Next up was to add some mortar to the mix. It was very
difficult choosing a color – I wanted to keep it neutral to
help highlight the focus prints, I wanted it to be somewhat realistic and I eventually went with a gray.
So now that I had the mortar color picked out, I had a
couple of other issues that I had to take care of that involved piecing and pressing.
Although real bricks wouldn’t have exactly matched up
from row to row, I wanted my bricks to match. So I used a
chalk pencil to mark where the seams for each row should
go in order to have the bricks in alternating rows line up
properly.
Next up was the pressing. If you look at the mortar on a
brick house, you’ll notice that it recedes from the surface
of the bricks. In order to replicate that look, I had to press
the seams away from the mortar to make it recede from
the bricks (focus fabric). That meant I had to press the
seams back against all those cross seams. This is the opposite to how I would have pressed it, but I was going for
a certain effect and so those seams were pressed that way.
I like to use steam when I press so it wasn’t a big deal, and
I was very happy with the end result. A very very subtle
effect, but it’s something that I would notice (hey – I like
small details!) Do you see how flat my seam allowances
are? A little steam will do wonders!
The house
I had been pondering how to incorporate a house into
the bricks. Initially, I was going to put a small house into
one (or several) of the bricks, but after chatting with a very
creative thinker (Tish), she suggested that I build the house
bigger with the bricks.
I looked through the fabric pieces and YES – there was a
way to make the house fit that approach and so the house
was built into the bricks.
That created a new dilemma – how to maintain the
mortar pattern through the house. I wanted the house
to be subtle – but if I had used the gray fabric, the house
wouldn’t have been noticeable at all as all the prints are
very busy. So I changed the color of the mortar so that the
house would be more noticeable. But then what to do
with the sides of the house?
No design effort goes off without collaboration. My
daughter (who is the same age as the recipient) and I were
discussing the mortar (sashing) and we both agreed that
the gray had to be incorporated to make the house noticeable. I won’t tell you how many times I had to measure
and remeasure to get those pieces replaced. Don’t forget
to add a quarter inch seam allowance – DUH!
The windows and doors were cut from one of the fabrics
in the line Tim Holtz (Eclectic Elements) and fused in place.
Then outlined with a satin stitch.
I’ve had discussions related to the stories that people
dream up about their quilts. Do they think of everything
Abandoned house near Spinney Hill, Saskatchewan
before the quilt is made or do they make the story up after
the quilt is done? I do a bit of both. I really have a hard time sitting down and planning all the details out – I just let it happen
which has driven everyone I w