Houses. Here’s a photo from Linda. Don’t they play nicely together? These are the last of the 6 inch blocks. We are downsizing to 3 inch houses. The first 4 will be due at the end of April. Stay tuned.
Happy Crafting!
Teresa
I have 2 more photos from the row challenge I talked about a year ago, give or take.
My friend, Joan, choose Seasons and selected winter for her row. I can’t tell you about or show you the row I’ve made but there’s a hint about the season at the bottom of the post.
Lori’s row is completely different. I had to go look up here theme because I’d never heard of Steam Punk. This one has to be the most challenging row I’ve ever had to make even though Lori keeps throwing ideas at us. Here’s her row. What do you think about it?
The 4th member of our group, Sheila, is behind. 2015 was a year of change for her. But, in typical Sheila style, she will sit down one day with a fistful of fabric and an idea – and make some beautiful rows. When she gets hers done, I’ll post it. Hopefully, in a couple of months I will be able to unveil 16 of the rows!
Happy first day of spring,
Teresa
We have adopted! Both moved in today. One requires a lot of work but is good for us. The other requires a lot of practice and fun for me.
Gary and I need the elliptical. My many hobbies and Gary’s putting together electrical kits with Tim simply do not provide enough exercise. Darn. The elliptical lives in the living room. It will, I hope, be difficult to ignore. Besides, we couldn’t get it up the stairs.
Look closely – you can see the other new addition in the front of the photo. Introducing my Sidekick spinning wheel from the Schacht Spindle Cmpany.
A good activity for a cold, snowy day. Here’s my 2d attempt at spinning. I’m not showing you the first one! I’ve had two lessons at the Longmont Yarn Shoppe. I’m also planning on going to Spin Night on the forth Tuesday of the month. I’ll have to miss NCIS, but it will be worth it!
Happy Quilting! Spinning! Weaving! Knitting!
Teresa
My house buddy is closing her online store. After 8 years it’s time for her to go on to new endeavors. Her web-site is http://thestitchsanctuary.com. She has a unique selection of quilting fabrics of all sorts plus a great selection of batiks and blenders. There’s a selection of non-quilting fabric, kits, patterns, thread, tools – and more. If you are reading this blog (I hope you are!) and you are a quilter or sewer – visit her site. If you know people who quilt or sew, let them know!
I will miss browsing the store – shopping in my PJs – but I am looking forward to seeing where Linda goes from here.
I’ll post more houses in a while (hopefully a few days!) but for now I have other things to talk about.
WOW… I have April’s houses almost done and it won’t be May until tomorrow!! I won’t get this batch done in the mail until next week, but it’s the closest I’ve been to being on time since Linda and I started exchanging houses. To be honest, part being caught up is because we decided to skip February. We were both too far behind. Life has a way of, hmmm, getting in the way. So, Linda ended up getting a March block with a valentine theme and one with a Mardi Gras theme.
I finally had to take the houses down from my design wall. They were taking up too much space. From now on, for the most part, I will unveil the a month at a time without showing the previous blocks.
Here are the Houses for March. Complete with a Valentines Day house (bottom right) and a Mardi Gras house (top left). I can’t pick a favorite. I like each of them equally.
I didn’t, of course, open Linda’s houses until she’d received mine. When I did get to open hers, this is what I found.
My first favorite was the bottom left house – with the stormy background. Now I like the top left, teal, house. It makes me feel relaxed.
Next – April, as soon as Linda and I get them mailed to each other. Stay tuned…
Challenge!!! Three of my friends from my quilt group are doing a row challenge this year. Here’s how it goes… We each piece a row – up to 36 inches wide and 6 inches tall. Then we pass the rows around until everyone has 4 rows – to put together any way they please. Add rows, don’t add rows, make into a table runner, etc. Hopefully the completed rows don’t end up in a bin labeled “UFOs” – Unfinished Fabric Objects.
