My Hillside Houses

     Name: My Hillside Houses

Design:  Hillside Houses by Pretty Little Quilts

Size:  60" by 75"

Fabric: Solids, mostly Kona

Quilted: by me with Aurifil 50 wt in Dove grey, organic waves

Binding:   Kona Berry

Backing:  Shantytown by Kaffe Fasset and some other cobblestone like fabric from the stash

 I was inspired to make this fun quilt when I say Carla's version on her blog this past summer.  And I loved the fabric she used on the back as well.  I have to say, I was a total copycat and used the same fabric on the back and I used lots of purple too. Yep.  Confessions are good for the soul.    I have not been to Newfoundland but Husband has and that is what he thought of when he saw Carla's version.  So... here is mine. This was so much fun to put together.  The hardest part was deciding which colours to use!  I made a big mess of my solids.  A design wall was a must as the blocks have parts of several houses so you have to think ahead about your colour choices. The pattern is a free one that you can download from Craftsy.  The link to the pattern can be found here.   And the pattern has 3 sizes.  This is biggie sized.

I quilted it yesterday in wavy curves that vary in both amplitude and frequency as per Husband's advice.. It was free range walking foot action.  It was a bit of a wrist and arm work out. I looked at a bunch of finished Hillside Houses to see how other people had quilted the pattern and Husband and I thought the waves worked. Let's just say it is the wind. I used Aurifil 50 wt in Dove which worked wonderfully with all the solids. I increased the stitch length to 3.2 because of all the curve action.  I am always surprised but the difference quilting makes in the texture of a quilt.  Somehow that never gets old!  I used Kona Berry for the binding.  It worked perfectly!  I am so pleased with this one.

On the design wall... progress

I kept making blocks all weekend and bing, bang, bam, my hillside village was completed!  I have yet to sew all the blocks together but that will go together quickly.  Honestly, this was so much fun to make and I have to thank Carla at Grace and Favour for the inspiration.  I saw her finished quilt on her blog and I had to make it too!  Anyway.  You can download the free pattern by following the link over at Pretty Little Quilts.  

I had a big messy pile of solids out all over the table.  It was making me crazy so I stuffed them all into a laundry basket.  It was a lot easier to put it all away at the end!

On the design wall: Hillside Houses

Okay.  This is just way too much fun.  Hillside Houses was a quilt along early this year.  I am a bit late to the party but I had a whole lot of fun making houses yesterday and today.  In between power outages.  It has been super wet and super windy.  

This is a free pattern and I am picking out colours as I go along with a bit of inspiration from Carla and Grace and Favour.  I love the addition of purple.  I am making a heck of a mess though as I keep pull solids and messing around with it all.  Have a look.  Mess!