The House(s) That Deb Built

I have a bit of a blogjam of things to show you after last weeks blogless state. I need to catch you up on my Broken Circles quilt progress (or non progress! more on that one to come!). I want to show you the gorgeous Little Folks Scarf I made for myself last week, and the Mini version Little Miss MakeDo made for herself too. But today I thought I would show you how I spent the three long days last week with earache.

You know the state : too-ill-to-do-anything-but-not-so-ill-it-doesn't-seem-wrong-to-sit-on-the-sofa-without-a-project-kind of poorly. So I needed something not too taxing. I saw this quilt last year at the Festival of Quilts at the Birmingham NEC and I have had a little blurry picture of it on my pinboard for a year. I just loved this quilt when I saw it, isn't it wonderful? It was only when I looked back at this picture properly last week I realised I had done the same binding on my ColourWheel Quilt, isn't subconscious influence fascinating? Ingrid Press who made it is elusive in the online world so I can't tell you much more about her work I'm afraid, but her quilts were sublime. Really elegant and so controlled.

I have a pile of solids that I have been amassing for ages with the half formed plan to do something modern but Amish (yes I know that plan obviously needs more work and less contradictions!), but it occurred to me that the colours would look great for my houses.

I loved making these blocks. I free pieced each little house with a rough guide to making the centre house bit approx 4inches by 4inches to sit within a final 12inch square block ( I'm still not sure about the too much white/not enough white balance on my version of this quilt. I'm not sure I have Ingrids minimalist discipline when it comes to colour). Anyone planning a holiday over the summer, this would be the perfect portable project, all you need are a few scraps of fabric, needle, thread and cutter and the hours just slide by in childlike concentration. It really is the sewing-mummy equivalent to drawing towns and colouring them in.........something the kids enjoyed whilst I sewed, hot water bottle tied to my ear by my LittleFolks scarf (picture the scene!)