Caught up !

After a slow start I finally got caught up with 3 February blocks for Claire.   Yes 3 blocks!  I confess I hadn't been looking forward to them, but they were done in a flash! 

And...

I got Debbies house blocks pieced this morning too!  Debbie, these are such fun!  Oh, that feels so much better now I'm caught up.  Blocks will be in the post first thing in the morning ladies. 

More houses

House blocks ... a wee bit early!

Here are my two houses for Debbie - hope you love them! They were indeed both easy and fun to make. I cannot wait to see what everyone's doors are going to look like in the end. These will go out in the mail on Monday!

March House Block Instructions

Hi everyone,

I'm afraid this will be a monster post so that I can include instructions and photos for my house blocks. I mailed all the fabric off today so many of you should receive it in a few days. OK here goes:

March House Blocks

Each fabric envelope includes two 6" x 26" strips; one black with white print and one white with black print.

Cutting/Prep:

From each strip, cut one 9" piece, one 8 1/2" piece and one 7 1/2" piece.
Trim the 9" strip to 9" x 4 1/2" and subcut to two 4 1/2" squares for the sky.

Trim the 8 1/2" strip down to 5 1/2" wide for the roof.

Trim the 7 1/2" strip to 7 1/2" x 3 1/2" and subcut two 3 3/4" x 3 1/2" pieces for the walls.

(Please ignore the direction of the lines/stripes in this photo - I cut the strip the wrong way - most of the directional fabrics stripes will run the other way).

From your stash, add two 2" x 3 1/2" pieces for the doors.

Swap the sky squares so the black sky pieces are with the white roof and walls and the white sky pieces are with the black roof and walls. Add a door piece to each group.

House Construction
Walls/Door:

Sew Door to one 3 3/4" x 3 1/2" house (wall) piece along the 3 1/2" side. Press to the house. Sew the second 3 3/4" x 3 1/2" house (wall) piece to the other side of the door. Press to the house.

Sky/Roof:

Draw a diagonal line from corner to corner on both sky pieces. (Dark red line for demo purposes only!).

Align one sky piece with a corner of the 5 1/2" x 8 1/2" house piece.

Sew along the drawn line.

Press the sky away from the house/roof. Trim away excess fabric underneath, leaving a 1/4" seam allowance.

Repeat for the other side of the sky.

Sew the Walls/Door piece to the Sky/Roof piece. Press to the roof.

Block should measure 8 1/2" square.

That's it! Please let me know if you have any questions. I hope you all have fun!

March preview

Hi everyone! I am excited to tell you about my March blocks. The block is a simple house block that I designed. I have always loved house quilts, but the blocks often have too many pieces, so I simplified it to just six pieces.

My plan is to send each of you some black fabric with white print and some white fabric with black print and to ask you to make a positive and negative version of the block. That is, one block with a white house and a black sky and one block with a black house and a white sky. The doors of the houses will all be bright colors.

I would also like to ask you to use a piece of fabric from your stash for the doors on your blocks. I'd love to have a little piece from each of you in the finished quilt! The door pieces each measure 2" x 3 1/2". If you aren't able to do this, just drop me an email and I'll include door fabric in your packet.

I made this table runner to try out the block and my idea. I didn't do the positive/negative part because there are only six blocks. The quilt I have in mind will be about 64" x 64" or 72". I'll do another post when I mail the fabric which will include the block instructions and a rough "drawing" of the finished quilt.

I hope you all have as much fun with this as I have!