Improv Houses: A Quilty How-To Guide
I finished my wonky house quilt top! It’s by far the most creative project I’ve ever made and I loved every minute I got to spend working on it.
If you haven’t been keeping up with this project, you can catch up on this playlist on YouTube. I filmed several tutorials of the various elements, starting with how to make improv house blocks. And I filmed a vlog style video of the creative process in putting it all together.
But without further ado, here is the finished top!
After so many YouTube viewers showed a ton of love for the wonky house block tutorial I posted there, I decided to create a little zine-style how-to booklet on how to create improv houses! This booklet is available in my Etsy shop right now. Inside is a full guide, written and illustrated by yours truly, for how to make these improv houses, plus how to add all kinds of extra elements, like extra windows, more floors, flat roofs, birds in the sky, and anything else you can dream up.
For those who want to get started right away, or live outside the U.S., I also created a PDF version of the guide! It’s all the same content, but you can print it out or read it from any device. Find that version here in my shop, or on Etsy here.
For a full gallery of the houses I made for my quilt, along with close ups of some of the other elements I included, you can click here.
My plan for this quilt is to hand quilt it (going well so far!) and enter it into the Kentucky State Fair. I’ve never entered a quilt into a fair or contest, so I’m looking forward to that new experience! I also can’t wait to attend the fair and admire the work of all the other entrants, I’m very excited about it.
I hope you’re inspired to try some wonky houses and/or do some improv quilting! This has been my absolute favorite project to date, I just thought the entire process was the most fun stretch of my creativity. I think I’ve finally found my kind of quilting through this project and I’m so inspired to do more quilting-without-a-plan.
Happy Sewing!
Nikki
