Stash Beehive 2 - Tutorial for Velda’s October Block

Hello everyone, I'm Velda at the Freckled Fox Quiltery.  I live with my hubby, two poodle boys and one cranky old tomcat here in beautiful PEI Canada.  Finally, at long long last its October and my month to ask for a quilt block from my hive mates.  Am I excited?  OMGoodness Gracie, Just a tiny bit!

Does it freak you out to try new things?  Me too....but it freaks me out more to be stuck in a soft cushy place where I only do easy comfortable things.  Sew...today I am going to ask you to design and sew a "wonky house" quilt block.  It's paper piecing at its easiest.  And, IMHO, this block will look fabulous in a border around a medallion quilt, or just living large, on its own as a mug rug, or pillow...whatever you like.  From my perspective, the great thing is that every block that arrives in my mailbox is gonna be unique, but the instructions are exactly the same every time.

Trust me, designing a paper-pieced block is as easy as ABC, 123. And don't worry...if this is completely outside your comfort zone, I've added a link to a house block that you can make instead, at the end of this post, but I really really hope you try designing your own.

In the spirit of complete disclosure and giving credit where credit is due, the little picto-toot that follows was inspired by a free wonky house block and tutorial I found online from Sophie Junction.

Lets begin.  Gather your supplies. You'll need a ruler, a pencil, and a sheet or two of printer paper, or any 8 1/2 x 11 paper you have on hand (in case you are having so much fun, you decide to make a couple more...for yourself, of course.

Draw a line across the sheet of paper 8 1/2" down from the top of the page.  Then draw a line 1/4" inch inside from the edge of all four sides.  This gives you the seam allowance for a block that will be 8 1/2" unfinished and 8" finished. Easy Peasy so far, right?

To draw the house outline, add a wonky line about 1/3 of the way down from the top of the block.  Then add the roof lines.  I drew double lines 1/2 inch apart on both sides. (make yours whatever size you want).  Just make sure to bring the roof lines right out to the edges of the block. The next step is to draw the house walls. Check to see if your drawing looks something like this.  If it does, Yay, you've got this!

Next I added another wonky line about an inch or so below the roof line. Then I added the word "HI" below that.  The H becomes a door and a window and the other line just adds texture and interest to the block.  You can add as many or as few lines as you like because there are no real rules for wonky houses.  You gotta love that.

The last step is to identify the sewing order.  It's important to follow the same order as I did in the example below.  So the window is 1, the door is 2, the walls are 3, 4, 5 and 6, the background is 7, 8, 12 and 13.  The top floor is 9 and the roof lines are 10 and 11.  You got it.

YAY, you just drafted a perfectly ahhhsome quilt block that's ready to paper piece. Take a moment right now to imagine how drop dead gawjus it's going to be when you add the fabric.  AND, that's all that is left to do. Seriously!!!

I know you busy bees all know how to paper piece because we have done it already for other Queen Bees, but here is a link you can use if you want a refresher course before you begin.

Paper Piecing - You can do it!

I'm going upstairs right now to sew mine together so I can take a final foto for this picot-toot.    Meet you back here soon....

'k, I'm back and here is my wonky house block....its just a tiny bit haunted, because it is Halloween this month after all.

So, make your house in seasonal colours of your choice. Anything goes.  Don't feel like you have to stick to usual halloween colours.   Mine is crazy and I encourage you to let your inner child out to play with this one.  Make it as scary or not scary as you're comfortable with. I expect to put this together as a halloween wall hanging...fingers crossed that I can share it on Instagram in time for Halloween 2019.

And finally....for those of you who really don't want to try your hand at block design, here is a link to a Craftsy site with a cute little house pattern you can download and make for me instead.

Cute Wonky House. - Don't do it tho, make your own instead

Sew thats it, thats all.  Thanks in advance for all the great sewing you will be doing for me this month.  Happy October.