A lace mask and some miniatures

Yes, I have actually been working on some miniatures. I know its been a while but other things (like holidays and visitors, exhibitions and competitions) have been getting in the way. However, this week I've been working on the quarter scale cottages. These are semi-detached and will have a thatched roof eventually, which will make them the only thatched cottages in the street but that's ok.

 The right hand cottage is quite large with four rooms and rendered walls

The one on the left just has one room downstairs and one upstairs and I've given the exterior walls of this one a stone finish.

This is the smaller cottage. It still needs a few pieces of furniture - a small table to go with that dining chair and an armchair by the fire I think as well as a comfortable rug by the hearth and some pictures on the walls to make it look a little cosier.

 The larger cottage already has its dining table (just noticed that dining chair that has fallen over).

 The furniture in this cottage has a 1940s feel - including the fireplace in the sitting room.

 There will be a settee and armchair in this room too - eventually.

Even the bathroom is a little old fashioned with that high cistern toilet.

The kitchen is small but I've managed to squeeze in a cooker and a sink unit with cupboards.

This is the lace mask. It's taken me a while to work out exactly how to fix it onto the plastic mask that I had bought for the purpose and I finally covered the front of the mask with gold lame and the back with red silk dupion, then stitched the lace onto that. I have to admit to being pretty pleased with the final result of this piece which has taken countless hours of work.

Oh ... and this morning I also framed this piece.

This was a kit from Stef Francis with a small embossed metal panel in the centre - and now hanging on my lounge wall.

Have a great weekend everyone.

I'm leaving you with a little autumn colour in the shape of a potted maple in my garden. In real life it's even redder than it looks in this photograph - really scarlet. It cheers me even on the gloomiest day.