just did it and didn't do it as a proper tutorial.

Megan and Carter's projects

Here are MUCH better pictures!

Love the glasses on Carter's bear!

Love the basket of candy canes and suckers on the mantle! Beautiful job by Megan!

Quilt Shop update

While the young people were here today, I actually managed to get a few things get done on the quilt shop:

Pleased to get so far....

Flowers

These are the RL flowers that Megan and Carter sent me tonight. I especially love the sweet peas (my favourite) and the gladioli are wonderful (my second favourite)!

Thank you SO much!