Building a House

What did you do this week? I built a house.......no really, I did! I even built it from the roof down. Oh, OK, I will explain myself.

It was a WIP week for me and while I was stitching away on The Avenue for my Edwardian House quilt I suddently got the urge to piece the finished blocks together. The Avenue is one of the border stitcheries and I have finished all the blocks that make up the house itself so I got them all out and began cutting them to size so I could sew them together in rows. For some reason, I started with the attic row which is how I ended up building my house from the roof down!

It didn't take long to measure, cut and sew the different levels together and before too long I had the makings of a house.

With the rows laid out, I started to sew them together.  I thought it best to do it this way to make sure the rows where the same length and the walls lined up with each level.  I wasn't too happy with the attic row but maybe I could fudge it in somehow.

I was really thrilled to get this part together but something just didn't look right. Not sure if you can notice in the above picture.  I made so certain that the walls lined up on each level and suddenly the drainpipe did not look right.  How can that be?  I followed the stitching plan exactly and it didn't look like that on the pattern picture.  I didn't know quite how to fix this problem and it was bothering me.  Need a closer look?

It just so happened that Miss M came over for a visit and, as usual, had a peek at what I had been sewing.  She spotted the dratted drainpipe straight away which bothered me even more . We were chatting about how odd it looked and where I could of possibly gone wrong......and then suddenly I had one of those "Duh" moments.  I had sewn two of the rows together incorrectly and so now I had to demolish part of my house.

 Since I had the demolition tool out, I also took the attic blocks apart and built them back together with a slightly narrower seam......aaaah, thats better. Carefully, I put the house back together and here it is with a border as well.........................so much happier now!

I cannot add anymore until I finish the stitched borders.  I chose not to buy the buttons as part of the BOM and the stitched borders have cornerstones that are just a piece of fabric with a button in the centre. I felt the quilt needed a little more if I was not using the buttons.  FNSI came along and I decided to spend it making my own cornerstones out of two of the fabrics bought for this project.

For the first time EVER, my calculations worked out perfectly and I made up 4 cornerstones that look something like this. With that done, I returned to The Avenue Stitchery and finished it so  it is also ready to add to the quilt.

I am linking up to FNSI over at Sugerlane Quilts. 

and BOMs Away at What a Hoot Quilts