Tips For Making Wee Houses…

If you read my blog then you know that I have set the goal for making TEN houses per month…every month until my quilt top is ‘big enough’.  This is going to take awhile as these houses are small…only 4 1/2” and will finish at 4” when set!  But that’s Ok because  making these wee paper pieced houses is addictive and even FUN!…They are easy to assembly (once you wrap your head around the paper piecing method) and the houses turn out perfect (or as near to perfect as they are ever going to get!)

They look wonky in the picture because they need a good pressing!

The other day I got an email from Lyn from Hemet. I met Lyn last year at the best Quilt Show EVER! Such a lovely and talented lady!!   Lyn wanted to make the houses along with me but the roof line was giving her grief!  It was taking her forever to get the angle just right…and I KNEW exactly what she was taking about!  SEW FRUSTRATING!

My first house gave me grief too…if you look at the template you will see the order that you add the pieces…you start with C1 and then add C2…which means you need a big piece of fabric for the roof to accommodate that awkward angle…and then if you want the roof to be a plaid or a stripe you have that to worry about!  I would pin and check, pin and check, pin and check and still the roof would not cover that space or the stripe would be wonky! (I changed fabrics to a print!)  I even thought I had it covered only to discover, AFTER stitching, that it had shifted slightly and had to be ripped!

Then I had an ‘light bulb moment’…what if we switched the order of placement!!  Pin the ROOF in place first, then the left sky piece!  EUREKA!!  It worked and the roof came together in a snap!  Something as easy as that!

So you lay the roof fabric down first, right side facing down.

Then the sky piece…right sides facing each other and PIN on the stitching line. (I forgot to take a picture of it pinned…pretend that the pin is on the line separating the C2 and C1 piece…;)  This tells you where to stitch…

And stitch…(using a smaller stitch than usual).

Fold back the paper and cut the seam to 1/4”

I do this with a shape pair of scissors but you can use a rotary cutter too.

Then fold back the blue sky piece and press.  This is a huge piece of blue so I will make sure to save the scrap!

Continue down the roof…adding the peak of the roof…and the right sky.  Make sure to cover the whole paper as you have to allow for the 1/4” outside seam allowance.

Done…well almost done!

Take your block to your cutting mat…and trim a quarter inch from the seam line.

Now she is done!!

And here she is…

Here’s another TIP…if you are going to make ONE roof, then you might as well make TEN or more and get an assembly line going!

Lay all of the roofs face down and place the paper on top….

Add the corner piece and PIN…see the pins (pinning is IMPORTANT as it tells you where to stitch…) 

And chain piece…cut, fold, press….

Add the next piece and do it all over again…

And before you know it…the roofs are done!

Make the chimneys in the same manner…(do you like my new slippers?)

I press the seams open….

And eleven very cute roofs are made in a very short time!

So Lyn, I hope this helps you with your problem.  By making this simple little placement change, made the world of difference for me! Creating these roofs is now a joy instead of a chore!  Try it…you will like it!

Please note…I am NOT a paper piecing expert…FAR from it!  But this is working for me and I am just passing on this wee tip!  There are tons of videos ‘out there’ made by the experts!!  Google ‘How to Paper Piece’ and enjoy!

Have a SUNNY Sunday and Happy Stitching!~P