Scrappy Houses Quilt

Fifteen tiny scrap houses come together into a cheerful quilt top. A pieced border frames the design, and a few bonus block ideas use up any leftover squares. This post covers cutting the house pieces and sewing the little roofs and doors. It also covers arranging the rows and building a two-part border around the finished top.

materials

fabric

• assorted print scraps or fat quarters, at least 5″ [12.7cm] square, for the houses
• background fabric for the roof corners, background squares, and inner border
• fabric for the outer border
• backing fabric
• batting
• binding fabric

thread

• piecing thread
• thread to match the doors for decorative stitching

notions

• rotary cutter and blade
• 5″ square acrylic ruler
• wide ruler for cutting border strips, plus a ruler grip or suction handle
• fabric marking tool
• temporary fabric adhesive glue stick
• tear-away stabilizer
• design wall or flat surface for arranging blocks
• small beads for doorknobs (optional)

Cut the house pieces

Cut assorted print scraps into 5″ squares. Each square makes one house, with enough leftover fabric for a door and a scrap of pieced border.
From every square, cut one 3″ x 5″ strip.
Also cut one 2″ x 5″ strip.
From background fabric, cut two 1¾″ squares per house.
Draw a diagonal line across the back of each one.

Sew the roofs and doors

Stitch a marked background square to the top corner of a 3″ strip, right along the drawn line. Trim away the excess fabric from the background square only, then fold the remaining triangle back and press. Repeat on the other top corner to form a simple peaked roofline. Cut a small rectangle from the leftover 2″ strip for the door. Sizes can vary from house to house, since a bit of variety adds charm.

A dab of temporary fabric adhesive holds each door in place before stitching. Slip a small piece of tear-away stabilizer behind the door, on the wrong side of the block. Stitch around the door with a decorative stitch, such as a blanket stitch. Tear away the stabilizer once the stitching is done. Add a small background square above or below each house, depending on its position in the row. This helps the tops and bottoms of the finished rows line up evenly.

Arrange the rows and add borders

Arrange the finished houses into rows and sew them together. Offset the rows slightly rather than lining up every roofline. This staggered look gives the finished quilt top more visual interest. Trim the top and bottom edges even once all the rows are joined.

A simple inner border comes first. Cut strips of background fabric, then measure the quilt’s length and width. Sew matching strips to the sides, then the top and bottom. Next, add a scrappy pieced border made from the leftover 2″ strips trimmed from the house squares earlier. Sew the strips end to end into four long pieced borders. Attach them the same way as the inner border: sides first, then top and bottom. A final plain outer border, cut wider than the first two, finishes the edge. It gives the whole design a bit of breathing room.

Quilt it and try bonus blocks

Quilt the finished top as desired, then add a few playful finishing touches. A scattering of small beads makes charming doorknobs for the little houses.

Any leftover 5″ squares can become bonus blocks too. Pair two squares right sides together and stitch a seam on one diagonal to make half-square triangles. Or stitch two outer edges together and cut apart to make simple pieced squares. Combine pairs of those pieced squares the same way to build four-patch blocks. Or sew nine squares together into a classic nine-patch, cut it into quarters, and rearrange the pieces into a brand new design.

Original series by Jean Boyd on QUILTsocial.com. Photos by Jean Boyd