Little Diamond Windows....

 

Framed.....

You might Not recall, Dear Readers, the construction of the Nursery Bed Nook windows, and I would not blame you at all! They were made in the distant past, after all, in the summer of 2014, almost too long ago to remember! It was a fantastic little piece of enchantment... this sleeping nook tucked into the "stump" of a lopped off tree branch... on the opening door wall of the Nursery. It set the entire tone for the Nursery... as often has been the case with this construction.... the door leads the way! It lets you in... draws you in.... gives you the glimpse of what will come for the rest of the room. Those little diamond-paned windows with the lace curtains on their curtain rod... yes those are little curtain rings... and those windows are hinged to open! (I tend not to open them often as the hinges are impractical and very very tiny..... but, yes, they do open.) This was the last I worked on the Tree House for the next dozen years! Had I set the bar too high? What was preventing me from continuing with this room? It is a Looooong story... I was distracted... busy with all those other projects.... and the Nursery door would not stay closed on its own but hung open and gaping and begging me to give it some attention.... year after year. I would close it, put tape across the door... but the tape would give out and there was that door waving at me again! Well, as you might know, eventually I bought a step ladder so I could actually see what I was building up there in the Tree House... (I am not tall and the Nursery is above my eye level....) and once again set about constructing these little rooms. 

 

And I have made some good progress in the Nanny's Room,

 and even got started on the Bunk-beds in the other lopped off tree branch. 

But those windows were not progressing at all!

 With the example of the Bed Nook windows and their lovely curtains...

 didn't I have a road map to follow? 

Couldn't I just make them like the first ones? 

Well, no, I couldn't.

 They were squeezed into a smaller space

 and hinging all those windows was beyond

 my ability to even imagine! 

But I did refine the interior of the bunkbeds nook... 

lining them with matchstick paneling and sewing little mattresses.

 I think I showed that progress last autumn about this time. 

But the windows were being stubborn. 

So I worked on the Nanny's Room instead... 

finishing those windows, adding wall paper and decorative ceiling and...

 and... and... still no windows for the Nursery. 

At last I decided that the window spaces were too large...

 the little Ratlings would fall through them if they kicked too hard... 

so I added more framing to the outside wall... 

closing in the spaces a bit. 

If you look carefully at the above picture you can see

 the protruding section of the bunk-beds nook 

with much smaller and better defined window holes. 

Perhaps now I was making progress! 

When I found myself sewing a tiny patchwork Quilt for the Nanny's Bed

 in the middle of the hottest part of summer, 

I began to realize I was just procrastinating... 

those windows Needed to be tackled! 

 

It starts with making a pattern of the window openings... 

pretty much like with the Castle Windows, 

only the opposite part takes the frame

 (outside the window rather than inside the window),

 hence I am cutting out the window panes, 

leaving the framework surrounding it.

 

And trying to figure out the placement 

of the mesh used for the window panes..... 

seeing how the shapes would fit in the openings....

 

Starting to construct the cardboard frames layers.... 

this is the complicated part... 

the under frame needs to surround the acetate window panel, 

which has the mesh glued to it... 

then the outer frame goes over the acetate and mesh window panes, 

overlapping onto the outer cardboard frame, 

thereby holding all the layers in place. 

If you look very closely at the above picture 

you will see the acetate panes have been 

fitted into those cardboard openings. 

Their edges will overlap the window's framing.

 

Here the underframe has been painted with the brown paint. 

This is so any edges that show will be the dark brown wood color,

 and also the paint strengthens the cardboard itself. 

 

And here the acetate window panes are in position 

(but not glued down yet!)... just to test the fit of all the layers.

 The outerframe, there to the right, is awaiting its paint.

 

And then you come to the point where you just have to wing it! 

The four panes "mesh" has to be glued to the acetate 

with a thick layer of Aleene's Clear Gel Tacky Glue.... 

covering and soaking through the mesh 

and left to dry overnight. 

The paper pattern underneath is 

hopefully making the spacing correct!

 

Here you can see them the next morning... 

the glue has dried overnight.... 

but is also lifting from the acetate surface...!

 Aaack! What to do....???

 

 Well, I decided there was nothing for it 

but to immediately glue all the layers in place

 and see what would happen next......? !! 

Here you can see them being glued.... 

well, they are there under that agate rock 

and the glue bottle! :)

 

 

And much later when the weights are removed..... 

perhaps it worked after all...?

 

Here is the view seen through the windows

 from inside the bunkbeds.... 

it looks just about right to me!

 (Whew!)

 

And testing the bunkbeds wall in place in the Tree House....

 the exterior view with flash 

(it is getting late and dark already)

 

And the exterior view of both the bed nook "protrusions"

with the opening wall closed (it stays closed now

because I fixed the door last summer!).... 

