A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood . . .

. . . my Uptown Funk neighborhood, that is, which now has doors and a few windows:

I wanted the long skinny doors to really stand out, like rays radiating from a sun, so I cut them all from black and green solids. I thought the effect might be diluted if I used prints.

I was planning to use the same solid fabrics for windows. If you look at the Dresden Neighborhood pattern by Kim Lapacek that my neighborhood is based on, you’ll see that all the buildings have doors and windows:

My plan changed when I happened upon a piece of fabric in my stash of a cityscape with a variety of windows — in the perfect color combo of black, white, and green. Of course I had to audition them! I fussycut just a few sets of windows and placed them randomly around the circle of houses.

The windows weren’t printed on the straight of grain so they’re all a little bit wonky. Perfect for my wonky little neighborhood. Here’s a close-up:

Oh, and see the little chimney? It’s the only one in the neighborhood. It’s covering up the smudge of dirt I pointed out in my previous post about this project. I stitched around the base of the chimney with black thread so it would stand out a bit more, and I also added a row of black stitching around the roof. I stitched around the other four roofs that had a lot of white in them after noticing that they blended into the background fabric too much.

I’m thinking windows on only five of my houses may be enough. What do you think?

 

 

 

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6 Responses to A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood . . .

  1. Glenna C Denman says:

    I love your little chimney to cover the smudge you had mentioned! And yes, I agree, just windows on a few houses. Your design rocks!

  2. Diane says:

    Well this is very cha cha! Hooray for the smudge because the chimney is so cute! As for the windows, I leave that to your brilliant creativity.

  3. Jeanne says:

    The fabric with windows is perfect!
    And yes, I do think you have the right number of windows. It looks good.
    The chimney is a brilliant solution.
    Such a cheerful quilt! Now you just need a black cat with green eyes to accent it, by lying on it.

  4. Sandy Vick says:

    The windows are perfect and add so much interest. It looks like you’re enjoying the process.

  5. Margaret says:

    Just an FYI, Dawn. Clover makes a 3/8” bias tape maker, and it is available at walmart.com. (Probably other places, too, though I was surprised that Joann.com didn’t carry it). I love the colors in your new quilt – if that doesn’t scare away the blahs, nothing will.

  6. Vickie Rooks says:

    Your neighborhood is coming along very nicely! Enjoy the building process!

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