Happy Needle and Thread Thursday, friends! Well, I quilted and quilted... and quilted, and finally got my Little Houses quilt all finished.
On the back, I used up all of my leftovers along with a wide strip of low volume fabric to widen it out. Originally, I thought this would be a scrap project, but that was not to be. I was able to pull scraps for things like windows, doors, and sidewalks but I needed to use stash fabric for the main part of the house, roof, sky, and landscaping for each house. I quickly realized that because I piece my quilt backings from leftover fabric so often, I just don't have very many larger pieces of scrap fabric, which is actually a good thing! (ps- don't mind the extra hanging wire. I use the lower wire for photographing smaller quilts)
I've had several emails asking for a tutorial for these houses, and unfortunately, because they were sewn completely using improvisation, I can't really do that. I can give you some tips though!
1. Use a good frontal photo of the house. Frontal views are easier to replicate than trying to navigate the odd angles in a view which shows more than one side of the house.
2. Start with the windows. Decide whether you'll make them plain squares/rectangles, whether you'll give each window a border, and whether they'll have grid lines. I have all three types of windows in this quilt, and I just made the decision based on the house I was sewing. Keep in mind that adding borders or grid lines will make the windows larger, and therefore will make the finished house larger, which brings me to the second point-
3. Scale is EVERYTHING. The size of your windows will determine pretty much everything else. Use the width and height of the window to determine how much space there should be somewhere else. When I was determining how far apart to make something, I would look at the photo and ask myself, "Is this space wider than the width of the window, or more narrow?" That helped me determine how to space the features in the houses.
4. Press often, and use plenty of starch (or starch alternative). When sewing details like this, crisply pressed pieces will make the process easier.
5. Divide the house into chunks. Pretty much every house has places where it can be divided into smaller, more manageable pieces. With two-story houses, sew the top and bottom stories separately, and then put them together, or on one-story homes, the placement of windows and the door can help you decide how to divide it up.
6. Don't be afraid to sew a larger piece of fabric than you need and just trim it down to size. It's a little more wasteful, but the results are better. This is especially helpful when sewing odd angles for the roof lines. I used scissors to cut the angles on the roofs. Then, I sewed larger rectangles of fabric to the cut side, which gave me plenty of fabric for squaring up.
7. Make friends with your seam ripper. It is what it is, friends. I ripped out lots of stitches on these houses when something didn't come out exactly as I wanted. I had to make peace with the fact that sometimes it was necessary to rip out, trim fabric, make little adjustments, and try it again until I was happy with it.
8. Get comfortable sewing small. I didn't do it on every house, but I love the look of trim on the windows and roof line. It gives depth to the houses, and a little extra oomph. To do that though, I started with strips that were reeeeeally narrow. I cut everything by hand, which is why the trim pieces aren't consistent in width, but they all finish somewhere between 1/4" and under 1/2". I like the look of inconsistent borders. It gives the houses a bit of a funky, handmade look.
9. Choose solid or tonal fabrics, and make sure you have plenty of contrast within the components of the house. These pieces have so many smaller elements that they would get completely lost with busier fabrics.
10. And finally, have fun and let go of perfection! These houses are an artistic representation of a house. They're not meant to be perfectly precise or perfectly to scale. That's part of their charm!
I absolutely LOVED making this quilt, from start to finish. You should give it a try with your own home!
Now it's time to check out the awesomeness from last week's party. This quilt by Sew Preeti Quilts is so much fun!
Oh, what a happy finish! The quilting texture is fabulous and I love how dove just magically blends into it all. :)
ReplyDeleteBeautiful work on these houses, Kelly! Totally fabulous. Thank you for the tips. I’m going to pin this post.
ReplyDeleteMichelle
https://mybijoulifeonline.com
Gorgeous finish!
ReplyDeleteVery lovely!
ReplyDeleteNailed the quilting! I love all your tips for improv houses. You really have to let go when it comes to improv and it's often hard to explain the process!
ReplyDeleteWonderful finish Kelly!!!
ReplyDeleteI cannot get over how quickly you made this quilt! And how wonderful of a quilt it is. :-) Thank you for putting that list together for those (not I) who want to make a quilt like this!
ReplyDeleteYour quilted swirls are perfect, Kelly! Great tips, too :) Congratulations on such a great finish!
ReplyDeleteperfect quilting!
ReplyDeleteGreat finish on your houses. Lots of fun eye candy today.
ReplyDelete