Just about there

This week I've been finalising the placement of items on the main shop floor and gluing or fixing things into place. I think I'm just about there, it's fit enough for the dollshouse club visit anyway. There are still things I would like to improve, like a better dust cover and to figure out why the bulb inside the laundry cupboard doesn't seem to be working any more. And I'm sure I might find more figures or items to add to the scenes.

Gluing people in

Ha ha, sounds like a weird title, doesn't it?  But I had a problem with dolls falling over and looking like some kind of serial killer had torn through the shop.  Starting from the front of the shop (or the back of the space if you are looking inside from the open back), I fixed in dolls using silicone glue, fixed down display racks with tacky wax, and glued in the cash desk and the cutting table with tacky glue.

I had a nice resin figure that looked very much like a typical quilter, but she had a small dog stuck to her ankle. My quilt shop is a dog-free zone, so the dog had to go. A bit of careful work with a Dremel rotary tool and a cutting disk and the dog was history.

A bit of a touch up with paint, and she is a dog-free customer waiting patiently at the cutting table.

When I was tidying away the last of the clutter from the big unpacked Willowcrest box, I found this little bag of gems hiding away. I think I bought it at the Arnhem show.

They were the perfect items for finishing off my counter display unit. I also added a couple of tape measures (probably from Shepherd Miniatures) and a couple of silver buttons that look like they might be gadgets.

The unit fixed in place on the glued in cash desk, with a glued in sales clerk helping a glued in customer.

There was a back corner which was looking a bit bare.

 I made up a few 'patterns' by cutting out book covers and gluing them into plastic covers cut from bags.

Then I made a 'quilt' by gluing hems around a square of suitable fabric, and starching the fabric into  folds hanging from a gathered neck.  The resulting 'quilt' hanging from the display unit, and the patterns, brightens up the corner.

On the outside

I decided to leave the letters white, and I glued them to the shop fascia using a similar-sized font from my computer as a guide to spacing.

I needed an ampersand, which wasn't provided in the box of letters. With a bit of experimentation, I made an ampersand by cutting up a J, S and U and gluing them back together.

I smoothed over the seams with a smear of filler, and a bit of gesso, before repainting in white.  The ampersand has come out slightly bigger than the other letters but I'm quite pleased with the sign overall.

I  had a kit I bought a while ago for an outdoor display board.

Gluing up the boards in a magnetic jig.

Boards are hinged with surgical tape and painted. The 'chalkboard' was printed on the computer by using white letters against a black background, and a free chalkboard font I downloaded.

The finished display board outside the shop.

I've got one more thing I need to make, which is the essential tool used by most modern quilters: the rotary cutter.  I need several and I am going to try making them out of Fimo. But if that doesn't work then I will need to think of some other way.

Then that is probably that for a while anyway, as I need to move on to finishing up other houses ready for July. But it feels really good to have finally progressed this house to a more or less finished state, and I love looking in at all the detail.  The Willowcrest was always a kit I wanted to make, right from when I was a child, and I love all the period detail. Greenleaf certainly don't make it easy, but with a fair amount of work these are really nice houses.  I hope you like it!