I Love Home, Bock 2

Hello Everyone and Happy Labor Day! Today I’m pleased to share Block 2 of the “I Love Home” free BOM by Jacquelynne Steves. It’s not too late to sign up to receive your free blocks each month. This month, Sarah J, one of our featured bloggers, is giving away this great prize…

Find out how you can be one of the eight lucky winners of Sarah J’s fabrics by reading to the bottom of this post!

Now onto this month’s block!

I love this block! Well I love all of them. It’s been so fun to pick fabrics for both the applique and piecing. The fabrics in this block are Fig Tree Coney Island, Chestnut Street and Strawberry Fields Revisited. The coral house, door and tree trunk are from Corey Yoder’s Sundrops. In my post for the first block, I forgot to mention the background fabric, it’s Graceful Moments by Maywood Studio.

I used my Aurifloss by Aurifil for most of the applique and embroidery details, but since I didn’t have any to match the darker colors, I pulled out some DMC floss.

Just like on the first house block, I added some embroidered details to the applique.

For the windows, instead of using a buttonhole stitch to hold down the applique, I thought I would try a chain stitch and it worked. It adds a little dimension without taking up room inside the applique. I have a tutorial on working the chain stitch on an applique here (the pictures on that tutorial are on block 3 windows). I also used the chain stitch in the heart instead of adding another applique heart.  I liked the details Jacquelynne had from the embroidery design for the windows so those got added, too.

For the roof pieces, I was going for a gingerbread house look. On the dark roof section, I used the light coral Aurifloss on the buttonhole stitch so it would contrast nicely with the top, then used the matching DMC on the bottom so it would blend in. For the dark coral roof section, I used the matching floss so it would blend into the background then added the solid lines from the embroidery design.

On some of the smaller pieces and the tree trunk, I used one strand of floss instead of two just so the stitching wasn’t so dense. I also liked the flowers from the embroidery design so they were added, too.

If you are having problems trimming your applique or embroidery to size, you can make a viewing window. I made mine out of cardboard and marked the centers of the 8″ window to help with the placement.

I mark each corner so I have a reference for trimming. When trimming, make sure to trim 1/4″ outside each mark and make sure your corners are 8″. Mine are slightly less than 8″, so I need to adjust it slightly when I trim.

Block 1 and 2 together.

Be sure to hop around to see everyone else’s second block this month.

• The Crafty Quilter
• The Inbox Jaunt
• Designs by Sarah J
• Farmhouse Quilts
• Penguin and Fish
• Podunk Pretties
• The Quilting Nook
• The Sewing Loft

You can also follow along and post your own pictures on social media using #ILoveHomeQuilt on Instagram and Jacquelynne’s Sew Quilty Friends page on Facebook and on Pinterest.

Now for the giveaway. Even though it’s still warm where I am, September starts to remind me of fall, my favorite season. What are you looking forward to;  football, leaves changing colors, etc.? Let me know and leave a comment by Monday, September 11 by 11:59 PM, for your chance to win Sarah J’s fabulous fat quarter bundle.

One last thing…for those who follow me regularly, Janet sent me an update on her Coffee themed placemats that she made from my Christmas Placemat Tutorial.

She entered them in her county fair and won First Place! Congratulations Janet!

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy making block 2!