Quilt inspiration 2010: Houses

Did you know that 2010 was our first year blogging? That might explain why we've spent a few days recalling some of our most popular themes.  This is our last "recap" post, before we start a fabulous New Year of inspiration (tomorrow !)

In 2010 we did a series called "Our Town", featuring quilts with schoolhouses, homes, and entire villages.  Methods of construction ranged from log cabin to stained glass, traditional and foundation piecing, and appliqué. As a Realtor would say: We hope you see some houses you like !

Row 1, L-R: Row Houses, by Flavin Glover; Magnolia Quilt,  by Sue Spargo; Hillside Houses,  by Daphne Greig and Susan Purney Mark; Welcome Home, by Alex Anderson. Row 2: Little Houses, and Little Old One Room Schoolhouse, by Ruth Powers; Little Amsterdam,  by the North Sea Quilters; Pedestrian Friendly, by Pat Dicker. Row 3: Wonky Houses, by Carol Morrissey; Firelight and Chimney Smoke, by Martha Milne;  There's No Place Like Home, block and full quilt, by Sonya Chinn. Row 4: Night before Christmas quilt and block, by Sue Garman; Welcome to the North Pole, by Becky Goldsmith and Linda Jenkins; Waiting for Santa, by Lynette Anderson. Row 5:  Up on the Housetop quilt and detail, by Cynthia England; and It Takes A Village, by Pippa Moore.

*For more information, see the following articles:  Our Town, Our Town Part 2, Our Town Part 3, Our Town Part 4, Our Town Part 5, and Our Town Part 6.

Our Town

This time of year, the school bells ring again for so many of us and our children.  While researching an article on traditional Amish "schoolhouse" quilts,  we found so many darling quilts with houses, that we decided to expand our post to include all kind of wonderful house patterns.

A house on a quilt is a symbol of our community and our lives together in society. It's no wonder that house quilts remind us of comfort and the togetherness of family, friends, and neighbors.

Welcome Home, 64 x 64, by Alex Anderson,at Alex Anderson Quilts

Here's a delightful neighborhood of cheerful houses done in russet and gold. Internationally-famous designer Alex Anderson has brightened the traditional fall quilt by adding contemporary colors of aqua blue and rose pink which make the maple leaves and houses sparkle against the dark background. Easily pieced using half square triangles, "Welcome Home" has become a classic best-seller from JWD Publishing. You can view all of Alex Anderson's books and patterns at Alex Anderson Quilts.

At The Quilt Show with Alex Anderson and Ricky Tims, you can sign up for podcasts with instruction from other top name quilters, contests, a block-of-the-month program, a fabulous quilt galley, and a store full of wonderful products and DVDs. Take a look, as it's great fun to browse through all these goodies.

Little Old One Room Schoolhouse,  23 x 27, by Ruth Powers, at Ruth Powers Art Quilts

The traditional schoolhouse of the American frontier, complete with a bell tower, beckons us back to learning, as leaves swirl in the early autumn breeze.  Prolific quilt designer Ruth Powers offers this charming scene as a pattern on her website, along with so many other beautiful patterns.

Little Houses, 48 x 60, by Ruth Powers, at Ruth Powers Art Quilts

Ruth writes, "Much of my work is inspired by nature;  my daily walks fill my senses with color and design possibilities." In creating Little Houses, Ruth has done an excellent job of selecting different blues and greens for the sky and earth, while selecting the complementary colors of bright orange and orange-red for the homes. Ruth notes that this is a great pattern for using up fat quarters and scraps, so let your imagination run wild, and let the stash-busting begin ! Ruth also composes a very interesting blog, where she updates everyone about her latest projects and patterns.

Hillside Houses, 29 x 36 by Daphne Greig and Susan Purney Mark

We love the idea of a village of houses nestled cozily together, their rooftops peeking out from one another. Daphne Greig was very kind to give us some background on this enchanting quilt. She writes: "Bright houses perched on a hillside are the inspiration for this quilt. You will see these along the coastlines of Italy and Greece and even in Newfoundland. The piece was designed for my book, co-written with Susan Purney Mark, Simple Stained Glass Quilts, Krause Publications, 2008. Our unique "whole cloth" technique makes construction of stained glass quilts easy and less labor-intensive than other methods."  Autographed copies of the book are available through Daphne's website, http://www.daphnegreig.com/.

Wonky Houses, 44 x 60, by Carol Morrissey, at O Carol Designs

Wonky Houses is an irresistible quilt pattern, because the fairy-tale cottages and trees at their lilting angles provide such a whimsical, fun effect. Carol Morrissey created this quilt as an easy paper piecing pattern, with clearly understandable directions and full size paper templates. The triangles that dance through the quilt and the vibrant orange-red border against the blue sky really make this dazzling pattern "pop". What a great opportunity to use up bright fat quarters and scraps.   Carol notes that "variety is the key to success of this quilt". For more great patterns, and a fabulous gallery of photos, visit  O Carol Designs.

Firelight and Chimney Smoke, 62 x 50, by Martha Milne, at machinequilter

Martha Milne, who is based in the UK,  constructed this beautiful Amish-style schoolhouse quilt out of jewel-tone remnants. She had just completed a Jewel Box quilt for her daughter, and fell in love with the jewel tones against the black. The light and bright windows in this quilt give the inviting illusion of a warm, glowing hearth within, which beckons us inside. She writes: "I did want to create the effect of light shining in the darkness. The idea was for each house to have its own personality. I had fun playing with my fabrics to achieve this." Extensive instructions and an easy-to-follow pattern can be found at Popular Patchwork and Quilting.  Martha is renowned for her machine quilting; to see the quilting detail, click on the image of the full quilt, or the photo below.

