Another Neighborhood House

I finished another house for the Neighborhood Block Party. I plan to get them in the mail tomorrow.

I had great grand kids here Sunday and 3 of them wanted to sew. We were going through all of my boxes of fabric to find something they wanted to use and I pulled out some fabric  for another house. You can check out some of the other houses here

I like making houses but I had trouble getting these houses the right size. I had to redo the left side of this one as it was 1/2 inch too small so now it is a bit offside. I should stick to wonky for improv piecing.

The kids all wanted to make something different so it got hectic. Although I planned to get some photos of them working  I was so busy helping everyone that  I never got even one pic.

House Block

It has been almost 2 months since my last post. I have no excuses; I just didn't do any sewing. I did rearrange my sewing room and that made things a lot better but there was no inspiration or desire to sew anything.  I dragged out 3 fairly large boxes of photographs and took up all the space I might have used for sewing.

In January I made a commitment to make a 12 1/2 inch house block for the Neighborhood Block Party. Beth from Love Laugh Quilt hosted the party for a few years but last year life got in the way and there was no block party. This year Irene, from  Hilachas, and her sister Ida, from My Sister Made Me Do It, decided to start it up again.   I still have boxes and piles of photos all  over the place but the blocks are due in a few weeks.  Time to get started!

I got out my box of "housing elements" and I found a strip of leftover grass and the  Sewing Divas from the Lorelei panel that we used for our Basement Diva Challenge. I cleared a small space for cutting  and pressing, pulled out my large laundry basket of scraps and started playing. I chose one of the smaller single Divas for the occupant of the house and the yellow striped border around the block  reminded me of a door frame. None of my "sky" fabrics rang any bells for me until  I found the raindrop fabric. I would have preferred the blue or gray background raindrop fabric but the raindrops were the wrong direction on the blue and gray strips I found.

 I had fun making this block and the ideas for another project are running around in my head. Sometimes you just have to do something to get the creativity flowing. I had that in mind when I signed up to make a house block. Maybe I will Make one more block to send (just to build up some creative steam).

Another house

I made one more house on
Friday. Still not wonky, maybe because I had the roof made and needed to fit everything to the roof. Maybe because some of Mr. Picky and Precise  has rubbed off on me.  I was  going to use made fabric but I have been trying in vain to clean up my sewing room and I didn't want to drag out the made fabric and scraps to make it worse. As it was, I dragged out enough stuff from my boxes of  fabrics sorted by color.

I usually get out all the Christmas quilts and dishes on the weekend after Thanksgiving. I got all  the quilted things out but have not tackled the dishes; that requires putting away the hand painted china that my mother painted nearly100  years ago. I  like to have a clear space to work so  there are no mishaps.

Last year I decided I need one more Christmas quilt; this year I can't imagine where I would put it.

House

Beth over at Love Laugh quilt is hosting the 4th  annual Neighborhood Block Party. This is the 4th year I have participated Maybe this year I will win a set of 12 blocks but even if I don't it is fun to participate.
This is the block I finished Wednesday. Jack thought my door was too small or the window too big, typical of  a nit picky an engineer/compulsive/ perfectionist type or person. I have to admit that sometimes there is a tiny bit of that type in me. I intended to make a wonky block but I found myself measuring very carefully; maybe I will loosen up a bit for the next block. I really like making house blocks and if Beth gets extra blocks she makes charity quilts so I will make one or two more. Maybe  I will use some of my made fabric; that should loosen me up a little.

Another House block

I finished my second house block. This one didn't turn out wonky either. I used it Saturday at our group meeting to demo making an improvisational house block and I sewed the sections together today. I will work making the next one wonky.

Here we are, back to Monday again. I usually like Mondays but it is less than 2 weeks to Christmas and I am beginning to feel a little pressed.  No Christmas shopping done yet and no Christmas sewing done. I can probably get it all done this week.  I am going to skip the sewing. I am probably not going to do any baking either. My daughter in law usually bakes cookies and I don't think anyone is going to miss mine.

This and That

I have been doing a little of this and a little of that for a few days. I can only work on stitching on white over black lines with black thread for so long before I have eye strain. I usually stop and do a little  cleaning up or go and start dinner or some thing that will give my eyes a rest. I also am inclined to do something like  reading or using the computer, neither of them give my eyes a rest.

I finally finished the machine stitching on the circles and there is a bit of hand stitching to do. There are a few areas that have  small dots or loops that I won't sew with the machine but they need more quilting. I am going to use 2 strands of white Trilobal Polyester to put one stitch  in these dots and loops. I am sure this will be visually demanding and I am going to think first about drawing these tiny things again if I plan to stitch them.

You can see here where I have stitched in the first few  little  dots and the first flower head; all the rest of the stitching is done. I  do not plan to stitch every line that I drew but some areas need to be quilted a little more to flatten them.  This is enlarged many times. Those little flower heads are barely 1/4 inch. I can go back  and fix the  places where I  didn't quite hit the line with my machine stitching by filling in with  fine (.01) Pigma pen.

Yesterday I moved my machine back  to the other side of the room and put things in order and then promptly made chaos out of order again. I  decided to work on a couple of houses and dragged out many boxes of  fabric, many of them filled with scraps and smallish pieces. I never remember just how long it takes me to do something improvisational. I agonize over every fabric choice and I dig through all the boxes to find something I had in my hand "just a minute ago". In the end I only  had one house finished and I didn't make it wonky as I intended because I got caught up in making it the right size.

I chose my inhabitants first and made my other choices based on that. As usual I am second guessing myself. My step in front of the doorway doesn't look  like a step, (my supposed to be) tropical sky looks like snow falling, I got it all together and realized I forgot the sun and now the piece I wanted to put there doesn't fit and I am not sure I like the colors. Ah well........ it  is really OK and there are more  houses to build. In a  few weeks  I will decide  I like it after all. Sometimes I need to put a little space between the sewing of one element and what I do with the final product of my labor; by then I have forgotten what I had in mind and am able to look with fresh eyes at what I made.

LOL, sometimes what I ended up with goes in the box of unused blocks.

Houses

Beth over at Love Laugh Quilt  Is having another house block party. Make one house and send it to Beth and you might win  a set of the house blocks to make a quilt.                                                   

This house on the left is the house block I made last year.

Those of us who didn't win a set of blocks got a consolation prize, a small square with a printed house on it. Below is what I did with mine.

I need to make a house  block for our Block of the Month block for our group at church. It is our last block and I thought it would be a good exercise for everyone to improvise and make their our block. I will just make 2 blocks while I have all the scraps out and am in the house building mind set. I really do like to make houses.