Sunday, January 20, 2019

The Village

In 2018 I was involved in two swap projects, one was 5" paper-pieced houses and one was 4.5" stars. I wrote about the Quilters Scrap Houses here and the Tiny Star Blocks here.

Recently, when I should have been sleeping, I wondered what I could do with thirty 4.5" tiny stars. And then wondered what I could do with thirty-six 5" little houses. Two  more quilts to make. Wait a minute...

What If: they were combined into ONE quilt, stars and houses. I ran the numbers in my head--what do you know? Ten 4.5" stars = 45" of stars, 3 rows of 10 stars each could be made.  AND nine 5" houses = 45" of houses, 4 rows of 9 houses could also be made. No extra blocks had to be made--I had just enough--that never happens!  It was meant to be, here is "THE VILLAGE":


A much better photo will be achieved when this is quilted and bound--in the not too distant future. I was just so eager to see it up on the wall. Good to have another top finished for 2019.

After I made the rows of stars and the rows of houses, I thought the neighborhood looked a little sterile--it needed some greenery. So each row of houses got one paper-pieced tree on either end of the "street"--much better. When I write the directions, the trees will be added to each "street" before the rows are sewn together, so much easier. If only I had thought about the trees earlier.

This will make a great 3 hour class for guilds--in 3 hours you can learn to paper-piece the house and one tree AND learn the adorable Tiny Star--and how to convert that simple star into other easy-to-make sizes. They are so good for swapping because the points "float" and don't have to match, always good in a swap project.

Let's quilt!

Barbara

10 comments:

  1. Such a cute quilt! Love the trees you added.

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  2. What a great way to use the blocks. It is a wonderful top!!

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  3. I Love it! Makes me think of a sleepy liitle New England village!

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  4. I love this! Maybe another 3 hour class in the future?

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  5. Love your quilt The Village. Do you know where I can buy the paper piece pattern for the 5" houses??? I would love make a quilt of scrappy houses. Of course the stars make it!!!! Thank you. Love following you.

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    1. I designed it in Electric Quilt 8. My blog of August 19, 2018 shows a photo of the pattern. If you don't have software and want to buy it, send me an email and we can arrange to get patterns to you.

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  6. Brilliant combination, Barbara! And the trees are the perfect finishing touch! So clever.

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