All Over the Place

I seem to be all over the place these days, going from one project to another. I've ordered over a hundred photos for five 8x8 photo albums for the grandkids--such drama came from deciding which of thousands of photos to chose from. lost photos at the drugstore print shop, and the complications using discontinued Creative Memories products that fortunately I can order on eBay. Still! I doubt that I'll have them done by Christmas.

Three years ago I got the brilliant idea to make greeting cards for the veterans at the Cheyenne, WY VA nursing home, and I've grown our Daughters of the Revolution project from sending 22 two cards the veterans to sending hand made greeting cards to Cards for Soldiers, so we make a lot of cards here in my basement. I fix lunch for my DAR friends and we work for a few hours creating pretty cards for our service men and women. It's such a small gesture, but a worthy one. We will gather here Friday, so I have plenty to do to get ready.

This time of year with the holidays approaching, I won't get much done on the Manchester, and there is so much to do. I am having a very hard time committing to anything permanent, such as flooring, which I've been working on. I've made decent progress, but returning from my hiatus caused by health issues I had lost track of what the original plan was, made a of mess of things. Instead of finishing floors, last week I made furniture for the living room and curtain rod hangers--now that project came out of nowhere since I'm no where near ready for curtain rods, but I have the hangers!

So let's begin with the Mid Center Modern chair created by Dilly Dally Dollhouse. I downloaded the .svg files from Etsy and went to work. I won't go through the entire tutorial because she does a much better video. While she used a double layer of 1/16 basswood, I used 1.5 mm chipboard, which is the same thickness. 

Here's the irony of this choice for the Manchester living room: 

I never have been a fan of Mid-Century Modern. When I set out on this build, I knew that it had to be different from the other two farm houses that I've created.

 My grandmother's house, a two story red brick Tutor, was the typical 1940s home. Perfect in every detail, clean and neat. Never anything out place.  I can remember every nook, cranny, and corner. Every detail. I was 12 when my grandmother died suddenly. We were great companions and she taught me so much and missed her, but when my grandfather sold their house, dispersed her belongings, and remarried, I was happy for him. He moved just down the road from us, which a great, too.  His new wife had a nice home to decorate. In the early '60 the Swedish style was 'in' and she chose, including the aluminum foil Christmas tree with the color wheel. I hated it. Google the look and you will see that it is still made.

 I remember the turquoise cushions on chairs just like these little ones Rita at Dilly Dally Dollhouse has created. For me, the furnishings didn't look inviting, warm, or comfortable. How ironic that I am now jumping out of my comfort zone for this house.

As my photo shows, I also cut out a sofa by tripling the the back and seat pieces in the Maker Design Space by simply attaching 3 pieces. Worked out for me. It is a good idea to label pieces since the front and back have a slight difference in dimensions. 

                                       

                             

Rita at Dilly Dally has created such easy projects that lend good results. So here's how I assembled my chair and sofa. I used double stick carpet tape and it is sticky to adhere the fabric to the card that I used for the cushions.. Rita just uses the glue stick, which I used for the corners and realized it does adhere fabric nicely.                                         

I glued the poly fiber to heave card using the glue stick. Poly fiber cut to fit.

                         

For the sofa, I used double stick--really sticky--carpet tape and then the glue stick to adhere the fabric on the ends, which dries clear, by the way and doesn't saturate the fabric as tacky glue or even fabric glue do. As it turned out, I probably didn't need the sticky tape for the glue held nicely.                     

Since these were my practice pieces, I just folded the fabric around card instead of making boxes cushions using the foam core board, which didn't require the last step to finished the edges or the sides of the cushions. A finished box cushion will have a band around the edges. 

With the chipboard board pieces finished--I didn't paint them--, I cut the wood ones from 3/32" bass wood. Cricut does not say that the Maker will cut that thickness, so I'd say: at your own risk. Mine seems to handle it nicely and while it says 24 rounds, 11 or 12 passes seem to work fine. 

I am a bit disappointed that the wood grain on the chair doesn't match, but who will notice once the cushion is installed. For this set, I will use the 3/8" foam core to make box cushions for more tailored look and use using quilt batting to add softness instead of the poly fiber. Right now I can't decide on fabric or colors and I have to decide on wallpaper for the living room. 

  

The practice pieces have been moved into the Bellingham Texas Farm House. The chair will be in the little cowboy's room that is influenced by Roy Rogers, King of the Cowboys. I need to get his poster hung.

The sofa is in the second story sitting room. I wanted it to be somewhat southwest, but the rug doesn't really fit.

So I borrowed the cow hide rug from the living room then ordered a new one from Etsy for the upstairs.

Curtain Rods

Sometimes it really is easier to just order things from the miniature venders online, but I've always made my own curtain rods using jewelry findings and wooden skewers, but this time I used WireForm soft metal rods that I purchased from Hobby Lobby. The ones shown here are .06 12" long rods, but actual one that I used is larger. Can't say Houseworks much since I don't have the packaging anymore, but the smaller diameter will work.

Supplies:

• Rod: either wooden skewer or metal
• Bead caps--whatever you want. I'm using brad since the tube is hallow. 
• Findings. Shop the bead section in the craft store
• Glue: jewelry glue or E6000 works great to adhere metals.
• jewelry wire: a fine gage. Once again I'm using from my stash so I've thrown away package. This could be 22 gage. Larger gage is harder to twist and work with and you need something that will o through the beads and finding.
• jewelry cutters and pliers
• Pipe cutter--the red thing. You can't cut with scissors. This is an inexpensive gadget if you are going to work with wire.

I'll include my photos, but they are not very good and it is very hard to describe how bend the wire to create the hook. Essentially I created a loop at one end of about 22 gage wire using jewelry pliers. I inserted into a bead cap so that the loop is located on the concave side of the cap with 90 degree in it. 

This is what you want the finished under side of the finding to look like (the concave side). Once you have created the loop and cut the wire about 4 mm long, you will make a 90 degree downward bend about 2 mm from the bead cap.

Begin by creating a loop

The loop doesn't have to be closed.

 

Bend the loop down to create right angle.

Thread the straight end of the wire through the top of the finding

From the front side, bend another right angle down about 2 mm from the finding. On the other side of the right angle wrap the wire around the plier to create half a loop and cut the excess wire off. This very hard to explain and even harder to get good photos.

You should end up with hangers that look something like this. Some hooks are a little long, so I'll trim the excess away when I mount the rod.

Here is the finished curtain rod hanger. I glued the hooks in place then used these clamps to hold the pieces in place and let them set over night.

Next I need to source lights. I'm trying to use out my stash, I don't have all the light that I need I have searched for a bathroom wall fixture, but haven't found exactly what I want yet. In order to more interior work, I need to install the tape wiring, so perhaps that will be next.

Thanks for visiting today. I always enjoy reading your comments.