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!
