My little town is gradually growing, but more slowly than I would like. Construction has been rather an unwelcome theme in my family this month. My poor dad has suffered cement burns whilst doing some construction and so life is a bit upside down at the moment and blogging is down the list, even if some therapeutic hospital bedside sewing is getting done. Cement burns are poorly publicised, but so dangerous. Anyone coming into contact with wet cement can have an alkali necrosis of the skin ( it basically eats away, taking the moisture from within the tissue). What is so hideous is that you don't always realise it is happening until its too late. So concrete, unnoticed, splashing down a boot, or seeping through the knees of work trousers is so easily done, do warn anyone who might be planning a bit of DIY that this can happen. Hopefully dad is on the mend, I'm finding sewing houses better for the physical and mental health than building them, I may suggest it to him too!
I have had such fun making this quilt. It's often the way that the projects that have had the least analysis ( and so are invested of the least expectation) are the most fun to work on. You may remember that I started this quilt top when I had an earache in the half term holidays. I started piecing houses just using my rotary cutter, a pile of solids and a needle and thread. As I have added to my little town each little house has become a character in it's own right. My kids like to 'work out' which house in our village its based on as we walk to school and the local shop! I have included our much loved but sadly outgrown old house, a tall thin Victorian villa,
and our new house, an initially unloved but now transformed 1950's self confident sturdy kind of a place,
I also included my sons dream house, a wigwam; 
and my daughters, a thatched cottage or a toadstool fairy ring;
I'm totally in love with this quilt. But I now have to decide how to back and bind, but most importantly how to quilt it. I am completely at a loss as the original had the most exquisite teeny tiny detailed but machine quilted stitches in little shapes to match the houses as if as a shadow in the white areas. I am a dedicated hand quilter, but the density of stitching needed to recreate that kind of an effect would take me a year or more! I am considering branching out for the first time and paying someone to machine quilt it for me...what do you think?
