Marge's Home Sweet Home

This is a quilt in progress by one of my students, Marge, who doesn't yet have a blog. She gave me permission to share her marvelous work with you:

Marge wrote in part: "I knew that I wanted to put monsters in the doors and windows of wonky houses, and I wanted to make just one house with the 50s’ era homemaker. Those were fun to build, and I truly followed Tonya’s advice to just sew and cut. The only pieces that were planned in the blocks were the fussy cut inhabitants for the houses. ... Even though I usually learn by reading directions, I found that I could just look at the pictures of the letters in the tutorials to figure them out. Even though I did a bit of rough calculating before each letter, my "m" and "w" certainly are bigger than the other letters. That just adds personality to the phrase. What took me so long to try this???"

Me again. Isn't Marge's work wonderful? I can only imagine what the 50's homemaker feels like moving into that neighborhood. Marge had also thought about phrases like "There goes the neighborhood" and "The new neighbor." I think those would be a hoot to include, either in pieced words (more blocks or maybe borders) or with embroidery or quilting.

See, it's easier to make the letters and the houses than you might think. You just have to try it. The students in my class are working off the same tutorials that are available on Quiltville (see my sidebar) - I'm not giving them any extra hints or helps. Using fun novelty prints makes it easier to play and experiment. How can you take monsters seriously?

Meanwhile, it's Halloween month, woohoo! I got quite a few things out, but still have several quilts that I haven't put up yet (including the two that aren't yet finished). I have quite a few more Halloween threadies than I realized. D'oh.

These are what the shelves looked like yesterday. I was attempting to dissuade little kitty jumpers with crinkly plastic on the bottom shelf of the hutch, which would still leave the Egyptian items (canopic jars are kinda Halloweeny) visible.

After three different kitten attacks, I've knuckled under and removed the ever enticing feather and maribou boas (after Lily almost knocked down the Jack'o'lantern bobber) and stacked fabric way up on the bottom shelf. Little imps.

That's Halloween Faces on the right. I think it's one of my favorite quilts and yet it was the easiest. Go figure. Witch Bob has the top of the hutch staked out and Cat Bobs are on the top shelf. The only other item I made in this display is the Web Thready.

Here are bookshelves with the copper jack'o'lanterns I bought in Cairo.

I suspect I'll rearrange quite a bit and I need to get more Halloweenyness made. I'll show more pictures throughout the month.

I still have more binding to do on Horrors - it took me more time than I thought it would to decorate yesterday.

And here are some links:

Joyce has made wonky houses and words and added liberated stars into the mix for Sweet Dreams. Lynda, the Master of Patience?, is working with letters and houses too. Take a look through her archives to see some fun liberated log cabin/MAM work.

The Halloween link for today is Grim Prim Art. D. A. Sweigart does great folk art paintings with all sorts of Halloween motifs. My favorites are Baba's Wild Ride and the Magic Halloween Platter. She paints not only fantastic black cats (aren't the grins just perfect?), but there are even Scotties as well, such as CinderScottie.