Monday, January 13, 2014

Houses Flimsy


Today I was finally able to get back to my sewing machine and finish up the flimsy for my plaid houses. I've named it "Highlands Houses" in honour of the plaid.

The roofs turned out to be quite challenging when it came to matching the angled corners, even with the paper pieced units. They are not all up to our strict Ontario Building Code! The words "close enough" could be heard frequently around here last week.

I also want to show you how I paper pieced the chimney units. Since they are just a narrow strip, I decided to strip piece them on a paper foundation.

I drafted a foundation with solid sewing lines, and dotted cutting lines,

Sewed on my strips,

Trimmed up the block,

Cut along the dotted lines,

And voilĂ ! Nine skinny units. Click any of the photos to see them larger.
After considerable debate about how to quilt it, I have decided that just a simple machine stipple will be best. There are already plenty of lines with the plaid going this way and that, so I think just a few subtle curves will be the best way to keep it balanced. I'm not sure when that's going to happen, though! I really need to get my machine serviced again.

Regular readers may have noticed that I am off to a terrible start with my New Year's resolution. This quilt was both a UFO and entirely machine sewn! My resolution was not at all intended to be reverse psychology, but it has proven to be much harder to decide to let my UFOs go than I expected. So I will still tie up a few more loose ends this month. But, I did manage to start a new hand embroidery project as well last week, so you'll see that soon too.

Here's a final photo to see you on your way!


17 comments:

  1. Well those turned out very well despite all the issues you had. Very clever idea to strip piece the chimneys. I know exactly what you mean about getting those angled seams to match up. Even with paper piecing they are difficult to do. Celtic Solstice has a bunch of such matching points in the chevron blocks. I was pinning and pinning, sewing and unsewing. Finally I just slapped them together and they turned out better than when I fussed with them. Lots of "good enough" with those, too!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks very much, Mary Ellen! The camera hides many faults, I'm finding. But really, you have to have your nose six inches from the fabric to see where things went wrong! Hopefully the quilt police will let me off with a warning. :)

      Delete
  2. I love this!! If I ever do a house quilt I'll have my houses in alternate directions like yours. Highland Houses is the perfect name!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks very much, Rachael. Maybe my "happy accident" has started a trend!

      Delete
  3. What a great little quilt! I think the houses turned in both directions looks perfect too. It was just meant to be.:)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks very much, Audrey. That is my conclusion too -- it's like I was led straight to this result!

      Delete
  4. love the way you have the houses facing alternate directions and the plaid works wonderfully

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, Margaret! The plaid's not so dominant now that the white sashings and borders are on. :)

      Delete
  5. Brilliant! It looks fantastic. Thanks so much for showing how you did the chimneys. It is a very lateral way of thinking compared to embroidery.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Jillian! I would say that quiltmaking is a chance to use both sides of your brain. I've met a lot of quilters who started out in very left-brained careers.

      Delete
  6. Your houses really came out nice! I like the way you have them facing each other, now for a colorful border?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Cynthia! No additional border is planned, just a narrow plaid binding after it is quilted. I wanted to make the whole quilt from just the one shirt. :)

      Delete
  7. The piecing looks pretty darn accurate to me, especially considering that the roofs were stitched on the bias. The red plaid on the white background is very effective; I think it makes the quilt look very sophisticated. Congratulations on another beautifully executed project, (almost finished!).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you very much, I'm glad it is carrying it's own! My machine is in the shop now, but I'm looking forward to the chance to quilt it soon. :D

      Delete
  8. So lovely! :)
    Greetings from Finland!
    Hugs, Ulla

    ReplyDelete

I'm told Blogger has been bouncing some comments, so if it happens to you I'm sorry! But the settings look right so I can't explain it. In any case, thanks for reading!

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...