First Stage New House Study Quilt
Today I worked on the cabinet layout for the kitchen for our new house in preparation for next week’s visit with a cabinet supplier. We’ve designed this house from scratch so, it’s amazing to have preliminary plans in hand. Now we’re working on every detail so our prospective builder can give us a price. Yikes!
While I’ve designed the house in 3D software complete with an substantial amount of detail and the ability to walk through the house, quilts are my design medium: I work out my thinking in fabric. To me it’s all about how this house will feel and the best way for me to visualize and express this is to make things. Therefore, I sketched up a rough for my House Inspiration Quilt a few days ago.
The idea for the backgroud is to arrange horizontal strips of fabric depicting the forest in which our house will live, starting with the browns and beiges of the leaf litter floor, up through the canopy and the mountain behind to the sky. I will applique branches and birds over the pieced background. Our house will sit on a high ridge between two mountains, so the strips will give that sense of loft. (At least that’s the plan!)
There was no discussion in my head as to what fabrics to use. BATIKS of course! Here’s the pile I pulled out of my batik stash to use in the quilt.
Today’s task was to make a pieced strip. I glued three pieces of newsprint together along their 8 1/2″ edges. I then cut strips of fabric about 9-11″-wide and started paper piecing them. Here’s how the first strip came out all trimmed up.
My 20-minutes were up (I fudged a little since it took time to take pictures and I chronicled the process in more detail for a later how-to on my blog) but I kept going and made another strip with darker browns and golds and some green, to be the bottom row of the quilt. I am extremely pleased with how it’s coming along!
But I realized my stash is lean on blue batiks so I placed an order with Hancock’s of Paducah to replenish my stock.
I love to make things!
Last 5 posts by Jodie Davis
- The Nerve! A Leap of Faith - February 29th, 2008
- Some THING a Day (My Day #28 Thing) - February 29th, 2008
- Yummy Alpaca Scarf 2 - February 28th, 2008
- Yummy Alpaca Scarf 1 - February 28th, 2008
- House Inspiration Bird Quilt: Woodpecker - February 25th, 2008