 

But the view of the bunkbed windows

 from inside the Tree House, Dear Readers,

 is almost impossible to see.....! 

Certainly, the camera with the flash turned on

 can't get close enough.

 

But the following morning the sunlight was

 snaking its way into my workroom and

 shining directly onto the Tree House....

 could it be coming through those bunk bed windows.... 

could we see it at all....???

 

Aaah.... 

just the barest corner of a window is visible!

 

And the light is definitely shining 

into the Nursery onto the floor! 

(What more could I ask for...?)

 

And the exterior view this morning.... 

yeah, it is dark again... 

the sun angle is getting lower and doesn't stay as long.....

 but those windows are doing their job! 

There will be more "framework" built up around the openings

 when I get to constructing the outer shell of the tree structure.

 

There is still so far to go Dear Readers, 

but finally, Finally, I have framed those 

Little Diamond Paned windows!  

I call that progress!

 

Stitching Updates...

 

Progress is Progress...

It is Hard to Believe, Dear Readers that it has already been several months since I showed you any progress on the stitching projects! Time has been Flying by and here we are on the brink of Autumn already. I finished the stitching on The Medieval Lord's Tapestry back in early June but neglected to post pictures. Of course it was a while before I completed the hemming of this Tapestry fragment. You might recall that I had expanded the original kit design to use as much of the provided canvas as I possibly could. I left myself Barely enough to hem it properly. 

 

Here you can see the hemmed tapestry. 

In theory these are supposed to hang from rods for display. 

I have not yet added the back lining or the hanging tabs

 to any of these Tapestry "pieces"....

 not being sure what the best method is for my purposes. 

I'm still working on that! 

Meanwhile, you can see them all 

in location in Rose Thorne Cottage, 

the home of Great Aunt Agatha 

(nobody is quite sure Whose Great Aunt she is!) 

and the Little Dreamers.

 

Here is the Lord's Tapestry...

 tucked into the back corner of the bed chamber...

I know it is hard to see it there... 

but this is the way it goes...

Old things left in corners for centuries.....

Who knows where they came form...? 

 

And the other two Tapestry "fragments" 

are around the corner in the little bedroom 

with the Little Dreamers. 

Sorry I have had to use the flash for you to see them. 

This cottage has no electricity... 

but on good days at the right time of year

 I can get great daylight pictures..... 

I will have to work on that!

 

Meanwhile, you might remember I had embarked 

on the labor intensive background stitching

 for the Chinese Dragon Carpet...

 

I worked diligently at it for a while, 

but then other projects started to grab my attention..... 

 I continue to plug away at it every so often... 

and here you can see good progress has been made.... 

this was in the middle of June.... 

with long evenings for stitching.

 

This was the middle of July... 

quite a bit of progress had been made 

on the bottom left corner section.

 

And early August...... 

 

And mid August... 

that corner background nearly completed!

 

But I got a bit distracted by the other incomplete stitching project.... 

The "Our Lady of Czestochowa" tapestry...

 

Do you remember this one? 

It requires diligent focus and extreme patience

 with all the metallic threads (five different colors in two different types)

 and silk threads which tangle incredibly easily.... 

five different colors for these... 

and twelve different "ordinary" cotton thread colors. 

It is a very beautiful design and watching it unfold is very exciting.... 

but it requires constant counting of stitches and rows... 

it is not a project to be rushed and requires good lighting. 

Which is why I remembered to take it out

 before the summer light was too far gone... 

 

Here I have worked more on the baby Jesus's dress... 

the gold threads and silver in his skirt, 

as well as some of the maroon...

 

This is a little closer so you can

 geek out on the glitter if you like!

 

Here I have filled in the background of the Halo for Mary

 and am working on the background which has 

a bunch of "hieroglyphic" figures 

that seem to relate to stories in her life...

 

Here I have been working on the

 "plain" background behind Mary.

 

And lest you think I have nothing to do, Dear Readers,

 I have also embarked on another little "House Box" sewing project... 

the same as the "Home Sweet Home" Cottage project, 

but on a different colored ground.... 

which makes it all really interesting all over again! 

 

I am using a bright coral pink linen this time... 

thinking of "Rose Thorne Cottage" colors....

 

And gosh.... it has me making 

little diamond paned windows again!

 Lots of them!

 

And starting on the rose bush on the front wall.... 

It is interesting to try to figure out 

which threads from the original project

 will work with this color version. 

And I am planning a few different additions

 or alterations to the original design. 

For instance.... the original pink roses

 are too similar to this linen color... 

I think I will need to tweak them a bit!

