The Witch is In 2007
This Saturday I'll be teaching my first class for the Stitchin' Post. It's my first teaching since last fall and it'll be good to get back into it. Welcome to the Neighborhood! is all about how to make liberated houses from simple to complex. I hope my students have as much fun with it as I have! By the way, there's still room if you'd like to join us! Just call the Stitchin' Post.
As I prepare for class I am gathering my samples of house quilts and realized how many I've done! To celebrate, I thought I'd show them here. Above is the first liberated house quilt that I remember doing. It's called The Witch is In and was made with liberated techniques. I really had fun with it and I still think it's a cool quilt, but it's one of my early machine quilted items and boy can you tell! So, don't look too closely.
Ryan's Quilt 2010
Ryan's quilt was really a game changer for me. I felt this was the turning point for me as far as liberated piecing. I never wanted to go back to the traditional stuff. There is just one house in this quilt, because home is so important to a kid.
There's No Place Like Home 2010
There's No Place Like Home is also a very personal quilt. Each house in this quilt represents each of our four family members, plus the dog house and bird cage.
Castle Peeps 2013
Castle Peeps is a favorite that I made with Lizzy House's Castle Peeps novelty print. So much fun! Can you see the dragon in the sky?
Girlfriends detail 2013
Girlfriends has a variety of liberated blocks with this row of houses on the bottom. These are super simple, but oh so cute!
Won't You Be My Neighbor? detail 2013
I made Won't You Be My Neighbor? as a class sample when I was teaching at QuiltWorks. This also has a variety of liberated blocks. Psst: it's for sale!
Oh, and, while doodling around on the internet as I prepared this post, I discovered the Fred Rogers Center. If you scroll down on the home page you'll see a quilt, one of two that was made with the academic hoods from the 43 honorary degrees Mr. Rogers was awarded over the years. Pretty cool!
Welcome to the Neighborhood! 2014
Welcome to the Neighborhood! was made by The Undercover Quilters for the last Stitchin' Post Men Behind the Quilts calendar. I taught the group to make the liberated houses and then put it all together. It was such fun! This quilt was auctioned during quilt week last year and made over $1000!
Spooky Town detail 2014
I made Spooky Town last year in an attempt to use up Halloween scraps. I did a pretty good job with the scrap busting because this thing is two sided and the other side is mostly small scraps.
The Cabin on Squam Lake 2014
The Cabin on Squam Lake is the most recent finish, though the house was actually started in 2009, I believe. I finally finished this one last year and I really love it!
I hope you've enjoyed this journey through time of my liberated house quilts. I've done other house quilts that were either a pattern (only 1 as far as I remember) or were appliqued. I enjoy both ways of doing them and think that house quilts will always be special!