Crafting has been slow around here and much more conceptual than. . . actual, I guess. I did get a chance to make this little foundation pieced house. It had been in my brain for a bit and it felt so good to get it out. The block is blanket stitched to dark brown felt with loops stitched down with vintage red buttons at the top for hanging. It's just the right size to disguise bills and important mail--it will drive Pete crazy. (Here it is before I knew what to do with it.)
Here's the same fabric on a jar pin cushion. I am embarrassed at how thrilled I was to put this gift together. (The fabric stack and the jar pincushion was the gift, the house pocket I have to keep.) The recipient is a "Lisa", who is getting married, and the L on the little red book there just about killed me. It's the little things. (Here's an easy tutorial on how to make these, via Martha.)
This is the book that put the bee in my bonnet. I gave it to my Mom for Mother's Day and have been obsessing over it ever since. This book has you piecing all the houses, template/patchwork style, which I love to do, but I didn't have the book when I made mine, so instead I just drafted something similar and assembled it foundation style. There's less monkeying with small pieces and it was way more accurate for me.
I am loving these novelty fabrics with the little people/bears/whatever. I was stumped on what to do with these types of prints for awhile, but I kept adding them to my stash. . . and now I can't stop thinking about how to use these sweet little friends.
Some potentially helpful info:
The house book ISBN4-8347-6442-7 (I got it from superbuzzy, it's no longer in stock.) The cute novelty fabric with the people and the apple fabric on the top of the stack behind the glass jar is also from superbuzzy. Foundation piecing is a method I taught in Mailorder #7, which is sold out, but you can read about the technique here. I really, really liked making this house foundation block pattern-it's about 7"x7" and I would love to design more with directions. . .maybe after I sell the bonnet pattern? (Which is due back from the printers next week, so I hope to sell it by the end of this month.)