Martha Milne is an inspiring teacher, because she believes that everyone can learn to do machine quilting; see her fascinating video on You Tube. Also don't miss her demonstration of The New English Quilter, which converts your home sewing machine into an affordable version of a professional long arm machine  (it's also available in the US !)  At Martha's machinequilter website you can purchase The New English Quilter, the first of a series of Line Dancing DVDs, and the amazing JUKI sewing machine (have you heard of it?)

Last but not least... here's Martha Milne's "Little Houses in the Big Woods".  This quilt was published in Popular Patchwork in 2007 (subscriber access).  The quilting was done with a Juki machine and the New English Quilter. The detail of the red houses, and the quilted chimney smoke, can be seen on Martha's blog.

More Houses: Teacher, author, and quilt artist Freddy Moran is internationally acclaimed for her unique and original house quilts. You can see brilliant photos and read about her designs in Freddy's House: Brilliant Color in Quilts.  In addition,  from her quilt images, Freddy has created House Party Quilts Gift Wrap, which would make a lovely gift in itself ! 

Don't miss Our Town Part Two, where we show more stunning quilts with houses.

Basket Quilts Part I

One of the most popular themes in quilting, basket quilts are fascinating because of their dozens of different blocks. Because baskets historically have been used to carry so many items into the house for the family, they are a cozy symbol of home and hearth.

As you will see in these next two blog articles, there's almost an endless variety of pretty basket blocks and a variety of different ways to construct them.

Rick Rack Baskets, by Glenna Hailey

Glenna Hailey of Hollyhock Quilts designed this cheery quilt in 2006 for a sample in Karen Snyder's store, Anna Lena's Quilt Shop. Warm colors and retro feedsack prints create such a whimsical and cozy look. We can't help but smile when we see that the rick rack motif, which forms the basket handles, has been extended to dance around the outer border.  Petite appliqued flowers add extra charm to the border.  As is the case with many patchwork baskets, the base and bottom of the baskets are composed of right triangles.  For additional patterns by Glenna Hailey, see the Hollyhock Quilts Patterns Page and blog.  Also, visit Karen Snyder's store at Anna Lena; her blog is Anna Lena Land. 


Flower Basket block and pattern

 Because many basket quilts are set on point, they can look difficult to assemble.  When we were new quilters, we were surprised to see that basket patterns are much less challenging to sew than they appear. They are actually sets of squares, half-square triangles, and rectangles which are pieced together and can be efficiently sewn by machine.

Janet Wickell of About. com Quilting  provides an easy-to follow assembly diagram, which we are showing here for a checkerboard flower basket pattern.  Starting from the left, the triangles and squares are sewn together to make one large right triangle. Then the half-square pink triangles of the basket handle are added. In the middle image, the side rectangles and base triangles are added.  Later, this block will be rotated slightly onto the diagonal, so that the viewer will see the basket standing straight up. For a more detailed explanation on basket block construction, please see Janet Wickell's very helpful instructions on about.com


Hawaiian Rainbow Basket Quilt, Red and White Variation, by Lisa Boyer

Here's an adorable  Cherry basket quilt, made from a variety of luscious red fabrics. For a traditional Cherry basket look, Lisa has pieced one large wide triangle for the main part of the basket, with two small triangles for the base.  She has then turned the square block on the diagonal, as explained above, and has appliqued the curved handle. Lisa has achieved a lovely contrast by using white background fabric to really make the baskets come alive and "pop" off the quilts. She's selected a large scale red print for the border that nicely matches the baskets. The pattern for this gorgeous quilt can be obtained at Lisa Boyer's website.

Lisa is also the author of two wonderfully humorous quilt  books:  That Dorky Homemade Look  and Stash Envy. To see more of Lisa's creative work and patterns, please visit her website.


Bekah's Basket Sampler Quilt,  84 x 84, by Betsy Rickles

The irrepressible gaiety of Kaffe Fasset's fabrics are featured in his book Country Garden Quilts,  which includes  this delightful variation of a Cherry basket pattern.  Instead of the single large appliqued handle, there are smaller handles on each side of the basket, separated by a stack of cherries piled in the basket, which gives a pleasing symmetrical effect. Like most basket blocks, these blocks are set on point, and the vibrant border of half square triangles mirrors the half square triangles of the basket blocks, thus creating an elegant cohesiveness. To save time, a kit with the exact fabric needed to replicate this quilt is available at  Glorious Color.


Cherry Delight,  61 x 85, by Alex Anderson

Red and white together is such a brisk and breezy color combination, that it's perfect for a summer quilt project. Click on the image to enlarge it, and you'll see a surprise in the center. In addition to patchwork, this quilt contains blocks of redwork embroidered cherries, stems and leaves. Surrounded by nine patch blocks, the baskets with their triangles pointing straight up, are often known as the "cake stand" pattern.  The crisp  outer border of prairie points is the perfect complement to the inner border of white triangles used to set the nine patch on point.   Cherry Delight and dozens of other darling patterns are available from JWD Publishing.


Basket Saturday Sampler, by Alice Kay Arnett

Alice Kay Arnett has done a wonderful job with these 20 different colorful baskets, including several different cherry baskets and cake stands. One of the most charming features of this quilt are the incredibly cute  miniature blue and pink baskets that peek out from the sashing. The flowered border works perfectly to complement the clear red, blue, and green solids used for the basket. For more inspiring quilts, and information on Alice Kay's workshops, visit Alice Kay Quilts.