I have to say that I didn’t see House as the next block. But, I must admit that I was pleasantly surprised at how cute the block is. I giggled a little inside when reading the line about the nursery rhyme. I hadn’t remembered it at all until reminded.
Block #8 ~ The House
When the quilt club members saw the pattern for the “H” block in the alphabet house they burst out laughing. “Of all things, Nancy. We might have known you would remember that nursery rhyme. ‘There was a crooked little man and he lived in a crooked little house.’ It’s a crooked one, all right.”
It might have been crooked, but it went straight to the heart of Joan. She could hardly wait until Aunt Nancy had finished it.
The first thing Nancy did was to cut the paper pattern square from the newspaper. Then she cut the square of soft white gingham, making it one-quarter inch larger on all sides.
By holding this over the newspaper pattern and laying it flat against the window pane, she was able to trace the pattern onto the cloth. She used a sharp hard lead pencil.
Then she pasted the newspaper square onto a piece of light weight card board or tag board. While this was drying under pressure she took her green embroidery cotton and outlined the letter H. Nancy used green to match the connecting pieces of green which put the blocks together. Had she been using pink, blue, lavender or pale blue she would have chosen the embroidery cotton to match. She used dark brown embroidery cotton to outline the window panes and to represent the earth upon which the crooked house stood. But before she was ready to make those outlines she had other things to do. She chose a fast color print in blue and white for the house itself. The chimney was of soft terra cotta or brown. The sun was yellow, the same shade as was used in making the beak of the goose last week.
When the newspaper square was dry she cut the outline separating the sun and the chimney from the house. She paid no attention to the door and windows at this time.
In cutting these pieces she allowed one-quarter inch on all sides for turning under.
After edges were turned under and basted she pressed the pieces and then pinned them in place on the white block. First the sun went on and was appliqued with slanting invisible hemming stitch. Then the chimney was put in place.
When it came time for the house Nancy had a number of choices. She could cut out the openings for door and windows, allowing the white of the background block to show through. She could applique white pieces in place for door and windows, or she could keep the windows white and have the door of a solid color.
Some of the club members did one thing and some did the other. It seemed as if each scheme was as effective as the other.
The window panes were indicated by running stitch in fast color embroidery cotton. The door knob was embroidered with a large French knot.
The little outstanding flowers were done in lazy daisy stitch. These were done In various colors to suit the fancy of the workers. Most of the members felt that this was the prettiest block made thus far.
Edmonton Journal. (December 7, 1929). Nancy Page Alphabet quilt block #8 – the house – with words. Newspapers.com. Retrieved October 6, 2024, from https://www.newspapers.com/article/edmonton-journal-nancy-page-alphabet-qui/156644100/
If you’d like to purchase all of the alphabet quilt blocks as a block-of-the-month-club, you can do that here. This is NOT an affiliate link.
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