I just completed my row. It’s muted purples and teal. I’m taking it over to the next person on the list so she can add a row. Here it is…
The rows will be shown off at our monthly Quiltie Ladies meeting, but the owner will be sent out of the room to listen to all the Ohhs and Ahhhs along with “I have some of that fabric” and “It goes perfectly with the other rows!” It’s exciting and frustrating at the same time. Waiting is difficult.
I’ll post the other 3 rows when I get photos – then at the end of the challenge I will post ALL the rows.
Happy π Day!
Teresa
I am really having fun with all the houses – when I mix them up on the design wall I can’t always immediately tell who made some of them. We have now, how many? – 32 blocks!
Here’s a family photo.
Tim says that this is his favorite out of the latest batch of Linda’s blocks.
This is my favorite from the new houses.
I used some of my Millennium fabric for this house. Happy New Year! 
My favorite from my newest blocks is the Mtn Dew Roof house. I purchased this fabric years ago because it reminded me of Mountain Dew.
Those are the January blocks. I have 6 or 7 piles of fabric on my cutting table – potential February houses. Choosing the fabrics is the most difficult part of the whole process but they are all turning out great. Very different. That’s the best part!
Happy Quilting!
Linda’s blocks arrived. Mine were mailed. About 5 days after I mailed mine, plenty of time (I thought) for my blocks to get to Linda so I emailed her to ask about my blocks. They hadn’t gotten there yet. SIGH – another day of waiting.
The following afternoon I was quilting with friends. I got an email from Linda saying she’d received my blocks. I got to open my envelope with friends. What fun!!
Here they are! The December blocks. Notice the tipsy Christmas trees in the top left block. It was the eggnog and Jack – NOT, just poor piecing. The bottom right block looks like a house with a portico. No re-dos! I like this block. The bottom block, one in from the left is my new favorite. It looks peaceful. Peaceful is good.
Next? January blocks and maybe a few other things I’m working on. Life is not just houses.
Teresa
Here are photos of the second set of houses that Linda and I exchanged. I am working on my December (yes – I know it’s January) houses. Linda’s are here but I will not open the package I get until she gets hers. One of these months I will get done before her! Linda’s blocks look like this, with the first set on top and the second set on the bottom.
My favorite new block is on the lower right. Here are my houses so far.
I had a bit of trouble with one of my blocks. Oops. Lesson: be careful when using directional fabric. Also, make sure that the door will look right. It will work out when it’s quilted. I hope.
.
I sent the bottom block to Linda, kept the first block. I said I’d remake the blocks – Linda said no, so I guess we’ve made a rule about remaking. It works for me.
The next photos show all 16 blocks with Linda’s on the bottom and mine on top. Then I got the idea to mix-up the blocks. I really really love the way the blocks are starting to go together. I will post a photo of mixed-up blocks in a couple of months…
The next blocks will be posted soon – very soon, since they are all done, mailed, and received. What fun! I’ve started piecing the January set, and it’s only February 1.
Teresa
That’s it for now.
When my friend, Linda, lived in Longmont we enjoyed spending time together – quilting and stuff. Linda moved to Las Vegas a number of years ago. Since then we have launched kids out into the world, opened and sold businesses, and more. We lead busy lives!!
A few months ago, before moving from LV to Washington State, Linda found a wonderful quilt on Pinterest. It caught my fancy – Building Houses from Scratch – look at all those tiny houses! We got to talking about the quilt, one thing led to another and now we are starting a year long (or longer?) house exchange. We are each going to make 4 pairs of blocks every month. Each of us will get one set of the other’s blocks.
We completed our first set of blocks in October. They are 6″, paper pieced, blocks. We wanted a simple pattern. Here are the first blocks, the blocks on the top are from Linda, the blocks on the bottom are mine.
It’s fun. The top right block looks, to me, like a thunder storm is brewing. My block, 2nd from left, looks like there is no back to the house – that the background can be seen through the front door. If you look closely, bottom right block has bats in the background and the window. Not, unfortunately, in the belfry!
Watch here for November’s blocks!
treesaquilts 