Final 3 Canal Houses

Here are the last three houses in my row - the far right one is again, one I made myself. A lot of people have commented on the houses and asked questions about them - if you click on the tag "fractured canal houses" at the bottom of this post, it will take you through the history of the project - scroll all the way to the end of those tagged posts and you will see the original picture which inspired the row of houses and the line drawing from which we all worked to make sure our houses were consistent and aligned properly.

It will probably be a while before I get them all sorted out, joined up, embellished, what have you, but I will blog progress as and when...

More canal houses

Here's the second section of houses - D (which is my own one) through to H (G&H are actually one unit, though they weren't going to be, initially). One more group to show, perhaps tomorrow, and then, well, it's going to take a little thought how I want to quilt them...

First of the Canal Houses

One of the things sitting waiting for me to photograph and blog are the canal houses that I got back from the project - here are the first three - and they are great (so are all the others, mind you) - I am really pleased with all the pieces I received. Now, I just have to work out how I will quilt them. And when!

Canal Houses - Done!

Today I worked on the last two houses, as well as finishing up the top-stitching on the ones which hadn't been done before. So, that's it. Here's a photo of as much of them as I can show at once - the two end ones have been cut off a little because I simply can't get far enough away from it to show the whole thing (even by standing on the coffee table and holding the camera over my head). God knows where I'm going to hang it when I get all my bits and eventually attach it all together. But I'm sure I'll figure out something...

In the end, I will get two of my own houses back - not sure which two, though I think we are all getting House A back. Originally it was only going to be one of our own back, but someone had to withdraw, so now it will be too. The hostess kindly said I could specify which one if there was one I really wanted, but looking at them all again, I can't make up my mind - I like them all!



These two are today's complete additions - the others have all been shown to some degree before. It's been a fun project, but I have to say, I am very glad to have finally finished.

Canal House/ATCs

Another Canal House - only two more to go (and stitching down a few which are only fused at the moment). Think I might actually make the end of November deadline!

I also made some ATCs today - I've made a lot of ATCs lately, but haven't blogged them all as I thought it might be kinda boring, especially as most of them aren't fibre based. Today's were an exception, though - I decided to work in fabric and thread on these...




The swap was a pick-a-theme swap, which means that although there were only 4 cards, each was different - definitely harder than a standard swap, where I tend to make similar cards for all three or four in the swap. It's not that the actual construction takes longer, but the coming up with ideas certainly does. Above, the chosen theme was (have you guessed?) Sunflowers and blackbirds.




This one was sun, and below, kites or kite-flying. The sun is made with an Angelina base, with stitching on top; below, I have used Angelina as a background over the blue fabric.




Although it scans better than it photographs, it's still really hard to get the effect of Angelina if you can't see it in person.

Finally, Summer Treats (e.g. ice cream, etc) - no idea what flavour these ice creams might be, but I'm sure they are yummy.



Anyone interested in seeing (some of) the ATCs I've been making lately, I have a Flickr Set of ones currently available to swap...

Lots of sewing

That's my kind of day :) I worked on another canal house today - here are all the ones I've done to date together - there are 3 more to go (and the latest three do still need to be sewn down) and then I'm finished. I've enjoyed this project, and look forward to seeing what I will get in return in the fullness of time.



Here's a closer view of the house I worked on today - it's quite a wide one and completes the bridge in the centre of the piece. By the time I finish this set of houses, I won't have any blue hand-dyes left in my stash.

Also today, I worked on my Stay-at-home Robin - first added Round 4 to the black and batik piece - though I'm not convinced that it wouldn't look better on the right hand side of the other blocks - I am going to try unsewing it and stitching it back on the right and see if I like it better.



I also decided, finally, to go ahead and make a second piece for the Stay-at-home Robin - I had been toying with it since the beginning, but hadn't quite got around to it yet. Finally today I decided to go ahead. This one is something quite different, using Japanese taupes - we'll see how it goes.

More houses

Couldn't resist doing some of these wonky houses, this time with whatever colour sky I happened to have enough fabric of to hand. I will sash these and then it will become a baby quilt top. I love these little houses and will definitely do more in future - they are really easy. The only hard thing is trying to work out what fabric you want to put where...



