Bendy bits....

It was very exciting this morning to feel that both the cottages were at a similar stage of progress. After attending to some things today, the plan was that I would do the paintwork on all the stone - the exterior of Washtub Cottage and the various bits I did yesterday if they are dry enough.

I wanted a photo of both the cottages together so lined them up - and oh dear!  The front of Washtub Cottage has developed a distinct bend.  So it seems I won't be painting that part today at least :-( I did take the photo of both together.  I sat the roof on Toadstool Cottage to keep the chimney in place (yes, I've put the roof together).  The pieces of Washtub Cottage are by no means sitting in their correct places.

And I also took a photo showing the bend in the front of Washtub Cottage.  Even the entry porch appears in this photo to have a slight bend - but it doesn't. 

And yes, the pavement for the front of Washtub is uneven at the front, and yes, that was deliberate - I didn't want it dead straight so squeezed some of it a bit more than other bits.  But the bend in the front makes it rather difficult to sit it properly against the house so it is not sitting well on the pavement either.

Maybe the painting will wait until Sunday now and I might concentrate on the interior doors for both properties, and other details.

Toadstool Cottage and Washtub Cottage started

 I want to show you the progress as I build two cottages, Toadstool Cottage and Washtub Cottage.  So I will share my Mini Journal for each as I go.  I won't necessarily be doing the same thing on each step-by-step of course, but I have started them together while I had the Creative PaperClay out.


But first, to go back a bit in time for Toadstool Cottage and take some notes from my Journal:


8th February 2011
It will be an interesting experience working on this cottage because I plan to work on it at the same time as I work on Washtub Cottage. It seems crazy but I’ll see how I go. I want to do this cottage because I love it, but I haven’t been able to decide what to do with it. Last night, or in the early hours of the morning, I was unable to sleep and trying to decide which of my desirable quarter scale properties would provide the most promising premises for a couple of lovely ladies to take over for a quilt shop (having decided that I needed another one because the Town Square shop was just too small for everything). The solution was there for me – Toadstool Cottage of course.


Both it and Washtub Cottage provide the spacious quarters I want. Plenty of room for lots of fabrics, quilts on display, a classroom area, books for sale, notions and accessories and necessary items.  Even room for a refreshment area for that necessary break. But there were advantages for Toadstool Cottage. As I said, I haven’t been able to decide what to do with it. Its ‘story’ hadn’t revealed itself to me yet. Then the name ‘Toadstool Cottage Quilts’ was rather quaint, hinting at woods and fairies, whereas ‘Washtub Cottage Quilts’ didn’t have the same charm to my mind.


So it was decided. It means of course that I cannot do the inside with the dark and weathered effect to the extent that I’d like to do, but I have heard that the whole neighbourhood is delighted that this charming and historic house has gained a new lease of life as well as adding so much to the opportunities for using valuable artistic and practical skills, not to mention increasing the opportunities for social interaction. It appears that this venture will be most successful!


9th February 2011
First step was, as usual, to type each step of the process up on a separate page of a Word document. I take a photo of every step for my personal mini Journals, and then summarise from this for my blog. I have always taken photos of each step and Journalled for every miniature project I’ve done and it is fascinating (for me) to look back over them. I have them in display books; they are for my interest and document my growth in this amazing hobby.


19th February 2011
I had hoped to have started before this but tonight I finally did the PaperClay on the ground floors. This cottage has fairly regular flagstones on one side and irregular stones on the other so it was all freehand and easy. I’m quite happy with the result and will leave it overnight to dry. .

I know it's not the clearest of photos, the paperclay was still damp and white is not easy to photograph with a flash but it gives a bit of an idea. 

I spent quite a long time considering whether or not to ‘update’ the cottage floors by doing them in timber since it is going to be a modern patchwork shop.  However in the end I decided to go with the original floors.  If need be I can cover them with ‘timber’ later on.

And now for Washtub Cottage:

8th February 2011

I’ve finally plucked up the courage to make a big effort to tackle Washtub Cottage. I’m not happy with my efforts at the brickwork on the Corner Store and want to make sure that this lovely cottage turns out more to my satisfaction. I know I should see it as a growth process, and indeed I do but I also know I could have done better. I was impatient and didn’t wait until I got a proper scribe for the clay and I also rolled the clay too thick and should have re-done it. So I have learned from that. I don’t want to end up with a feeling that I can’t do the clay work properly. So while I want to do Toadstool Cottage as well to make it a Quilt Shop, I also want to do Washtub Cottage because I love it.



Tonight I went through all the kits and made sure that the four of them each had its own full quota of pieces. I was a tiny bit concerned because the plastic bags tend to split and there were a few adventurous pieces floating around in the container. Fortunately none had escaped and all were returned to their respective bags and those bags secured more adequately.


Then I went through the Washtub Cottage book and read the instructions once more. After that I typed them out, one to a page. That is so I remember to take photos of each step for my Washtub Cottage Journal. Highlights from the Journal will be posted on my ‘Snippets’ blog and shared with my readers. Goodness knows, it’s about the only real encouragement I get apart from Jan and other mini friends on my groups!



It’s only 12 weeks now, I think, to the Sydney Fair so it’s time to get serious about the things I am going to exhibit. I want to exhibit Flower Pot Cottage but I am not going to construct that until Washtub Cottage and Toadstool Cottage are done. So that’s roll-up-the-sleeves-and-get into-it time. Because there is also the Town Square to landscape and the other shops still to go, there’s the other 1:48th cottages to do and display and there are a lot of quarter scale flowers to make!



Only had two hours’ sleep last night, so had plenty of time to think and plan miniatures among other things (from 11pm to 6.30am). But I still haven’t decided which other cottages to exhibit.



19th February 2011
Had hoped to have started this cottage before now but tonight I finally took the first step and did the ground floors in Creative Paper Clay for both Washtub Cottage and Toadstool Cottage. Washtub Cottage has a quarry-tiled effect on one side and flagstones on the other side. It is painstaking work doing the quarry tiles 1/8” apart but I’m quite pleased with these ones. I have made a more satisfactory scribing tool by taking a duplicate small stylus I had, and sanding it down to a very fine sharp point.at each end  It was surprisingly easy if time consuming, and well worth the effort.  Now I have a proper scribe instead of trying to use a wooden skewer or toothpick it makes things much easier and the lines much finer. 


It was difficult to get a good photo of the white clay for the floors with the flash. However I want to photograph every step so here we are:

Keep watching this space - hopefully each day will show some progress on one if not both of these buildings!  And there'll be more interesting photos as they grow.