Japanese Tea House: The house was a kit (by Darlene Guerry) that my DH bashed a bit. He added about an inch and a half deck to the front and scored to look like individual wood boards with nails and support underneath. The sliding shoji screen doors on the left are a "sandwich" with the plexiglass in the middle. It was clear and he made it look clouded and more like paper screening. The grids on the doors and the "moon" window (on the right) and the front trim are lazer-cut wood and were included in the kit. He changed the roof and used paper to cut the shingles and mini lumber for the wood trim. This to make the roof look more like the traditional ceramic deep blue tiles. (I'll try to have him take new pic's with his new camera and then hopefully you'll be able to see the detail better.) The house sits on a "tray" and that is where I made the raked, sand garden. It was easier than "grass" for me. The rocks by the house were collected (snitched) in Japan at a shrine. The small kokoshi dolls on the back shelves were bought in Japan. Some very expensive (at a mini shop) and the others for $1.00 a piece at the Yoyogi Shrine flea market. (Lucky, huh!!) Same for the musical instrument and some of the vases.

The dolls---Aqua--from Phyllis Hill and Red -- doll from P. Hill and I dressed her(Looked easy--not so) The one in the rickshaw, (by Chet Sumner, Calif.) by Katy Sue Dolls, UK and the last, kneeling in print kimono by "lynn". Japanese man by Carol Kubesh (not pic'd. yet).

Elise in Central Va.

Marcie

Quilt Shop Room Box: I have my own mini quilt shop too. Suggestions--bolts of fabric on rectangles of thin foam core, mini spools of thread, mini pincushions, scissors (brass charms), quilt batting, baskets of these supplies, I have cutting mats and rotary cutters cut out from magazines glued on card stock. I have hanging sample blocks from Miniature Quilt Magazine.

Jan in Cincinnati

Quilt Shop Room Box: Check any local museum shops or stationery shops for fancy gift wraps. I once found some in a Baltimore album quilt pattern that I used over time for several "wallpaper borders" in country and Victorian rooms.Look in fabric shops' button sections for mini scissors; cut tiny circles of green felt with pinking shears and glue to red pompoms for pincushions; ink lines on flat wood coffee stirrers for yardsticks; snip off turned tops of decorative toothpicks for spools. Sometimes the quilting fabric sections have mini-quilt print patterns -- I bought a yard a few years ago and am just running out. Very easy quilts -- just stitch together with felt batting and backing, turn, stitch closed, and either machine stitch or hand-stitch along the printed design. (For me, real batting is too puffy to drape over a mini-bed or display over a quilt rack or folded in a cabinet.)

Loretta.Sniarowski

Quilt shop: I don't have one, but I go to a couple just to pet the fabric. Both have baskets with 8" fabric squares (precut blocks) folded into squares (good luck with that in mini) either in a trug type basket or laid out on a display table by colour; fat quarters folded and stacked on shelves by colour; lots of quilters' magazines and some reference books (101 quilt blocks); finished quilts hanging on the walls; notices for classes and quilting bees for the Linus charity; notices from people offering to finish/quilt unfinished quilts; cutting mats & quilting rulers & rotary cutters & scissors hung on the wall; bolts of fabric arranged by theme (Xmas or flowers or whatever) and colour; sale basket of precut squares; big cutting tables; back room with sewing machines, tables, etc for classes; Ott lights; thread display; quilt frames and big hoops to buy. And something you can't buy, a cozy welcoming atmosphere. Sounds like a great project to have fun with.

Heather in Toronto

Quilt shop: Most quilt shops have fairly plain walls. Maybe a border or wainscotting. As for other items in the shop - need a quilt in progress with ironing board and iron in corner. Wall of notions: green cutting board, rulers (all types - square, rectangular, triangle) needles, thimbles, patterns in small plastic bags, Quilt kits in small plastic bags. And don't forget the rolls of batting, trays of cut fabric (fat quarters & half yard cuts, nicely folded into small rectangles) rack of threads, small picture of a raffle quilt (or the actual quilt) with raffle tickets. A money jar and large basket for local food pantry. Flyers announcing quilt shows.

Dianna.Marquardsen

Quilt shop: I have the box made for the shop 16x10x10 with a plexiglass front. What kind of lighting should I use? Should I just use a ceiling light or should I use a florescent light in the ceiling or one of the showcase lights for the box as a whole or a combination thereof? Many thanks for all the hints and ideas for the quilt shop. They have been great!

Marcie

Quilt shop: My quilt shop has a center chandelier with two lights, a ceiling light in the little side room and at the front of the shop a strip light with two bulbs that's attached to the ceiling. That strip light counts for ten bulbs with the transformer. Can't think of the name of it but it comes on a green cardboard (got mine at the miniature shop). You could get by with just that, but a ceiling fixture gives a room a more realistic look..I think.

The Klaeser's

Oz: I bought the 4 resin Wizard of Oz characters put out by Avon, they are aprox 1/2 scale. I plan to make a display scene for the set. What I plan is to paint the backdrop with a blue sky, rainbow and the Emerald City. Winding through the base of course will be the "Yellow Brick Road." I plan to put the apple tree on one side and thought that the Poppy Field would be nice to have on the other side.

Rusty in Ky

Dremel hole cutting: In case there are new miniaturists out there unfamiliar with this attachment. Dremel has an attachment and bits for cutting holes in drywall, wood, tiles, etc. It works great. You have much more control, can see what you are doing and get a cleaner cut than you would with a jig saw. I am not a carpenter or woodworker per se, and after only a couple of practice cuts on scrap wood to see what it did, I was ready to go.

I got my attachment at Wal-Mart in the tools section. Just make sure you use the right bit for the job since there are different ones.

Peggy