Stitching at the Railway Inn

OK, so I'm not really stitching at the Railway Inn, but I do have a couple of finished pieces to show you and some progress on my new 48th scale public house. I'm no drinker (at all) but it seemed to me that any English village street worthy of the name would surely have a 'pub'.
Stitching first ...

I think I told you that we'd had a lesson in beading at the Guild's last meeting and I'd wanted to make a little purse ... well here it is. I've not made the chain long enough to wear (on purpose) so this is hanging on my dressing table mirror at the moment - along with that metal bird-adorned heart that I showed you last week. I'm really pleased with the way this turned out, and at least I've used up some of those excess beads I bought for making the name badge.

They are called amulet purses and, according to Wikipedia, an amulet is an object that protects a person from trouble (or evil), and usually take the form of a stone, gemstone, small statue, ring or charm, so I guess that an amulet purse was designed to hold such a thing and keep it close to your heart (if the purse were hung around your neck). Mine doesn't have anything inside it - yet.

I also finished my little goldwork Russian icon.

and another piece of lace. This was stitched in pieces and then assembled and mounted on a piece of calico, which I'm going to turn into a book wrap.

Now here is another photograph of my Cottage Stores, from the outside, and ...

... on the inside. I still need to make a table for the room upstairs, and probably a rug for the floor I think. I made the little linen cupboard from pieces of card.

Now here is the Railway Inn

 First of all the outside.

The inside of the front elevation. This is actually all decorated to match the interior now but I have no photo of that yet to show you.

And here are the rooms. I'm not sure that I will keep the bar where it is at the moment as I have a bench, some tables and some stools to fit in to this room as well and the current arrangement limits the space I have considerably. So the bar might actually end up across the front of the fireplace on the ground floor. I'll play around with the layout for a while before I make any final decision.

Spring is just around the corner

When it's cold outside and the weatherman assures us that there is more snow on its way, I just needed some reminders that it will soon be spring. I planted up these little beauties and set them beside my kitchen sink to cheer me up on dark days.

 There are signs of life in the garden too ...

 

This verbena bush flowers right outside my studio window

These primroses are right outside my front door ...

See all the young shoots pushing up through the earth around these early snowdrops.

And the hellebores are beginning to open their beautiful purple flowers by the side of the pond.

Yesterday the sun was shining and I headed out to a nearby town for a little retail therapy and thought I'd share my purchases with you. Nothing here cost very much (only one or two pounds) but they've brightened my life.

This shabby little metal heart is hanging on the mirror on my dressing table

 This one hangs on my dining room door

I bought these two scraps of Indian fabric a few weeks ago - I have no idea yet what I will do with them but aren't the colours and the handiwork gorgeous?

I found these two little sewing sets in a charity shop - for far less than it would have cost me to make them, so home they came. This one, I think, will go in my sewing room.

 There are even 'pins' in the tiny pincushion

Here's the second one on the settee in the retreat.

 I bought this pretty little pencil case as it's just the right size to hold my miniature knitting. This lacy blanket is being worked on size 0.8 needles using Venne Colcoton (about the thickness of machine sewing thread). When I began I thought I'd never get the hang of it but now I have the pattern firmly in my head it's starting to grow more quickly.

This little woollen blanket (knitted on size 1.00 needles with 1 ply wool) grew much more quickly.

Now, here is my newest 48th scale building  - the Railway Inn.

 I've wallpapered the rooms inside this time as I'd managed to find some scrapbooking paper with very tiny designs which I think are just right for this scale. The sink which is sitting on the top floor won't stay in this building as there's only one room on each floor (hence the false doors on the back walls). The ground floor will be the bar, with a living room on the 1st floor and bedroom on the 2nd floor. The doors lead out to imaginary washroom facilities on the ground floor (for customers' use), a staircase and a kitchen and bathroom upstairs.

At the last meeting of our Embroiderers' Guild a group of us did a beading workshop and learned to make name badges. Here's mine. It's a little wavy around the edges but not bad for a first attempt. I enjoyed it so much that I've borrowed a book on making bead purses from the library - so watch this space.

Works in progress

I've had a very busy week so far. On Monday we had a Project meeting at our Embroiderers Guild branch to move forward with the 17th century embroidery project we're working on. I have already done my slip for the large tree of life which will be the central piece in the exhibition (if we ever find a venue for it), a couple of pieces of lace and a blackwork tree of life of my own. All of these I believe I've shown you in the past. I'm now working on a hexagonal casket which will have pieces of lace worked for each section of the raised lid. At least, in my head that's what is going to happen. We'll just have to wait and see if I manage to make it look good enough to show to others.

