See - I do do 1:12th scale too!

And now I can show you

I think I mentioned that I had an entry to do for a competition held by Miniature Haven, one of my online groups.  Thanks to the stupid bronchitis and family commitments I was very short of time to complete it but did my best considering the time frame.  And here it is:

Peter and I went to Fairy Meadow Miniatures in Wollongong, about 1 1/2 hrs south of Sydney to buy the supplies I needed: wallpaper, flooring, the window, and some of the furniture.  I fell in love with this beautiful window and the roombox is built from scratch, measuring  17inches wide x 12 inches high x 11 inches deep to show the window to good advantage and to fit a piece of wallpaper across the back wall without joins.. 

I had been making a new carpet for the roombox but ran out of time, so I used one that I had made previously, along with the two cushions and the footstool.  This is a design by Janet Granger and is called 'Judith'.  I love it.

I made the curtains from some lovely fine cream silk that I have.  Lacking my 'Pretty Pleater' which is packed away in the storage shed with my minis, I improvised with a makeshift one from craft sticks.  It gave me some nice gentle gathers in the curtains and I tied them back with cords and tassels made from cream DMC thread.  They look okay on the brass rod, I think.  But I need to re-do the one on the left to make it hang a bit straighter instead of bunching out at the sides.

The chairs were another short-of-time measure.  The original intention was to make my own chairs and tables, but .....These ones were upholstered in a pretty blue and white check pattern.  I painted them to go with the wallpaper and carpet and they look quite pretty.  One day I might consider re-upholstering them with petitpoint.

I call this roombox 'Stitcher's Retreat' and beside one of the chairs is a side table with a sewing basket (made from a kit) filled with stitching goods.  There are two pairs of tiny brass scissors in the straps of the lid, and another pair on the table.  Also on the table are several little cards of floss (made from one strand of DMC, which I've wound onto miniature 'cards' cut to shape from thickish paper), with the colours needed to stitch the chart that is sitting in the sewing box. On the seat of the chair is a piece of silk gauze with the beginnings of some stitching, and a tiny 'needle' threaded into it.

And of course every stitcher needs a good light for those days when the light isn't as good as it could be, or when one wants to stitch at night.  Here there is a double lamp to provide plenty of illumination.  There is also a 3-globe light in the ceiling.  So this room is well lit all round.

On the wall behind the chair is a sampler.  This is a kit from Thumbelina Miniature Needlework, an Australian designer (now available through here). This is a stitcher's retreat, so obviously there will be examples of her work around :)

I also bought an occasional table to go between the chairs, but it proved to be very tall and looked quite strange.  I pulled it apart to shorten the legs but the shape of the legs makes this rather problematic and I didn't have the time to fiddle.  So I 'borrowed' the round table and vase of flowers from another setting, just as I did the carpet and cushions.  I will have to decide how to use this table.  It is too nice to waste.

I love the view out of the window.  It is one that I printed from About.com miniatures. I printed it out on two sheets of A4 paper and glued it onto some cardboard.   And I love to imagine myself sitting in one of the chairs stitching away and looking at that lovely green view outside. The intention was to have two posts outside the window, with a morning glory vine twining up one of them.  I have completed the morning glory flowers but didn't have time to put it together and wind it around the post, so that is another thing that will be completed later on.

I didn't expect to win the competition - I hadn't done nearly enough of it from scratch.  And I didn't.  The winner was very deservedly Helen, who had done virtually all of hers from scratch: heaps and heaps of work in Fimo and she had painted the background herself as well as building the doorway that formed part of the scene.  

But I had said I would enter the competition and wanted to honour that commitment.  And, unlike the pergola that I made for a previous competition, I wanted to make sure it was entered on time!  So I achieved both of those objectives, so I am more than happy.

 Now I need to decide how to decorate the rest of the room.  If I keep it that is.  I might put it aside for now and think about it.  I am considering putting a really nice cabinet on the left wall with some pretty porcelain on display, but really don't have much idea about what to do with it at the moment.  If I put it aside it might be useful for some purpose sooner or later.