Build a Scrappy House in 2012

"Friends are the fruit cake of life - some nutty, some soaked in alcohol, some sweet - but mix them together and they're my friends."


I read this the other day, can't remember where now, but I loved it.  And in honor of my friends I thought me might just play together a bit every day. 


We sit and watch Whose Line Is It Anyway every night.  I have seen them a thousand times but they are still hilariously funny.  When I watch TV however, I must be doing something else.  I used to crochet with cotton thread the little things like doilies and edgings.  But I can't see that close anymore. 

I have done quilling with paper, cutting up my scrap leftovers, studying, reading and cooking while watching TV.  Paying bills, massaging a dog or two or three.  But I digress.

 



Lately, I would do handwork like bindings.  I had several quilts stacked up waiting to be bound.  Then last year I hand quilted the Lemon Lime Quilt.  All done now, I put the Blue Jean Quilt together and got red cotton to hand quilt it with.  But I can't seem to find the red.

So now I use my IPad to surf the quilting sites or play word games while I watch.  And I came across this fabulous blog about building houses out of scraps in 2012.  Jeanneke is from the Netherlands and came up with the idea of doing a house a day and a larger house on Leap Day.  Her quilt is fabulous.  And I immediately lusted after one like it.  I am SOOOOO in this project.

If anyone would like to join me in this I can set up a linky thing to allow you to link your houses for the week to one place and we could show off our work on a set day each week.  Like Judy L does with her Stash Report and the Design Wall. 

The blocks are 3 inches by 3 inches and are just regular houses.  Some people are paper piecing them, some are hand sewing them, some are doing it the machine way.  Some are making them a bit larger.  I think you should practice on a couple and see if you like them this small.  One person said she could not work with that size and upped hers to 5 inches using EQ technology. 

Jeanneke said if you do a three inch block, you can get all 5 house piece from a 5 inch charm square.  That is an incentive to do it small. 

The houses can be done in any fashion you want them.  Scrappy like this one.  All one color, it would be breathtaking in rainbow pattern or even one color on brilliant white.  You decide.  Controlled colors, or not.  You are the contractor. 

If you want to sashing and cornerstones to be all the same fabric then you can set it aside now or wait till you get a grouping and see what you want it to be.  I am unsure right now, so I guess I will wait.  I do like her black sashing though......

If you want to be WOWed, check out her quilt.  That is what I am lusting after!

http://buildinghousesfromscraps.blogspot.com/

Jeanneke will start on Jan 1, 2012.  I plan to follow along and group with you here, because the end date to sign up on her blog was 12-15-11.  I can post back to her blog with our main link so we will be involved.  Do you have any idea how many people are in her group?  over 1200.  Yes.  All those zeros!

You can get her pattern in a link on the side bar and she does have an English translation pattern. 

So, join me in building a house a day for the next year.  It will be spectacular!  You bet!

glen