Bee In My Bonnet: Home Town Sew Along - Week Two

"SUNFLOWER HOUSE BLOCK"

Welcome to week two of the

"HOME TOWN"

Sew Along!

Do you have all of your "tools"

together for building a house today?

Together we are making the

Home Town Quilt

75" x 84"

The quilt is made with my fabric

collection called Home Town:)

I hope that you all have all

received your

fabric kits by now...

and that we are all ready to begin!!

If you still need one ...

just do a quick google search for

"Home Town Quilt Kit"

to find shops who still have some left.

We are also using the

Home Town

Sew Simple Shapes

I have already posted the

"BEE PREPARED"

post which details all of the supplies

for the sew along and how it works.

I have also given the link there

for the free PDF Download

of the Sew Along Guide

CLICK HERE

to download the sew along guide

if you have not downloaded yet.

As per usual for the first block in my

Sew Simple Shape Sew Alongs

that FIRST tutorial is a video.

Because I now have my own

YouTube Channel

I have posted the

Flag House Block

Tutorial there.

CLICK HERE

to visit my channel and watch the

tutorial and I hope that you love it!

Pretty please leave me a comment

over there and let me know:)

If you like what you see

and my other videos there...

click on subscribe and click on the bell

to be notified whenever

I post another tutorial:)

Topiary House Block

CLICK HERE

for the tutorial!

Here's the Pineapple House Block
that I showed you
how to make last time:)
CLICK HERE
for that tutorial:)

Today we are building the

Sunflower House!!

Here is a list of the

Home Town

Sew Simple Shapes

needed for this block:

1 - Q-1

1 - Q-3

1 - Q-6

1 - Q-10

6 - Q-15

1 - Q-16

12 - Q-28

2 - Q-33

2 - Q-44

2 - Q-60

You will need prepared

1/4" straight bias strips:

*2 - for the flower stems - 7" long

*2 - for chimney tops - 1 1/2" long

after both ends are pressed under.

You will need a prepared 3/8"

straight strip for above

the front door roof trim

one should measure 3" long

after both ends are pressed under

and the other should measure 2 3/4"

after just one end is pressed under.

You will need a 1" prepared

straight bias strip for the front porch.

Press both ends under and

it should now measure 2 1/2" long after.

Cut your background

14" x 16"

and sew it to the 3 1/2" x 16" grass

pressing the seams open.

Now press in half for

pinning and glue basting your block:)

Grab your tools and let's start building!!

Before you sew the Q-60 Planter shapes
you will need to sew the fabrics together.
Use a 1/4" seam allowance and
press the seams open.

You can tell where the darker fabric
strip needs to go...
now sew the shape as per usual!

Sew all the rest if the shapes and trim.
Before turning clip the cleavage areas
in the sunflowers and planter sides.

All turned...shaped and pressed:)

Now let's go build our house!

The first thing that I did was
to glue some of the shapes together
before pinning them to the design board.
I glued the strips on top of the chimneys
and the centers onto the sunflowers.
I glued on the door and the front
porch roof strips.
I also glued the front porch about
1/4" up onto the bottom of the door
and the window about 3/8" above the door.
I used my ruler to center everything.

Back view:)

The house, roof and chimney together
measure about 11 3/4" tall.

The chimneys are 1 1/4" taller
than the roof
and placed about 1/2"
in from the top corners.

Measure in 2" from each side
of the house and glue the door piece.

Next place the house directly in the center
of the block using your pressed crease
to line it up...and place the bottom
of house 3/4" into the grass.

I placed the planters so that the top
of that dark strip on each one
lines up with the top of the
grass line... and about 3/8" away
from the sides of the house.

I placed the top windows even with the
top of the center window above the door
and the placed the bottom windows
1/2" down from the top windows.

The windows are in 5/8"
from the sides of house:)

Now let's get those sunflowers
into the planters!

The stem should be 5 1/2" long
from the top of the planter to the
bottom of the sunflower.

Repeat for the other side:)

The leaves are placed 1 1/4" in
from the outside of fabric.
The left side top leaf is 1/4" down
from the sunflower and the right side
bottom leaf is 1/4" up from the planter.
All leaves on each side of the stem
are placed 1/4" apart and 1/4"
away from the side of the house.

Repeat for the sunflower
on the right side of the house:

Now you can Sue Glue everything down
and then check your measurements
using the 14 1/2" Trim-It Ruler.
YaY!
My Sunflower House is built...
with flowers planted and
it's ready for applique!!!!

Afterwards I'll press from the back and
trim down to 14 1/2" square:)

I included a house with sunflowers
because it seemed like in the summertime
there were always sunflowers everywhere
you looked in my hometown.
They were always growing wild on
the side of the roads too because
sunflowers easily re-seed themselves.
They are such a cheerful flower
they always made me happy!

Each year my Dad planted giant
sunflowers across the front borders of
our very large vegetable garden.
I remember that we loved watching
them grow higher and higher and
wondering how tall
they would actually get!!
We also loved to harvest the seeds and
to make feeders for the birds
from the giant sunflower heads:)
I've carried on Dad's tradition
and plant sunflowers around my veggie
garden borders to this day!