Bad blogger! And another new follower to welcome.

I can't believe how long it's been since I blogged anything!  And when I had a look today, I see that Shelly has signed on as a follower - welcome, Shelly, it is lovely to see your familiar name here.  Thank you so much for taking the time to visit my blog and for becoming a follower.  I hope you keep popping in often to share my mini ramblings and add your comments too. 

As we've said here before, it is so nice to share our hobby with people who understand our addiction and who are actually interested instead of getting that glazed look of 'Oh no! here she goes again!' when you try to share something mini with them.  I don't have anyone local in RL so the contact I have with you wonderful online mini friends means more to me than I can express.

So much has happened and I kept thinking I'd post, and there are even some drafts that haven't been published for one reason or other, but I guess that the first thing I'll do is update you on the progress of the Town Square shops.

First of all the structure of the Claytons Christmas Shop is finished except for the roofing.  This  dormers won't have the windows, shutters and little roofs on until then either .  I thought that I'd do the roof in dark grey slate but I'm not sure about slate with a shingled finish on the exterior of the building.  So I've just left it for now because I've been unwell.  We thought it was heat exhaustion but it has lasted too long so it appears to be some sort of bug.  It's left me very drained and lacking energy anyway so it is difficult to make much in the way of decisions when I am really tired.

Here's the shop so far.  I think it will be called 'Say it with Flowers'  even though it's not very original.  I left the shutters off the main window for now, it will be easy to add them later if I decide it needs them.  I really like the colour of the paint I've done it now.  and no, your eyes are not playing tricks on you and neither is my camera - the roof is crooked!  How it came out that way I do not know.  The photos I took last night show it sitting straight; these ones that I took this afternoon in daylight to show the colours better - it is crooked.  So I must have bumped the roof last night and not realised it.  Not quite sure what I'll do to fix that - since it's all wallpapered I'm not sure whether the microwave trick will work this time.

I really like the interior.  Obviously the red striped paper and the green striped paper that suited the Christmas theme that the shop is intended for weren't suitable - or maybe they are okay but since I have already used them I didn't want to repeat the colouring for the interior.  I already had this walllpaper and to me it suggests a trellis in the garden.  I wanted something fresh and pretty but not overpowering - the flowers will obviously be the feature in the shop.  The ceiling in the attic is painted white but I think I might go back and paper it as well.

And you'll notice that I've included a fine-tip glue bottle in all the photos this time, just as a reminder of how tiny the shops really are.

The quilt shop, called 'The French Knot' is another really delightful shop.  If you look at the basic shape of the different buildings you'll notice a 'mix and match'  process going on.  And very effective it is, too.  The quilt shop is actually the same basic shape as Dickens Books, but given a totally different treatment to the exterior it isn't obvious.

There are two window boxes provided.  Not sure yet whether to use the second one or not; it is all ready to go if needed, for this or for another building.

The green is Sage Green mixed with white, same as I used for the Petite Properties Corner Shop.  And I'm very chuffed that I was actually able to do the panels on the door with paint and get it right first go - YAAAAY!  I used the toothpick method as suggested and this time it just jelled for once.

Inside the pretty colours continue, with a green and blue stripe downstairs and a pretty floral upstairs.  The paper upstairs covers the ceiling as well.

The furniture that came with this kit was a counter and a turning display stand for downstairs, and a table and two small bookcases for upstairs.

In anticipation of this shop's arrival I had gone ahead and bought quite a few things.  Lots of white metal bits from Grace Shaw of Virtual Dollhouse, and some tape measures as well.  From BJs Miniatures I bought a sewing accessories display floor stand; a kit to make a shelf with 5 dozen bolts of 'fabric' ; a tall double quilt display rack; a sewing accessories wall display and a table set of sewing accessories. 

 Here is the wall display - beautifully done, with so much detail as are all the pieces from the same maker.  Notice the ruler above it.  Each of the packets on the top layer of the display (there are two or three layers for each) is nicely coated with a matt finish that makes it quite firm, then dimensional glaze used to give appropriate shape to the packet.

And that's fine for the shop display but of course each individual stitcher needs her own equipment.  This lovely little display measures less than an inch square - as you can see, it fits case and all within one square on my old painting mat.  Sorry about the daggy condition of said mat - it is the one that I normally keep for 'dirty' work and although I do clean it you wouldn't think so.

Look closely at the set of goodies - that tiny, tiny container actually measures about 1.5mm across yet holds not just one but two pairs of perfectly formed metal scissors as well as the other pencils and things in it.  That tiny rotary cutter is made of metal and is perfect in its appearance.  the mat is not just paper, it feels like a plastic of some sort.  The sewing book, ruler and reels of ribbon complete the set.  I won't necessarily keep all of the items together on the table where the person is working, it depends on what she is making.

But that wasn't all I bought.  Apart from the white metal thimbles, small spools and sewing machines from Grace I bought tape measures, needle packets (so sweet!) and various other bits associated with sewing.

Then there are the quilts.  Quite a few quilts in fact, from several sources.  And very nice they are too.  And of course I searched the net for printies, as well as my own files.  So there are printies of even more quilts, of quilt books and of sewing books, of sewing baskets and of sewing-themed notices and borders.

You've probably guessed by now - it all ends up being too much for one little Town Square quilt shop.  As a result, I am looking at those Petite Properties cottages that I am about to start making up with an eye to which one would adapt to a nice large patchwork shop.........

As I've been looking at the exterior of these two shops I am reminded that next shop (The China Cottage) is on it's way from Debbie Young.  I ordered and pre-paid for it back in October or thereabouts, along with the second 'O Christmas Tree'  forgetting that I'd already requested two of them from Judith Dowden.  Obviously I will honour that request, and will have three of the china shops.  I'm quite delighted about that, because of all of the shops this one has the prettiest details structurally.  I'll decide on which of the other shops to order an extra one of, and will use some of those details on that shop to change its appearance.  I might even use some of them on the Flower Shop as well.  And it gives me extra opportunities to swap doors and windows as well to ring further changes.  It means I'll end up with 15 or so shops for the Town Square, and that's fine too.  Lots of avenues to explore yet!