Leaping Ahead....

A Little Stitching, A Lot of Glue......

Well, Dear Readers, It is Leap Day, in a Leap Year, and I have some Leaping progress to show you! It has taken me more than two years to stitch these tiny Bed Curtains, and now that they are nearly finished, I have asked myself What took me so long? The embroidery part is now complete... (unless I decide to add a few more leaves in another color....) but the pattern is now done! I was originally not sure how I would "finish" the edges, whether or not glue used to stop the fraying of the silk would be enough, or whether I would need to hem them. But having read Josje's post on the durability and longevity of materials used, I now question using ANY glue on fabrics! I will be stitching the hems! But besides that, I had also realized that these tiny curtains would need to be lined... because they hang on the bed and the "back" side of the stitches would be visible! They are "relatively" neatly stitched.... but the back side of the embroidery is not as pretty as the front! Having reached this stage with these curtains, I thought it would be fun to see how they are going to look .... so I pulled the Pagoda Bed out of the Tree House....

Of course, it is really difficult to get a sense of how they will look.....

but I carefully folded the fabric and held it next to the bed!

 Heavens, it makes the flowers look Huge!

But the Main thing I got done this weekend, Dear Readers, 

was a Lot more Gluing of the structure of Hardwick Hall! 

I left you last weekend with the side walls attached, 

but only part of the Parlor Bay windows was done.

Here you can see the Parlor Bay Windows "propped" in place, but not yet glued.

There were several steps I needed to do while the wall was partly open.

I needed to make the curtain rod for the bay window while measuring was easy, same with cutting most of the baseboards and the windowsills for the bay. And I wanted to attach an outlet on the outside wall beyond the bay window so future lamps could be added at will.

Can you even see the outlet I have added?

 I painted it brown and ran the wire down into the basement!

Then I worked on adding the sides to the bay window.....

They didn't fit very well...

I ended up shaving a lot off of one side panel,

And the other one was a bit warped.

It took all day to get them attached!

Here you see them in the following morning light.

And from the interior.... 

with the baseboards and windowsills mostly added.....

 

And another view.... the trees with the lights in the branches 

are still waiting for me to finish painting them.

Here is a close-up of the interior windowsills....

I think they turned out very well!

But you can see the daylight through the seams of the wall panels!

This will have to be covered with the exterior trim....

although I don't think the kit provides any for these seams!

This is what the house looks like before the attic walls are attached. 

What you see here is now all glued in place!

I had done the preliminary preparing and painting 

of the attic walls a year ago, 

but then realized I could not attach any of it 

without finishing the side walls of the house. 

This is a complex structure to assemble!

Here you can see I have glued the main attic walls in place!

(weighted with a can of paint!)

And then I added the side dormer walls, also "prepared" long ago!

It feels so good to Finally be able to work on this attic level!

I plan to make "adjustments" to the kit plan for this room.....

but I could not even begin to test my ideas without the structure completed this far.

Here you can see I have also added 

the "rear side walls" on each side of the house.

I thought the width of the kit pieces was much too large,

so I "thinned" them down to about 3/4ths of an inch on each side, 

rather than the almost two inches they start out as!

This will allow for the rear corner trims, 

but also allow for maximum access to the rooms!

I am Finally making Progress!

And with the tiny stitching too!

I know I have mentioned before how difficult it is 

to photograph the Tree House rooms....

but I thought you would like to see the bed and the curtains in place.

So you can see, Dear Readers, 

with a Little stitching and a Lot of Glue

I have been Leaping Ahead!