I was working on my Halloweenie House quilt a bit before packing it up and moving on to the Thanksgiving Fall leaves quilt and I took some pictures of the process I used to make a house block for myself. I have done it in the past, the more official way, not exactly this one, but close, measuring and cutting exactly sized pieces to make a similar house, but this is more fun for me, and comes out slightly wonky, like a real house would.
Start with the fabric for the main body of your house, cut a good sized rectangle or maybe a square,this will be the left hand side of the house. Next, decide on a door fabric and cut out a rectangle for it, sew this two together. In this case I fussy cut the skeleton to appear in the doorway, but you can have a solid door too of course.
Press open your first seam. Pressing open as you go is best I find it easier.
Then square it all up with the top and bottom of the doorway.
Add on another house body piece of fabric on the other side, press open seam, square up with the other side.
Add two rectangles on either side of the house of sky or background fabric. They don't have to be even, up to you. Decide on a roof fabric and cut out the shape you like. I chose a flat topped look. Sew on to the top edge of the house and background rectangle.
Add background/sky fabric to either angled edge of the roof line. Square up the top of the roof to get ready for the chimmeys in the next step. If you don't want a chimney, just add a strip of sky/background to the top of the roof.
Choose a chimney fabric, cut two skinny-ish rectangles for chimney, and eyeball how big of a rectangle of sky/background fabric you need to get the chimney to both sit on top of the roof. Cut out, and sew a chimney to either side of this rectangle.
Add enough background/sky to either side of the chimney rectangle to match up with the house rectangle. Sew chimney unit to the top of the roof. You can add a "ground" fabric, here I used a purple spider web. Just cut a strip long enough to match to width of the house block, sew onto bottom of block. Square up and you're done!
Don't forget to sew your scraps up into yet another scrap block...
Here's how the halloween house quilt looks as of now. I'll look forward to working on it some more next year.
Start with the fabric for the main body of your house, cut a good sized rectangle or maybe a square,this will be the left hand side of the house. Next, decide on a door fabric and cut out a rectangle for it, sew this two together. In this case I fussy cut the skeleton to appear in the doorway, but you can have a solid door too of course.
Press open your first seam. Pressing open as you go is best I find it easier.
Then square it all up with the top and bottom of the doorway.
Add on another house body piece of fabric on the other side, press open seam, square up with the other side.
Add two rectangles on either side of the house of sky or background fabric. They don't have to be even, up to you. Decide on a roof fabric and cut out the shape you like. I chose a flat topped look. Sew on to the top edge of the house and background rectangle.
Add background/sky fabric to either angled edge of the roof line. Square up the top of the roof to get ready for the chimmeys in the next step. If you don't want a chimney, just add a strip of sky/background to the top of the roof.
Choose a chimney fabric, cut two skinny-ish rectangles for chimney, and eyeball how big of a rectangle of sky/background fabric you need to get the chimney to both sit on top of the roof. Cut out, and sew a chimney to either side of this rectangle.
Add enough background/sky to either side of the chimney rectangle to match up with the house rectangle. Sew chimney unit to the top of the roof. You can add a "ground" fabric, here I used a purple spider web. Just cut a strip long enough to match to width of the house block, sew onto bottom of block. Square up and you're done!
Don't forget to sew your scraps up into yet another scrap block...Here's how the halloween house quilt looks as of now. I'll look forward to working on it some more next year.
Sometimes one misses the obvious - duh! I can't believe it never occurred to me to make my houses "free hand" like this. Or would that be "free cut". In any case - I love house blocks and have wanted to make a Halloween house quilt but I hate messing with house block patterns which always seem harder than they should be and annoyingly fussy. I'll have to give this a try.
ReplyDeleteAnd P.S. - thanks for Posting Spooky with me this year. It was so much fun to have others join in. I'll do it again next year hopefully so you can plan save up all sorts of good ideas for it.
Gwen Marston's Liberated Quiltmaking book has lots of good ideas for wonky piecing. She makes house similar to your Halloween houses. How many did you make this year? How about a tall skinny SF house?
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