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Wednesday 18 January 2012

'The Neighbourhood' quilt top finished

First off, thanks for all your kind comments wishing me a happy holiday. I had a lovely relaxing time, and have come back very tanned from all the gorgeous sun out there!

Well I finished the House Block quilt top! Now re-named 'The Neighbourhood'. The original inspiration for the quilt was 'The Burbs' from the first Material Obsession book, but I prefer The Neighbourhood, as it is also the name of one of my favourite Arcade Fire tracks (get me, sounding so hip!).
Most of the quilt blocks were made by the Tag Square Bee which finished last year, and I have added some extras to make a bigger quilt.
You all gave me excellent advice when I last posted about about this here. The main thing, you all agreed on, was No Sashing. Which I was pleased about. So I made 2 more house blocks.
The one above is the 'Owl House'. The owls like to fly around their rooms, whilst keeping an eye on their pet peacock who is strutting around the ornate lawns.
And this is The Dressmaker's House, inspired by one of the houses made for Leila in this post on Where The Orchids Grow blog. The dressmaker is showing all her wares in the window and has stuck her mannequin in the way of the door (well she is short of space in that little cottage).
God, I love making these house blocks, and I think I enjoy making up silly stories about each of them even more!
I also made one more random 'patch block' to balance out the one made be Teresa. I still have one more geometric block (made by Jackie) for the back. Also, I am pleased to say, that Juliana's beautiful 'Fairytale House' arrived safely from Poland.
So here they are, all sewn together, but I knew they needed a border, and as I have such a bulging scrap bag at the moment I decided to make a scrappy Piano Keys border. You will need to scroll back up to the top to see how that turned out. I managed to make 3 and a half sides of the border just with scraps!
But I realised I needed something to go in the corner spaces, so I made these little mini houses with more scraps.
Here they are in place. 
Now all I have to do is quilt it!! But that will have to wait a while as I have totally overdone it on Flickr swap sign-ups! I have 4 Flickr things on the go at the moment and it is taking me all my time to check the groups daily, never mind the sewing!
What about you lot, have you taken on too much already this year?

17 comments:

  1. Jo this is fabulous - you must be thrilled!
    I'm looking forward to seeing how you quilt it!!

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  2. All these blocks (made in a bee and by you) works so perfectly together! It's a gorgeous top and I'm really glad that I could sew a block for it:)

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  3. That is such fun! It would make you smile every time you look at it!

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  4. A house quilt is on my long term to do list- currently losing out to a swoon. I love yours though, great variety and the colours bring it all together

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  5. You have done a fabulous job, I love it!

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  6. This is so goreous Jo! I love wee houses, but having a whole town of them is uber cute! Jxo

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  7. It's fabulous! I might have to make one myself...

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  8. It is so lovely JO. Really pretty colours and such great quirky little houses. So pleased you had a good holiday. Juliex

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  9. Lol, I know exactly what you mean about the swaps and other things signed up for! Love your quilt though, especially those wee house blocks in the corners

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  10. I love this quilt!
    I am constantly playing catch up just now, you are not alone!

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  11. That's a fab quit top, Jo, really lovely!

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  12. Love how this has turned out. So deliciously scrappy!

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  13. It's lovely to see your Tag Square Bee quilt finished. I'm loving picking out my block and seeing how you've used it. I'm glad you didn't leave it out and went to the effort of making another 'square' block to balance it out. The border is great and sets it off really well.

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  14. This is absolutely fantastic! And I loved reading all about it! Will start following you on Bloglovin' so I can keep up with your wonderful sewing!

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