Tuesday, January 31, 2006

wonky house

Yesterday's house was pretty boring, in my mind anyway. I like my houses a bit wilder. All it takes is one change. Today's door slants inwards at the sides and the top slopes diagonally. Otherwise, I'm pretty much going to build the house in the same manner as yesterday, it's just that the workmen are tipsy.

One trick I used on this house was to sew the window onto the end of a strip - that way I know that section isn't going to be too short.

After sewing the window section on, I trimmed everything and then decided I didn't want quite so much slant to the sides of the house, so I straightened them up a bit. I like how that changes the look of the window - it's not going to be square anymore.

Now it would be perfectly acceptable to just sew sky strips onto the side like so (this is how I would have made it a few years ago):

But instead I'm going to angle the side of the sky piece so that I won't end up with bias along the edge of the block.

I cut out an oversized roof with steeper sides for this house, but completely forgot to take a picture of it. I then cut out a big rectangle of sky, just like I did for the "normal" house. But I want to keep the angle on the top of this house AND not worry about bias all along the top of the block so I'm going to angle the bottom of the sky so that it matches the house section. I just sliced along here.

I then cut around the roof, just like with the first house. And made a slice for the chimney. But the wonky house needs a funkier chimney, so I used an angled chimney fabric strip AND sewed it to the end of a wider sky strip. After sewing that in, I trimmed it up.

And then layed the chimney section over the sky section and sliced at an angle through both sections.

That's what that looks like sewn back together. The chimney is actually subtler than I was expecting - guess I didn't angle it as much as I should/could have. You'll notice that today the smaller sky section was sewn on so that there's extra sky peaking out on top. Just gonna slice that sky off even with the roof.

And then sew the big chimney section sky onto the roof.

I've got enough sky and roof that I can move my house section more to the left or the right. Too much to the right might mean I lose a bit of that roof corner, but that would be okay. I could also decide at this stage that this roof is just way too big and could slice an inch or so off the bottom of this top section - that would make it smaller.

And here it all is sewn together. For now I'll leave the sky extra big, so I can angle one or both sides of the block if I choose to.

I know this wonkier kind of house isn't going to be everyone's cup of tea, but it's certainly fun to play around with.

8 comments:

Finn said...

Love the wonkier house Ton!! And the colors are really marvelous..just what I need on this gray last day of January.

I did some checking in my neighborhood...and by a majority vote, the "eyes" have it...the houses will be watching..LOL

Nancy said...

I'm loving these wonky houses and hope to be able to play with my scraps this weekend. I'm seeing a whole wonky village in my future complete with wonky trees and maybe something lettered in the border. Before "meeting" you I would have never thought to do something like this. Thanks for the inspiration you've given and the good, clear instructions to show the way for those of us less maverick quilters.

Laura said...

Thanks so much for sharing your talent! I am printing all this stuff off and hopefully this weekend I can start making houses. It looks like so much fun!

Cher said...

much wonkier! loving it more and more...

antique quilter said...

your making me want to make these fun houses :) and of course I would need those bright happy fabrics too!
Looks like a lot of fun to make and a happy house to live in.
Right now I have been intriqued with house quilts....guess its cause I am dreaming about moving!
4 more years of high school to go!

YankeeQuilter said...

I can't help but point to fabric and say...I have that one, and that one and...anyways why haven't I made a house yet!? Daaa...time for building.

sio

Holly said...

Hurray, another tutorial from Tonya! I love the liberated wonky houses. Will have to try that someday.

Patti said...

"There was a crooked man who owned a crooked mouse and they all lived together in a little crooked house". You can put the poem with the house - it's perfect!