Houses and Trees, Oh My!

My class at Quilted Threads was small, only four ladies, but they worked hard, asked good questions and did some great work.

This is Sharon's finished panel.

I love the fabric Sharon chose for the body of the house, and her mailbox is absolutely divine!

This is Sue's panel:

Sue wanted a house in the winter. She had forgotten a box of tools and fabrics at home, so we all lent her whatever she needed.

This is Lori's house.

Lori used vivid fabrics for her house, and then asked for help to choose the background. We brought several bolts of fabric to the classroom to try them all out and she selected this large print. I think it's terrific.

This is Kiersten's house.

Kiersten fixed the tree on the right (added some background fabric under the branches, then added another tree to the left of it. Later she will add stairs in front of the door.

The ladies asked very good questions, and kept me on my toes the whole day. They never settled for "the usual", but kept pushing ideas around until they got the results they wanted.


We all had a great day!

WING IT

Do you know what I found most amazing at my class on Saturday?

That the staff at Quilted Threads have been asked repeatedly if there is a pattern for the Four Seasons quilt.

"There is no pattern," the staff would say to the customer, "but she's giving a class, she'll teach you how to do it yourself!"

Nope, they wanted a pattern.

Which is too bad. Thirteen ladies had a great time learning how to make their own houses, and I have no doubts they will make their own house quilts, and they'll be much happier with their own versions.

Which reminds me of something else I kept hearing the students say to each other on Saturday, when they needed a bit of help or encouragement.  "There aren't any rules," they'd say gleefully.

"Wing it!"

It's in the Bag!

 About a year and a half ago I was showing off a quilt I had made to a fellow quilter. I had put the quilt in a tote bag I had made over 20 years ago. It was made in brown calicos and was a traditional block. My friend said, "Lynne, you need a new bag. This one does not represent you."  You can read about that exchange here.

So I went home and did a lot of thinking. My new bag had to have letters, and it had to have something bright and fun. What I would make was easy. Figuring out how to make my letters fit into a very small space was much trickier.

 This crazy party house (the Red-Eye) did not make it into a quilt I was working on at the time. I loved it's wildness, it's wackiness and it's complete disregard for the rules.  It HAD to be on the bag.

Since a bag has two sides, it was obvious to me the other side had to be a "daytime" house. And of course, Millie had to be included.

Here are photos of both sides of the finished bag. It draws comments wherever it goes.

Ready

I'm ready for the big day tomorrow, my class on Houses and Trees at Quilted Threads in Henniker NH.

All that's missing in this picture is my lunch, my purse (with the camera) and the laptop (which will be in the laptop bag.)

I've got sample quilts, and sample houses in various stages of construction to show my students. I've got my handouts ready, and I've made a PowerPoint presentation on making free pieced houses to show them.

I'm pretty excited. I'll take as many pictures as I can.

Itsy Bitsy

I saw some itsy bitsy little houses over at Nichi's and was inspired.

How itsy bitsy?

I think I have to make some more of these.

House Work

When I plan my houses, I always lay the fabrics on my worktable in the places I will use them. So here, the blue is the sky/background, the yellow is the body of the house, and the rest of the colors are windows, doors, chimney, tree, etc.  After I get to this stage, I try to make sure my fabrics aren't too much the same. I go back and make sure I have fabrics with prints of different sizes (all blender types would be too boring / predictable / bland also).

But then I happened to look over to see that awesome green I bought on Sunday and I thought, well what the hell... let's go for it.  So I started moving fabrics around to see how far I could push this?

The only fabrics that are the same in both designs are the background, the roof and one window.

I am in the process of making step-by-step demo pieces for my class at Quilted Threads next week.  There's one space left.  Will you fill it?

Mi Casa, Su Casa!

I'm preparing for my House and Trees class in two weeks.  I've got a slide show for my students, and I've got lists of all the quilts I want to bring to show them.   This is a kitty quilt I made for Rusty.  He's a Ginger boycat who lives in California. His owner is a second grade teacher and they live on Boston street. 

I made the house using ruler fabric in brick red in this traditional New England style house for that reason (rulers = teacher; brick red = brick house; traditional = Boston).  I don't know why I did it, but when I added a cat, instead of adding just one, I added four.

When Deborah received the quilt she was thrilled. Rusty claimed the quilt right away, which was nice to hear, but she went on... "From the first day we had him, we have called him Houdini Kitty.  He can be with you and then poof he is upstairs looking down at you.  To see all the extra Rustys in the windows and the yard is our Houdini Kitty!"

There are so many ways to make a house personal and special.  I hope you've been watching Julie and her barns. She's done a spectacular job.  She made 12 barns, each wonky and free pieced, but that wasn't all. She made the 12 barns to represent a month of the calendar AND she placed them in her part of the US.  I had asked, "What does the sky and ground look like where you live?  How would you use fabric to communicate the information about what time of the year it is?"

Julie took that challenge head on, and really did some thinking about how to convey the change in the seasons. You'll have to go back through her posts to see her thought process, but her results are awesome. This is her May barn, and I just love it.

Notice also that Julie has added some "signage" to each barn.  It's another special touch that makes her barns truly unique.

Your own houses / barns don't have to be complicated to be very special and very interesting. It's the little things. You can do this too!