Ten years ago I made a quilt that started out with a variety of house blocks. They were addictive and I kept making more and more of them. When I finally settled down and was ready to assemble them into a quilt, I noticed that they lent themselves to seasons, and that's how I arranged them. Today we're going to look at the winter blocks.
They all have a "snow" border on the top and a brick walkway (freshly shoveled) on the bottom.
A gardener lives in this house and she's forced some tulips to bloom in her sunny front window. Warm colors of the house and roof help keep the cold at bay. A button makes an oversize door knob.
Notice how she has a pine tree close to her house for some winter interest and a roosting spot for the birds.
The background behind the house and tree evokes the bare branches of deciduous trees.
This is the next house down the street. It's late at night and the only light is a single lamp (done with free motion stitching) in the window. A button snowman sits in the front yard, wondering where everyone went.
There are eighteen houses in this quilt, and this was one of the last ones I made. I was running out of ideas for house silhouettes, so I started paying close attention on my walks. This one is based on a real house, contemporary design, with a beautiful brick chimney all the way up the outside.
It's a clear, cold night and lots of stars are out. The jelly-looking stars are buttons. The block is quilted with free-motion stars connected with loops.
This is the best-smelling house on the block. You can see gingerbread cookies (buttons) cooling through the front windows. The quilting is steaming cups of tea.
This is the last house on the block. The cat isn't outside - we don't want it running around killing birds. It's in a special cupola the owners built for it, so it can have a 360-degree view of the great outdoors.
Right now, the most interesting thing to look at is the lamp post along a walking trail. The background of the lamp block is a shimmery fabric. The light coming from under the lamp (it fans out in an inverted V) is a sheer fabric with sparkly gold bits on it.
Large purple buttons make a series of porthole windows.
Here's the winter row. This is the top row of the quilt so you can see a bit of the border fabric. The house and tree blocks are 11" tall. With the snow and brick borders, it comes to 15.5".
Only three more months and then I'll show you the spring row.
This was another quick one, I think because I used a back stitch instead of stem stitch.
The stitching lays flatter and it has a more casual look. It sure is easier to go around corners with the back stitch, like on the hat and the corner of the boots.
This was the inspiration fabric. I'd been looking for a long time for something to go with the drummer and just had to wait for the right time of year.
And this is approximately how it will look in the book.
It's more important to reinforce one's identity than to worry about taste.
---Jack Lenor Larsen
I got a new lamp last month, for three reasons: I love lamps, I love the color orange, and I love sales.
I bought it in early November when there were still lots of colorful leaves. The chevron on the lamp shade looks like falling leaves.
That must have been an omen, because shortly after buying it, while taking a walk, I got hit in the head by falling leaves. That was the first time that happened to me and it felt nice - a couple of feather-soft taps on the top of my head. That was a good enough inspiration for me to start planning a quilt.
First I collected a nice assortment of leaves.
Then I started pulling some coordinating fabric.
This is what I wound up with. Now that it's been six weeks or so, and I've chosen a quilt pattern, I see I have too many fabrics. The pattern has a healthy dose of "white space" so I really need to edit down unless I want a really scrappy look. I guess I won't know for sure until I start cutting and throwing them on the design board.
I'm going to start on this today.
This was a quick one. There weren't many colors, which cut down on my decision-making time. And there was lots of bunny "fluff" - short stab stitches. I like this one because it doesn't look dated like the others do, and because it's not overly cute.
The inspiration fabric is a very soft flannel I got from Mill House Quilts. They sell good flannel.
This is approximately how it will look in the book. The embroidered bunny looks like it's going to hop right on in with the others on the left.
I went to my local antique mall last week and there were ornaments everywhere. I didn't know I needed any until I saw them. The vintage ones have a more subtle tone than new ones which kind of scream for attention.
These are from the Ukraine, hand blown and hand decorated. Lit from below, the tops look dark grey.
Looking straight at them, the tops are snowy white.
I finally found a use for this display stand I bought at a thrift store earlier this year.
I'd never seen ornaments made to look like presents.
They're about the size of a matchbox, hand wrapped in foil paper and hand decorated. I think they're my favorites.
Some of these have a sand-like decoration that comes off if you're not careful.
The pigs like to shake the stand and make them swing. Didn't I just say to be careful?
More sandy ones on the second shelf.
And more pig shaking. I think they're trying to get the bells to ring, but there aren't any clappers in them.
No doubt thinking of more mischief.
