The Shape of Things

 I am so proud of myself today. Last summer as I worked to remove wallpaper from the half scale Fairfield, I broke the arched door jamb for the large living room doorway. This morning I decided to wallpaper the living room and began assembling the pieces to put the room back in order,  but I couldn't find the broken piece. I worked on the little house out in the garage during the summer and thought that I had moved everything back into the basement, but I couldn't find the missing piece, so I decided to make a new trim piece one on my Cricut Maker. Of course I could have just traced a new pattern and cut it out by hand--certainly would have been quicker, but clean, precise cuts are worth the time that it took me create my new piece. 

 I relished the challenge.                           

I began by scanning the broken wood trim and saving as a .jpeg, then uploading it into Cricut Design Space, as you see it on the far left of Design Space. Technically, I could edit that scanned image, but I've not trained myself in the skill yet, instead, I found it much easier to build my new piece from scratch using the tools that Design Space has.

I measured the left leg on the real piece from the point where it attaches to the arch down to the bottom, using millimeters: 11mm. The I measured the distance between the inside of the arch from the left leg to the where the inside of the right leg would join to the arch. In the Shapes tool on the left, I grabbed a square and sized it. I made two using the duplicating tool to copy the 1st one.

As the image shows, my first arch wasn't wide enough, so I remeasured the inside width between the legs the made another rectangle  (the horizontal one) to get the correct inside width. 

Next how to create the arch? Design Space doesn't allow for free-hand drawing. I wish it had the flexibility, so to create curved lines takes some imagination. The Shapes tool has a variety of common shapes can be stretched and sized to create custom images.

 I grabbed a circle from the Shapes toolbox and began to flatten the circle until I had an oval that fit between two legs. I used the Attach tool to "glue the 3 pieces together, but I didn't have an arch yet. As the last image shows; I had an oval with legs.

This image shows how I duplicated my oval (I always duplicate extra pieces so that I have the original piece in tact incase I need a do-over) Instead of attaching the new oval, I placed it on top of the black oval, leaving the top edge of the first oval exposed. 

This photos shows how I used the Slice tool "cut away" the excess black oval. 

Next I drag the arch away from the sliced ovals. You can see the oval left.

The first jamb that I made--still in the work space--wasn't wide enough, it was back to the drawing board 

to remeasure and rebuild. The second try was successful. I printed my door jamb to make sure that it was the correct shape and size.

Perfect. I was shocked.

Time to cut the wood.

• Purple tight grip mat
• 1/16 inch bass wood (Hobby Lobby) cut to 11 inches wide
• Knife blade

In the Maker screen the photo on the left shows the machine's placement of the door jamb, but I want it to run with the grain of the wood, I am able move the piece to align it with the wood grain by grabbing the circle arrow to rotate the piece's position.

The machine makes 14 passes. I usually stop at 10 passes to keep from cutting my mat. The shape is not an exact duplicate of the original, but it is close enough. 

The good news: I finally found the missing leg and it will glue back in place perfectly. So which piece  would you use?

I still have so much work to do on this little house, but this was major issue solved. I'm now contemplating making new windows. Now I know that can recreate pieces if I have too.

On this Thanksgiving Eve, I wish you all Happy Thanksgiving. It will just be the two of us. We had plans to have dinner with one of the girls and her family, but the the 12 year old tested positive last week. While she has been symptom free since her test, she is on mandatory quarantine (as ordered in an official letter from the Health Department followed up with a phone call) along with her sisters and parents.  The 8 year old came home from school Oct. 30 sick but tested negative, yet the rest of the family got sick--sore throat, sniffles--typical COVID symptoms. Since we saw all three of the girls once again since the 30th, we are hiding, now, too. I am thankful to have my mini projects to keep me busy and my mind occupied. 

I'll fix a traditional meal tomorrow, except I'm roasting chicken instead of the 20 lb, turkey still in the freezer. Despite the roller coaster ride that 2020 has taken us on, we are cheerful and thankful for our blessings, especially when I think about the journey that my distant great grandparents, John Howland and his wife Elizabeth took 400 years ago on the Mayflower. Their journey and the reasons for it were remarkable and remain so today.

Have a wonderful celebration in your home. For my friends out of country, I am thankful and blessed to have you as friends, for you have enriched my life and bring me joy. I hope I do the same for you.