Tuesday 6 August 2013

Tutorial for Tuesday - 4 Houses Cushion



Do you have some layer cakes squares left over or some fat eight's or even scraps that you want to use up? This 24"pillow/cushion project might just be of interest. I had great fun making this so thought I'd write it up as my first project based tutorial.

I used 12 layer cake squares and some background fabric to make this and have enough left over for another set of roofs to make a matching pair of cushions. If you go with matching roofs it's possible to do this with even less fabric squares.



I have downloadable piecing instructions here including how to make the half rectangle triangles for the roof. Otherwise step by step instructions are below with lots of photos!

I stacked the four layer cake squares together that I wanted for the houses and cut 3 rows 2.5" wide and the remaining 1.5" wide.

  1. The first row is for the windows and doors. Sub cut two 2.5" squares and one 2.5" x 3.5 rectangle.
  2. Sub-cut row 2 into one 2.5" square and four 2.5" x 1.5" rectangles for the window sashing.
  3. Cut row 3 into two rectangles 2.5" x 4.5" long
  4. Lastly take row 4 and cut 2 rectangles 1.5" x 4.5" long
Lay out as follows and mix and match windows and doors for a nice contrast


I chain pieced the sashing on either side of the windows first, then the top and bottom. There will be 2 of these House units per house.

 Sew the mantel to the door and sew a House unit on either side of the door unit.
For the roofs you will need 2 rectangles 5.5" x 6.5" in background fabric and 2 in patterned fabric matching or in the same colour way .
Place BGF and one of the patterned squares right sides together. Mark a quarter inch from top and bottom and draw a diagonal line from mark to mark.
Repeat for the second matching rectangles but the slope going in the opposite direction. This is important to get a left hand half rectangle triangle and a right hand one to make the roof.



Cut along this line through both rectangles. You only need one of each for each house.



Take a BGF triangle and a patterned triangle and lay them right sides together like this. Yes it looks wonky but this is correct!

Put the remaining aside for a second house or cushion if you don’t want matching roofs. Sew with a 1/4" seam along the long edge.

I chain pieced them to speed up the process.

Do the same for the opposite sloping triangles. You should have 4 of each kind. Press the seams and open.



Match up right to left hand triangles to make the roof.

These rectangles are oversized and will need to be trimmed down. I squared up the short edge where I am sewing them together and trimmed the whole roof down afterwards. It is easier to do this to keep the point at the roof top.
Trim to 10.5" x 4.5" keeping 1/4" at the top. Don't worry if this doesn't work out. I clipped points and the roof still looks great when its all put together.
Attach the roof to the House body. Don't do what I did and attach the roof to the bottom of the house! Dope that I am I did this and didn't notice until I had the whole thing quilted. It's my cushion and I can live with a wonky version! 

Attach 2 houses together to form a row - yes this is the house I sewed the roof to the wrong side! So now you know not to do it like me!


Cut 4 strips from the background fabric 9.5" x 2.5" and sew to either side of the 2 row of houses.
Cut 3 strips 25" x 2.5" for sashing between rows and top and bottom of the rows.

And you should have a finished cushion top measuring 24.5" square.

I layered with wadding/batting & utility fabric and quilted using this stencil pattern:




I made a simple envelope cushion with 2 pieces of fabric measuring 24.5" x 18" (instructions in the piecing pattern). You can trim to 24" if you want a plumper fit.  And here's my wonky version! Hope you like this project!






3 comments:

  1. So cute!! I love the houses. Nice tutorial too!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Kimberly. I think I'm addicted to pieced house projects. I love Full House by Miss Rosie's Quilt company and Suburbs by cluck Cluck Sew as well!

      Delete
  2. Hello, thank you for the tutorial.
    I like houses in quilts too. Have you seen Third Street Neighborhood by Esch House Quilts and their free pattern Neighborhood Charm for the Moda Bake Shop?

    ReplyDelete

Comments are most welcome! I reply by email or within the thread if you are a noreply blogger so check back. Thanks.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...