I've also been working on a second kit which my wonderful son gave me as a Christmas gift. This is another Jane Greenoff book, but this time only the front cover is worked in embroidery.

It's really quite tiny but there's a surprising amount of stitching involved and, this time I've really quite enjoyed doing the hardanger section. There is still a border of couched gold thread and then two rows of pulled thread work to go around the edges yet but this little beauty should be completed by the end of the week I think.

Two years ago I went on my holiday of a lifetime to Russia (some of you may remember) and ever since I've been promising myself that I would do some embroideries based on what I saw there. It's taken me quite a while to get started, though designs have been brewing in my head and in my sketchbook for some time. Anyhow, the first piece is now in progress.

A little goldwork icon. When it's completed you won't be able to see any of the yellow felt. That's just there as padding to raise up all the gold wire chippings and beads. The red hands and face will remain, however. We saw many icon frames in the Armouries inside the Kremlin walls and all the paintings had been removed, leaving just the frames worked in precious metals and jewels, so that's why this piece is the way it is.

 I've also been working on my 48th scale cottage stores. There's now a bed upstairs, which just fits in the alcove to the side of the boxed in stairs. The shop has a counter and some shelving, both of which hold items for sale. There's a stepladder and pot of paint in the section to the side, and, if you look really closely, you might be able to see that there's even a paintbrush in the paint pot.

  

There are baskets of fruit and vegetables and some other items on the windowsill.

And I've also made three little hats to go in my Etsy shop - all ready for that spring sunshine, which I know is just around the corner.

Finally ... Willow's birthday portrait ...

Four today. He looks quite cross about me taking his photograph doesn't he? But at least he stayed still for me.

Handbags and a village shop

I've been busy on the miniatures front this week - due mainly to not having been out as a result of the snow that fell last Sunday night and has never melted ... and there's more coming later today apparently. I know that this is very normal for some of you but I hate this feeling of being trapped in the house. I know that I could go out but I'm so nervous of falling on the ice and the pavements are never cleared around here. Anyhow ... enough moaning about the weather ... here are my mini creations.

 I've been making handbags and suitcases and all of these are going into my Etsy shop. They're all made from the finest kid leather.

 A large tan bag

 A deep turquoise handbag with matching suitcase

 A black suitcase with matching handbag

A sweet pale pink handbag

 And two pale tan bags.

I've also made some fittings for my cottage stores - some shelves ... 
 

and a little corner counter.

And this is the shop completed.

Oh, and yes, I've been trying to finish off some more stitching projects. This piece of lace is complete now - just need to decide where I'm going to put it.

More work on the Cottage stores

I've been working on my little Cottage Stores building again today and have just a few more pictures to show you.

This picture shows the front of the building with its windows in place and the rough coating on the walls. The front of the building is glued to the pavement section and decorating that will be tomorrow's job I think.
That shop window is really beautiful and just begging to be filled with all kinds of delights. I just need to decide what ... yes, still no final decision made and I think it's because I'm not really sure what I am able to make in this scale. A decision will have to be made soon!

Here you can see the inside, complete with the partition walls in place and the doors which lead to the 'staircase' up to the room above the shop. There are decisions to be made here too. Will it be living quarters for the shop owner, or will it be an office where he does his paperwork, or a store-room for additional stock? You can just see, if you look closely, the floorboards marked out with a fine-tipped pen. The walls of the upstairs room are actually painted a pale blue colour though that certainly isn't clear here.

And finally, here is the view of the end wall.

My 1/4 scale cottage stores

I couldn't wait any longer to make a start on those wonderful 1/4 scale kits from Petite Properties! This is the basic shell of the Cottage Stores.

Cute isn't it? It's taken me a while to decide what my little shop will be selling but I think that because it's a village shop it should stock a little of everything. I've made a little partition for the back left hand corner of the shop area and another for the top floor, each with a fake door, which is where the staircase would be.

I don't know why I imagined that this would be quick to build as, of course, there's just as much detail involved as there would be for a larger house, but much much smaller. 

This is a canvas work kit which I was given as a Christmas present. I couldn't wait to get started on that either. I'm undecided whether this will end up framed as a picture to hang on my wall, or as a book cover, or mounted onto a cushion cover, or on the lid of a box. Any ideas?