Friday, June 19, 2009

Building an "I Spy" house pt. 1

I was reading Belinda's blog Brown Dirt Cottage about how she works. I decided I would attempt to show you how I work when I am improvising. I started with the idea from Sarah at House of Krom of I Spy houses. I made a simple sketch.















You can see that I am not an artist.

I chose some fabrics. I like the polka dot that Sarah used. I found this at our local quilt shop. It is shades of navy blue.















I cut some strips of the house fabric of different widths. It is helpful to use a fabric that is not directional.















I started by sewing strips on either side of the piece I wanted for the door.
















This piece is one of the windows and I wanted it up and to the right of the "door". I sewed a strip the the bottom so I could place it where I wanted it.
















I wanted to other window to the left and up a bit.















This time I sewed a strip to the side of this window. That is why it is easier to work with fabric that is not directional.















You can see that there is a gap but you can easily fill gaps with more fabric. You cannot be afraid to cut or to add to if you need to.
















Almost done. I put a strip on either side and at the top. This house is a bit wider than I would like but that's ok. I can either trim or adjust the border to make it fit.

















Now I need to add the roof and the sky. I really like to have some sky on either side, in this case it will be a narrow strip.

I hope you find this interesting and/or helpful. Let me know how you work.

4 comments:

Sarah said...

i find it very interesting how each of us work. how we see the final outcome and figure out how to get there. i was thinking of posting how i make houses in a couple of weeks because i'm asking for house blocks in my quilting bee for my month.

jovaliquilts said...

It's really interesting to see how everyone works. For a house, I never draw it first -- I cut and see what happens!

Browndirtcottage said...

...clapping....I'm so glad you did this little post. I really do enjoy knowing how others arrive at or are inspired in their projects. Thanks for taking part and sharing in my little suggestion.

Bebesboutique said...

I love making wonky houses! there is so much creative freedom and no rules. Doing I spy fabrics in the doors and windows is a good idea. I have a large (queen size or full size that drapes over the edges) wonky house quilt top that needs to be machine quilted??????? hee hee interested? I think it is so busy already that I may just hand tie it and do a little bit of hand quilting in some strategic places. It is just WAY to big to fit in my sewing machine to machine quilt.

Keep up the good work on the houses can't wait to see more of them!