Quiltmaker’s Parade of Quilted Homes!

A couple weeks ago I gave you a sneak preview of a house block I made for Quiltmaker Magazine’s Parade of Quilted Homes!

This me, at #4!

But do you know who the other houses belong to?  You are about to find out!

But first…I want to show you a bit about “The House That Bonnie Built!”

It all started with a night home, right after returning from the Needlework Seminar at the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island….a free evening to sew? You bet!


The challenge had come down from Quiltmaker that we were to use Lori Holt’s pattern from a previous 100 blocks by 100 designers issue, and interpret it our own way.

Mine just HAD to have STRINGS, don’t you know?

I sewed red strings to phone book paper foundation squares!

My strings are sorted by color family, so it was really simple to grab a handful of red ones and just play with the variety.  The units are small, so don’t make them too wide…I used strings from 3/4” up to 2” in width. 

Make sure your stitch length is tiny tiny so the paper is easy to remove.

Once my foundations were covered, I trimmed them to the size they needed to be, and treated them like they were just a square of fabric, the same size I would have cut for the roof from the pattern.

4 squares trimmed and de-papered!

Left over triangles from joining binding or borders on the diagonal make great pieces to cover corners with.  I just wanted to make sure that my corners were BIG enough that the next step wouldn’t make them disappear all together. 

Sky sections are added, and a bit of the gables!  FUN!

Treadling away!

This is my 1920s Singer 27 with the shuttle bobbin.  You can see I’ve got my favorite sticky seam guide on the slide plate so I can keep my good 1/4”.  Click HERE for more info on those!

There are a lot of sections to this house, and I needed the block to be as tall as it was wide, so keeping that seam where it is supposed to be was crucial!

Oh, this is going to look just great!

I’ve got my sections all ready to assemble here.

I pulled strips from my scrap stash for the entire block, and purposed a charm square that had come in my packet of goodies from the Grand Hotel Needlework Seminar for the two bottom windows. 

I spy:

a red calico from the 1970s

old red paw prints from the 1980s

a piece of fabric in the left chimney I brought home from the Netherlands

A piece of a recycled shirt in the right chimney

some civil war green as the grass with flowers….

And everything else from the scrap stash!

Now it’s time for MORE Fun.  Today, YOU can win a copy of my latest book, MORE Adventures with Leaders & Enders --signed by me, along with some scrap stash from my studio!  REALLY!  I’m wanting to share the scrap love with someone special!  But in order to win, you need to go over to The Parade of Homes page  and comment there to enter!  Also check out Quiltmaker’s Blog, Quilty Pleasures for more fun!

**Note** I'm writing this ahead and wasn't given the time to publish, so if this is publishing too early ((Quiltmaker is in Colorado)) Click back to their links LATER to see if they have gone live!! I'm timing this to go live just past midnight my time!

And to sweeten the pot – I’m going to have a drawing HERE too!

Sept/ Oct 2014 Quiltmaker Giveaway!

I’m drawing for TWO winners of this issue, so you can each make your OWN house quilt.

Leave me a comment in the comments section below ONLY to be entered.

No, you can’t email your comment in, you can’t comment in the guest book, you can’t comment on facebook or instagram…it has to be HERE.  So I can use the random number generator to choose our lucky winners.  It’s only fair that way!

If you are a blogger user, PLEASE check your profile to make sure your email address is visible and I can reach you.  If there is no email address on your profile I have to choose someone else.  If you are commenting as anonymous you must leave your name and your email address so I can reach you.

If you are reading us on an iphone or ipad after clicking a link in facebook you must open this page in a new browser or safari window before you can comment.  Your device still thinks you are in facebook even though you do not think you are.  If you still see the blue bar at the top of your screen…trust me. You are still in facebook!

I’ll be out of town until the 11th. Or So. Or At any rate, I’ll draw two winners when I get back!

Be sure to check back at The Parade of Homes every day so you can see what other houses are featured, and enter those give-aways too!

Bon Voyage, everyone!  I’m off to England!

Tally Ho!

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