I also had time to do another of the canal houses - House F. Only four more to go - and of course, neither E nor F has actually been sewn together yet, just fused.

House sewing day...

A row of canal houses - the latest, Canal House E, isn't technically sewn yet, but I did cut out all the pieces and fuse them down. Sewing later! Don't they look fun together? Of course, mine won't be all together, but it does give you the general idea...



Here's House E on its own. The fabric for the house and the water both came from great fabric I got from Vicki when I saw her this summer in the US. There is still some left of both fabrics for me to play with (as well as the third FQ, which is blue and orange together and which I adore), but I felt they both really suited this house...



And a few more houses, here - these are for the September block lotto, and while looking at the photos, I realised I forgot to put the right hand side of the house on these - the windows are right against the side of of the house. Will have to fix that tomorrow! But I love these little houses, which are in the style of Tonya R, and they are a doddle to make. I won't do any more for the lotto, as those require a turquoise background (which I promise you these both are, despite what it may look like on screen) and I have run out of turquoise solid/tot. I do think they'd make a great baby quilt though, perhaps with a consistent sky but otherwise, totally scrapbasket. Or perhaps with all kind of sky colours! Another project for The List...

Canal House D

This time around, I decided to do the edges of the windows, doors, window frames, house top, etc by couching yarn down with a zigzag stitch - this worked well, and wasn't too labour intensive. I might well use this method again on another house. Ta da!



I did some other sewing today, as well, but as I know I have another week of no sewing during the week (working both morning and afternoon), I will save the photos for a little later in the week. I also have an update on the Stay At Home Robin - at least 3 people have shared their starter blocks with me, so I'll blog about that - and maybe a cross-stitch update, too. So, a little better than last week, which was a bit of a desert on the blog...

Fireworks!

I don't know where my brain is, as I obviously should have posted this either on the 4th of July, or on the 1st of July when it was no longer secret what the blocks for the July block lotto were going to be. But then again, if I had, I might have nothing to show for today. Though I could take a photo of my cross-stitch, which I haven't showed in a while.

It's been a busy week, and I haven't sewed much (at all), though today I did finally get a chance to start stitching the windows down on the canal house. Hopefully I will finish that tomorrow and be able to show it - and then, another week of work! Whose idea was this whole work stuff, anyway?
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Canal House D

Here's another Canal House - this one isn't finished, as I've not done any sewing, but I have at least placed the pieces onto the stabiliser so I can work out what I want to do next. I think I might try couching some yarn down to do the windows, but again, not totally sure - will have to play with it!

The water is from a piece of fabric which I got in the post yesterday, as a wrapping for this bracelet, which I bought from Michelle's etsy shop. The minute I saw the fabric I though - canal house water, for sure. The sky is supposed to be a sky at sunset (or sunrise, perhaps) - I think it works ok, though I was a little unsure about having quite so much pink in the sky!

Canal House C

This is the third house in the row - a canal house with a boat parked in front - makes sense! The house looks a little strange in the photo because of the 1/2" seam allowance on the sides - the edge of the roof is the edge of the house.



I decided to do the windows using Angelina this time - I made a piece of "fabric" from the fibres and then cut out the rectangles. This is fairly effective and not too fiddly; I might use it again in whole or in part for more windows. Our "required fabric" - the one we have to use a piece of in every house, I used for the outside of the boat in this house. I am trying to use it in a different place in each house, but I may run out of places before the end... The fabric I used for the body of the house is a piece of rust-dyed fabric (which someone else dyed).

This is a nice project to work on over a long time - because I am doing the houses one a time I am pretty much making them up as I go along (following the pattern of the house, of course) - mostly based on what fabric I can find that makes a suitable water and/or sky. I think the next one might have a pieced sky, as I found a nice bit of water fabric, which is big enough not to need to be pieced. I haven't done a pieced sky yet, so that will make a nice change. As for the windows, who knows - the only thing I know is that the more of them I can do in a way different from House A (appliqued frames - all that satin stitching!), the better.

Canal House C

Finally got a chance to do some work on the next canal house in the row - this one has a boat parked in front of it, so the photo shows the water (which is pieced, not heavily, but with some gentle curves - both because it looks nice and because the fabric was in a long strip), the sea wall, pavement and boat. The house I have yet to tackle. Have to think about how I want to do all those windows!

