It Takes a Village

As promised, here is the rest of the village of fabric houses.

Julie's is a treehouse with a cup of tea in every room.
2 Petit Treeanon, Julie Saviano



Mary Gay's house celebrates her family and pets.
99 Keeler Lane, Mary Gay Leahy



Nancy's depicts her second home on the coast of Maine.
545 Blueberry Hill, Nancy Mirman



My sister, Linda, was inspired by the words of her favorite authors.
1821 Textual Way, Linda Oehler-Marx



I love this interior wall in Linda's house. There are pictures of our mom and grandma and an appropriate sentiment about knitting (both Linda and our mom are knit-fiends and our grandma used to be) plus a warning that I'm next to learn to knit. I told her that when I'm 82 and we're in adjoining rooms in an old folks' home then, and only then, can she teach me to knit.


If you'd like to try a fiber house of your own here are some things to think about:

The opportunity exists for a very allegorical approach to a theme of home. While you can create a literal interpretation of “home” and your memories of it, you can also use the inside/outside aspect of the construcion as a chance to explore:

a vision of what home can be
an interpretation of self
a memory, fantasy, dream or imaginary home
hidden/revealed thoughts using symbolism and personal imagery
a specific room: a studio, a kitchen, a garden room, a library
a journal or story house
a tribute to an artist or writer
a chronology of family
a house as a character in a story

Again, the inspiration for our challenge was the book, In This House by Angela Cartwright & Sarah Fishburn, Quarry Books, July 2007

A cool preview of the houses in the book can be found on Angela's website.

13 Nightingale Lane

Ta da! Here's the completed house. Every year I issue the women who work in our shop a challenge. We've had some interesting ones -- collaborative journals, based on art movements, using found objects, etc. This year the challenge was inspired by Angela Cartwright's book In This House. We each made a house out of fabric with either batting or Fast2Fuse inside the walls. There are five houses on display at the Country Quilter during the Northern Star Quilter's show this weekend. They are all different and all wonderful.








13 Nightingale Lane

I plan to disassemble the house after the show and make it into a fiber book, probably with grommets at the sides. That way I can store it flat and still open it up into a 3D house. Now I have to think of something for a new challenge.

Part 8

Part 8. Now on to assembly.

Part 7

Part 7 - one more to go...

Side 6

Side 6 with two more to go. Getting closer...

Side 5

Fifth side of eight. At this point what I'm building becomes a little more clear, but I've still got a trick or two up my sleeve.

And, yes, here are some bugs -- you knew I wouldn't be able to create something without them.

Part 4

Part 4 - halfway there on this project. On to the bigger pieces now...