This is part of a year-long series of posts about the quilts from Modern Patchwork. I'm highlighting a different quilt each month, and will be remaking each of the book quilts in some way.
This month, the featured quilt from Modern Patchwork is Neighborhood, which appears on Pages 34 - 41. I'm getting a late start, so it's fitting that the Neighborhood quilt pattern is perfect for adapting to a small project like the pillow I'm making.
The Neighborhood quilt features 12 single-story patchwork houses on the front and 1 three-story patchwork house on the back. Each of the houses has a little window in the middle and those windows can provide a lot of fun piecing opportunities.
In the book quilt, I used fussy-cut pieces of an Echino print in the center/window of each house.
In this version that I made using Violet Craft's Madrona Road fabric, I used the prints to make the rest of the houses and put a vibrant solid fabric in each of the windows.
Another great option, which I'm using for my pillow, is to use fussy-cut needlework in each of the windows.
I cross stitched "Home Sweet Home" with a little heart on aida cloth and then cut the piece down to the appropriate size. You could easily do something similar with embroidery. If you're a collector of vintage linens, this could also be an interesting way to use fussy-cut parts of partially-damaged pieces.
Regardless of how many of these blocks you plan to make, I'd like to share a tip for creating the template. The pull-out pattern page includes a house shape that is intended to be traced onto translucent template plastic, placed over the pieced houses, and used as a guide for cutting the roof.
Because the peaked roof is the only part that needs to be cut, and because it's a 90° angle, you can bypass making a template by getting creative with a 12½" square ruler and some blue painter's tape. Here's how:
- Open up the pattern page on your work table.
- Place the square ruler on top of the Neighborhood template pattern, aligning one of the corners of the ruler with the peaked roof.
- Use pieces of blue tape to mark the sides and bottom of the house, making sure that it's the outside of the tape that's lined up with the pattern lines.
- Trim the tape so that it's even with the edges of the ruler.
Note: As you can see in the photo, you won't be able to catch the bottom corners of the pattern shape. As you'll see in the subsequent photos, this is totally fine.
Once you've completed the Houses section of Making the Blocks (on Page 38 of Modern Patchwork), lay the marked ruler on top of one of your blocks, lining up the outside edges of the blue tape with the sides and bottom.
Hold your ruler in place and use your rotary cutter to cut the peaked roof. Starting from Step 2 of the Roofs section on Page 38, continue with the instructions as written to finish the block. Easy!
These blocks finish at 11" x 15". I added a border of my background fabric (Essex yarn-dyed cotton/linen in Black) to make the finished piece 19" x 19". You can see in this photo how using a dark fabric for the roof and window frame can change the look.
I plan to use more of the floral print for the pillow's back and will show you more of that in a couple of days!