Maths pillows

Yep, that's the excitement of my sewing day - covering some cushions with a mathematical-shape-themed fabric (question: who makes this fabric and why?). Ok, to be fair, I did do a few other things - I made binding for my arty quilt and attached it - I will sew it down later this week while watching telly, etc.

And I cut out the next house (just the paper bit) in the row of canal houses, with a hope of starting it later this week as well. I pulled out some fabric for the water, too, though I haven't sewed anything yet. Not sure what I'm doing with this one, but thought I'd start with a little wavy water (going to sew the pieces together in curves).

And that was it - lots of free time today, but mostly, I just sat in the sun and read. Because who knows how many days there will be to do just that?

Canal House B, finished

Here's the second canal house, finished. Today I sewed down the bits that weren't sewed. It's totally different from the first one, but I like both. The big question now is what the third one will be like - no plans yet. I am basically picking a piece of fabric I like and going from there.

Canal House B

I decided to take a different approach to Canal House B - frankly, I'm making them all up as I go along, so I think every one will be different. But anyway, this one was inspired by a sponge I was about to throw away, when I suddenly thought - hey, I could make a stamp from this. It was quite a soft sponge, so the possibilities were a bit limited, but I thought I could probably get away with making windowframes from it, and as it happens, I could. This saves me the effort of stitching down a number of window frames on this piece, as well! The water and sky (better photos of those later) are both single pieces of fabric, as is the house - again, a better photo later when the piece is dryer and I have the sidewalk and canal walk added in and the bits sewn together. I just wanted to show this in progress as I am trying to get my blog posts to publish automatically on my facebook profile, and I wanted to test if it works or not!

Canal House A: Finished

So, all the bits are sewn down now, which brings Canal House A to a finish. Guess it's time to start thinking about Canal House B. Though not tomorrow, as I think I shall drag the kids up to town and force them to see the V&A quilt exhibit, lol.

Canal House again

The main thing I did today, I can't show on the blog (quilted a round robin), so I thought it was time to drag out the canal house again - I have now stitched down almost all of the windows - soon it will be on to the door, then sidewalk, canal wall and water. And then, on to the next house. Not sure what I will do yet for that one, but I have a few ideas - vague ones, at least. I'm sure they will all end up very different as I am just playing each one by ear and letting them speak to me as I work. I'm also trying not to dye any new fabric for this project (I might do a little painting or printing) so what I have in my stash will limit my choices - but not a lot, as I do have quite a stash! It's possible I may run low at some point, in which case I will dye, but frankly, I think it's unlikely, even with the blue issues for sky and water - the houses, of course, can be anything I like!

Momiji

Today was one of those days where it seems impossible that I got done all the things I got done - doncha love those days? They sure beat their opposites, the ones where you can't work out just what on earth you spent the entire day doing...

Alex and I had a quick trip to the Farmers' Market, first thing (by which I mean, 9am - it doesn't open until then), then I came home, did some sewing, had lunch, took Olivia and a friend over to a birthday party, came back, helped the others clean out the shed (a major spring undertaking), went to the park with Alex & some friends for an hour or so - and that was all before coming home to have dinner and watch the new Dr Who (which is on at the inconvenient time of 6.15 - really must update my television so I don't have to watch things when they are actually ON!).

Anyway. The sewing involved doing some of the satin stitching on the first canal house - not highly exciting to show, so will update later, when I have more of it done - and then making a set of ATCs using some of the spotty fabric I got from Karol-Ann the other day and a set of Japanese doll stickers (which are called Momiji, apparently, hence the title) I picked up at (I think) the V&A giftshop quite a while back. I found them during my tidy up and decided they really needed to be used in something. A few buttons and flowers and hey presto! I think they are really sweet, and they'll be good to put aside for birthday ladies in my ATC swap in a busy month, when I don't have time to make a set specially, which I'm sure will happen.

House A

I did some more work on the first canal house today - nothing is sewn down yet, only fused, in case I want to move something. I'm not sure I want to do that, but I do want to put some sort of border around the door so it shows up more. The piece looks a little strange at the moment as I have folded under the seam allowance along the sides of the house (this was to help with the window placements), but on the whole, I think it works fairly well. Once I'm sure I'm happy with the bits, I will start stitching it down a bit.