Monday, May 22, 2023

Rainbow Neighbourhood House Block #8

First of all Happy Victoria Day! I hope, if you get the holiday, that you get to spend some or all of it doing something you absolutely love. I started my day off with some quiet sewing, finishing up my eighth house, in my favourite colour, blue, while listening to the busy birds, singing, calling and chirping. Ahhh.


If you are making the throw, you will have just one house left to make after this week! If you are making the twin, you have two left along with two heart blocks and some pinwheels.

Before I show you my blue house with a couple of trimming and pressing tips for the 6” star block, I have two more sponsors to feature. 

I’ve known Leanne at Devoted Quilter since the very early days of blogging. We both started our blogs the same year, 2013. Like me, she lives in Canada, in a province I need to visit: Newfoundland.



Leanne joined in with my 30 Quilt Designs Challenge all three years I hosted it. From that challenge, I got encouragement from her to submit designs. We both had many designs published through participating in that challenge. I bet we both have several more waiting in the wings! Leanne's latest pattern is a free one she designed for a guest post for Hands2 Help called Berry Pi


She is a great scrap quilt designer, and you can check out her designs in her Etsy shop. The one below is one of my favourites.

Leanne is offering one winner their choice of two PDF patterns from her shop.

Cheryl at Meadow Mist Designs is another blogger/designer I've known since I started blogging; in fact she won my first giveaway, which is how I got to know her. Then she was my 'hive mama' when I was in the New Quilt Bloggers group.


Every year she runs a free mystery quilt along. I've done two of them and both were great fun. Here is the first one:
Nine Lives, Cheryl's Midnight Mystery 2016

I love her designs, and I own many of her patterns. I actually won one of her giveaways of a zip file of several patterns, but I've bought and made several others. This was the first pattern I made of hers, a test for her several--wow, make that eight(!)--years ago:

Grande Scrappy Tiles - June 2015

Funny; I just washed it last week from using it for the past few months as the bottom layer of a couple of quilts on our bed. It's folded it up ready for hot August nights when it will be the only quilt on the bed! I used flannel as the batting, so it's a bit lighter in weight than regular batting.

I've been a part of Cheryl's book launches:

Cat-Eye-doscope from Modern Plus Sign Quilts in 2018


Captiva Meadow from Just One Charm Pack
 
and I will be part of her next one, coming soon! Cheryl is giving away two prizes. The first one, two PDF patterns of choice, went to Pippa in my Midpoint Check-in giveaway, and the second one, also two PDF patterns of choice will be in the final parade giveaway. Be sure to visit her shop, MeadowMist Designs.

Okay! On to my blue house, and wow, do I love it.
But first! Last week I hadn’t got my seventh house finished in time for publishing the post. I’ve since updated that post but it’s worth showing it here once again in case you missed it on Instagram: 


It has a paper-pieced star on the side which is a really easy one to try if you’re new to paper-piecing but also if you’ve never tried the freezer paper method. I have a good tutorial here about *not* sewing through the paper to make these precise blocks. This method changed my life! Seriously! 

We also had to make the small trees blocks, of which there are two.


Something to note is that the small trees blocks are interchangeable with the flowers blocks, which are, in turn, interchangeable with both of the large tree blocks. You make two of each of these blocks for your neighbourhood, but you could choose to make every single one flowers, or small trees, or large trees, or a combination of your own choosing. This is yet another example of how very versatile this pattern is for making it totally your own unique quilt!



So here is my blue house:


As you may remember, I am using Broken Glass from Island Batik to make this quilt with a few basics and blenders added in such as the Blender Storm marbled background. There is turquoise in this line, but no blue, so I dug through my stash of Island Batik scraps from my days as an ambassador to make this block. The chimneys are actually from the Broken Glass line, but everything else from several different lines. The front of the house, the stone-like chop (they aren’t called prints) is actually from River Valley, but isn’t it perfect as a stone house front?

Here are a few tips for making the card trick star block which is one I first came across when I made my 150 Canadian Women quilt in 2017. 

You can use specialty rulers, like the Wonder Triangles that I use, or the templates that I provide in the pattern. You still need to square the triangle-in-a-square block, so here’s how I line it up.

After trimming those two sides, turn the block around and trim the other two. This was later in the evening so you can see my alignment was not spot on. Good thing I stopped and finished making the 6” block and the rest of the house this morning.


Here is the finished block:

And here is the back. I pressed most seams in opposing directions so they would nest nicely together to ensure crisp points. I did press a few of the longer ones opened and I spun the final centre seam.

You can see that I didn’t sew exactly through the point at the quarter inch seam allowance of one of the triangles but if you look again at the finished block from the front, all looks pretty good to me!

Happy sewing! This week is a lighter week of sewing for those of us making the twin quilt due to the current May long weekend in Canada, and long weekend next weekend for my American participants. That’s my excuse for being a bit later in publishing this post!



12 comments:

  1. Beautiful work! I love the fabrics you chose for your house block. Thanks for showing your trimming and pressing in detail. One day…

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  2. Great post & enjoying meeting the sponsors. Leanne's patterns look fun, especially with scraps & I've followed Cheryl for some years now, doing a couple of her mystery QALs & having her two books with the latest on order at Can Do books, ready to pick up when it arrives here in Oz. I started my blog in 2013 too. I'm loving your new house blocks & look forward to seeing it come together. Thanks for this QAL, take care & hugs.

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  3. Your block looks really good! I had a bit of a problem with mine. I always have issues with triangles in a square/ rectangle as the case may be. I used the Tri-Rec rulers. I think I’ll do another one using your templates! Maybe not another house, but definitely going to try it!

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  4. Love both your yellow and blue houses! I haven't tried either of those stars, but will choose one for my next house. The freezer paper piecing method is new to me, too - looking forward to learning about it!

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  5. You are such a inspirational and cheerful blogger Sandra. I love the blocks you have used in your houses here.

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  6. Love this blue house. Thank you for sharing the details for making the star because that really intrigued me when I saw it on Instagram.

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  7. Love both of your houses. I may give the card trick block a try!! I really like the look!

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  8. Down to block #10 today and then the pinwheels (or something 4.5"). Will be able to start assembling soon. Yeah!

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  9. Oh, that gold house! Love it! The blue is a beauty, too, but you know I love those golds, oranges, reds - warm colors!

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  10. Hi Sandra! Ooh, that gold block is fabulous. The Broken Glass fabrics are just spot-on for the bricks. Love every bit of it with that gorgeous PP star on the side. It is quite a welcoming home in my book. And your blue home! I can just hear the birdies tweeting and the Lake breeze wafting by . . . calling you to come outside and do some yoga. Happy Victoria Day to you. I hope you are doing well and that there is a B sighting soon. {{Hugs}} ~smile~ Roseanne

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  11. Happy Victoria Day a little late! I am catching up and should be posting two more at least before the end of the month...and maybe even all of them. Fingers crossed. And hooray for more sponsors!

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  12. Hi Sandra, your houses are lovely. I have to get back to my houses, now that I have cleared some space in the studio!

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