 But first I have to stitch a whole lot of tiny leaves....

 

And you know how much I love making tiny leaves!

I had so much fun making the first Home Sweet Home.... 

(I called it "Cottontail Cottage")

I just really feel the need to have a small absorbing project

 to carry me through the fraught days ahead in our country. 

 

And yes, I am still stitching away at the background

 on the Chinese Dragon Carpet.

 

It will take a while, Dear Readers, 

But little bit by little bit 

it adds up to a lot of stitching 

and I am making good progress!

The Castle....

 

Next Level Up.....

The Castle, Dear Readers, (Oh how I love my Castle!) as it Normally stands in my crowded small workroom (supposed to be the dining room) in my too small house gets used for storage on top of those lovely towers and inside any room that has yet to be finished. Which at this point is only the two remaining rooms above the newly completed Chapel in the Tower to the left which hides behind The Folly. It is almost impossible to get a good picture of the entire Castle! But now that the Chapel is Completed (!) it is time to Finally move up into the last remaining New territory in the Castle! This is Exciting! What will these rooms be? I hear you ask? Well, the next room up directly above the Chapel is the Ladies' Solar. This word does not mean what we now use it for. In Medieval Times it meant the place to be apart... or "sole" inhabitant... a private space as opposed to the public Great Hall. The Solar came about as the result of the invention of the chimney (sometime in the 1100's), allowing fires to be built in separate spaces and venting the smoke directly to the outside through the wall cavity rather than through the hole in the center of the roof. It contributed tot he "stratification" of society, allowing "some" to be treated better than others. In general a Solar was a place set aside to be alone, but in this case, the use will be as the "private" space for all the Ladies when they need to sew or weave or read or not be bothered by the "men" in the Castle. The Lord has his Council Chamber across the Great Hall... the Ladies have their dedicated workspace in this room. The Last room at the top is planned to be The Lady's Bedchamber.... and it will be a while before we can get to that room.... but it is on the list! 

 

 

And some of you might recall that a couple of years ago

 as I was finally getting back to work on the Chapel,

 I did a little bit of work on the room above it,

 specifically, reducing the too large openings

 for the two windows on the back wall. 

Of course, it is necessary to turn the Tower

 in order to access or see the back side at all.

 

( I apologize for the blurry and dark pictures... 

my house is not well lit when the shades are drawn

 to keep the heat out....)

 and suddenly you can see that there is a whole lot

 of work needing to be done on this Tower!

 The side wall has not even gotten the coat 

of primer and base color yet!

 Well, this has to do with the 

still to be added electrical panel

 and wire channels for this Tower... 

not to mention the Postern Gate entrance.... 

so you can see the list of "to dos" is growing

 now that we can move onward and upward. 

 

But what I had done a couple of years ago,

 as you can see here, was to reduce the openings

 for the back wall windows...

 even though the back wall of the Tower

 had already been painted a few years earlier. 

Now I could see that the new smaller openings

 on the back still needed to be painted to match

 the stone walls already finished.

 

This wasn't complicated. 

It took longer to dry than it did to paint....!

 First the primer coat....

 

Then the gray base and the "rock" texture details.....

 

You can see the narrow space I am working in.... 

here next to the Cupboard House and the cupboard it sits on....

 

Here you can see the painted "rocks" with the flash.... 

all it needs is the grout lines....

 

making those wall inserts really disappear! 

Because I really want to get the back windows completed 

before working on the interiors of these rooms.

 You know the drill... it is a complicated process

 of building the frames... 

one inner and one outer for each window...

 

I won't bore you with all the steps.... 

you can read about it in earlier posts... 

(see the archives) but it is days and days of work....

 

Inside and out. This is the interior view with flash...

 (so you can see it at all!) 

Because reaching in to the dark back wall of the room

 is so difficult, I decided to attach the glass panes

 from the outer back side, 

which means the interior frames 

are glued in place first.

 (It is impossible to reach both sides of the windows

 at the same time.)

 

And the glass panes are cut to fit the openings

 

 

and the faux "leading" applied, 

 

and trimmed to clean up the blobs....

 a whole other complex process you can read about in the archives. 

 

 

Then the glass panes are positioned and fitted from the back side. 

(With much double checking to look from the inside!)

 And of course, forgetting to take pictures when the going gets tricky.....

 

Both windows from the exterior....

 with the flash.... about as good as the view will get!

 

And from the inside...

 with the window crossbars added

 making sure they align properly with the leading.

 

And Lo and Behold, Dear Readers, 

we have two new windows completed... 

well, except for the shutters and stone trims and... well, 

you know how it goes... there is always a next step!

But at least we are now working on

 the Next Level Up!