Hand piecing

Tomorrow I will make an expedition to the shed, find the home decorating box and extract the wallpaper roller. Won't go tonight - have a horror of meeting a frog or mouse in the dark!

Can't take the Kitties to guard me as a) They would want to bring my attacker home.

2) They had their de-sexing operations yesterday and aren't allowed out until tomorrow. The vets instructions read 'Keep the cat warm and quiet'. Unfortunately they can't read - quiet and rest only happen after periods of wild activity!

They looked so sweet in their carrying basket looking after each other! Mia has to go back to be checked tomorrow without Kiwi to hold her paw. (His 'quick snip' doesn't warrant another vet visit).

How big is that roller? Sounds like a good idea!

The roller on mine is just a smidge less than 2" wide. I think you can get them a little smaller than that. I don't roll it parallel with the seam - I roll it across the seam.

I didn't see them, but someone was telling me that one of the quilt shops that had a booth at the quilt show this weekend was selling fancy wooden ones that cost $15. I got mine at Lowes for about $7.

Thanks for the information, Donna! I'm going to keep my eyes open next time I'm in Lowe's/Home Depot. :)

The Home Depot in our area doesn't carry wallpaper or wallpaper supplies any more. That's the first place I looked.

I bought one like this from the local DIY shop - it is a seam roller for wallpaper and it was very inexpensive.

Eileen

"Sally Swindells" Mine is called 'Little Wooden Iron'

Yup, after a quilt shop a quilters next two favorite haunts are a hardware store and an office supply store....it's a toss up. KJ

That's totally nuts! How can an acknowledged Home Decorating place NOT carry at least the wall paper tools! I can see where they wouldn't want to use the space for all the different wall papers, but jeezalou, to not even have a seam roller?

Cindy\

This sounds great! I do a lot of hand piecing in the car, waiting for Pillbug's therapy sessions to end.

I press after the block is completed. You just move the seams around so that it's not bulky.

-- Anita --

I think a potter's thumb tool would work well for this. You can get one from a pottery supply place such as

L

Sorry y'all, I forgot to put in a link to the item I mentioned. It is called Sculptor's Thumb on this page:

L

I have an old WT2 that I have used for FPP. I think it's still around somewhere. I don'y FPP much myself, but these tools are all very handy.

I guess since they don't carry wallpaper anymore, they didn't think their customers would be buying wallpaper tools there! :-)

As much as I hate to come to the defense of a certain Big Orange Box, I can understand their decision.

First off, Americans (I don't follow the decorating industry in other countries) are buying a lot less wallpaper than they used to. I don't have the current industry figures handy, but the decrease over the last couple of decades is pretty substantial. Fewer sales of paper hanging supplies go hand-in-hand with fewer sales of wallpaper.

How paper is hung has changed a lot, too. I'm not sure whether to blame the paper industry, DIY shows, or just society in general, but I've seen a marked reluctance by homeowners to buy the proper tools for paper hanging. The same customer that I can get to buy a $25 paint brush will balk at spending 89 cents on a razor knife for hanging paper, let alone paste, sizing, a water tray, straight edge, and a smoother -- all supplies I'd never consider papering without. (Notice that I didn't include a seam roller on that list. I've never needed one for hanging, and for most people they do more harm than good.) For some reason the mind set is to cheap out when you're hanging hundreds of dollars worth of paper. I'll never figure that one out.

Add to that the current business model of That Big Orange Box. Service has never been their strong point (if you think it has, you've haven't been to a truly service oriented paint/hardware store -- my opinion and I'm sticking to it), in the last several years they've cut down even more. As fewer people have grown up hanging their own paper, and fewer contractors hang paper, wallpapering supplies have become less and less of a self-service item. Add low margins to that, and it's pretty hard for them to justify the category.

Okay, I'm off my soap box now, so it's safe to read the newsgroup again. Anyone want to come over and help check in a couple of tons of freight that just came in?

I have done a little wallpapering over the years, very little. I had all of your must have supplies and did a pretty good job IMO. I totally lost any and all interest in wallpaper when I had to remove wallpaper from almost all of this house. It isn't a big house, 1600 ft. but I spent weeks pulling dated 80's paper down. It was a nightmare. No wallpaper no more no where around here!

Here is a recent Home Depot story. New store opens, a week later I am hunting garage floor paint (I guess it is really more epoxy). Kid in the new store has no idea where paint of any kind is much less what I am looking for. His comment was "I am new here how would I know". DH had to stop me from smacking the pimple faced brat. I do shop at Lowe's and am mostly satisfied. I do paint for the most part at Dunn-Edwards and those guys are pretty helpful (with technical stuff not color help)

There isn't a hardware store anywhere around here anymore. I do still have fond memories of going to the Main Street hardware store as a kid with dad. Still remember Dave Anderson and his nice wife. Lumber yard was just across the street.

I am about out of walls to paint in 2 houses. Sure wish I could sell one of them! Taria

Kathy Applebaum wrote: