About a week and a half ago, in the middle of the night, I had this idea for a paper pieced quilt. An outline of a house, in black with different tones of blue as the background. Luckily I’ve been finally keeping a habit of having notebooks all over the house, so I jotted it down real quick and went back to bed (you can see the original sketch in the above left photo).

The next morning I woke up before CT and went straight to my computer, I drafted a paper pieced pattern so I could test out my idea. I was very happy with the results, and as you can see from the photo on the right above, it worked!! I was so excited I set out to make 24 more!

Well, after searching through my fabric stash, I just couldn’t find 24 fabrics that matched the first one I did. So I narrowed it down to 12 total. I made each house block 10″ square, which meant I should end up with a quilt about 30″x40″ if I didn’t add a border, and a bit bigger if I did.

I spent a few days finishing up the other 11 blocks, doing four at a time (I feel like I get up to iron less and it takes less time, to me). I was on a roll and was set out to finish this quilt as soon as I could. So last Tuesday I finished all 12 blocks! I laid them out on the floor and didn’t quite like the set up as all house outlines. So I turned a few around, and a couple upside down, and ended up with a bunch of arrows pointing all different directions. Perfect!! I also decided at that point that I was going to add 2″ white strips in between all of the blocks and a 2″ white border around the entire edge. Now it was 40″x50″, a nice lap sized quilt. I needed one of those.

I pieced and quilted the entire thing Wednesday afternoon, and then added binding Friday Morning. I took photos Saturday, and here I am on Monday showing you all my finished quilt…

I’m calling it the “Which Way Is Up” quilt.

I LOVE the way it came out, and I love that each time I use the pattern it will be a totally different quilt! I can subtract the white and do all solids, so the arrows (or houses) will be subtle and surprise you! or I can switch the white and the patterned fabrics? Or I could be super crazy and actually have them all houses!! Ha.

Well, I’m so interested to see all of the different ways you could make this quilt too, so you can find the pattern in my shop!

I’m not including instructions on how to paper piece. I have no idea how to write it out in words… Yet.  If you’ve never tried it, I suggest searching for some videos on YouTube, that’s how I taught myself. Fresh Lemons Quilts blog also has a great tutorial if your not into watching videos.

If any of you do make a project using this pattern, I would love to see it (and maybe even share it on here).

I feel like I’m on a quilting kick now, so expect to see more sewing and a bit less of everything else…

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