I definitely suffer from an insatiable need to make houses and have to stop whatever I am working on, from time to time, to make some. Over the last month I have taken a break from making my Scottish themed quilts to make a few houses as it feels as if  I haven’t made any for ages . Then I thought maybe you would like to make some, too.

There are lots of easy ways of making your own English Paper Pieced houses, using bought paper pieces;  printing out patterns you like on Pinterest, cutting them up and wrapping the shapes in fabric (for personal use only); or designing your own shapes using scraps of paper or card.

House templates that you can buy come in various sizes and shapes and are easily available online both in the UK and abroad:

These are usually made from fine card which makes them easier to work with than paper which is so flimsy. With paper you have to be careful not to crumple the template when you fold your fabric over it.  The small brown one, third from the left  above, looks lovely covered in Liberty fabric (see below). You can piece these into a quilt (see 2nd pic below), or appliqué them onto something:

The smaller white one (the last template on the right above), is seen used here in Liberty blues and would make a lovely border:

What is interesting about these house shapes too, is that they tesselate, fitting tightly together like a puzzle:

You can flatten the point at the top to make a different roof:

Or you can join them together to make zig zag houses:

And if you prefer not to buy house-shaped templates, you can make your own from paper or card. This way you make a whole lot of different and more interesting shapes:

You can make tiny ones and turn them into brooches:

Or giant ones to put on your mantelpiece:

Houses can be assembled from other shapes, too, like diamonds, squares, triangles and rectangles.

The houses above have been made with 60 degree diamonds and equilateral triangles for the roofs, and squares or squares and a rectangle for the walls.

You could add a whole row to a table runner or placemat.

In this starry one, above, I have used bought templates for the roof and one wall (a 60 degree diamond and a square) and then created a larger house shape of my own to make a wall that fits into the roof space.

House blocks can look lovely in frames, too.

(If this one doesn’t look secure in it’s frame, it’s because it hasn’t been stuck down yet. I’ve just popped it in to see what it would look like).

Recently I found a House Ruler reduced in a sale which was rather exciting. It is made by Creative Grids and enables you make a whole range of sizes of houses, as well as other shapes (half and quarter square triangles, trapezoids, parallelograms and diamonds). The ruler is a foot tall and nine and a half inches across (30 cm x  24 cm), so it’s quite big. Has anybody used one of these?

I have a new idea for houses using this ruler, and I am itching to start working on it but I have a number of part-made quilts that I must finish first.

Do you make houses? What is your go-to method of making them and what do you do about doors and windows? Do you sew on small patches or embroider them on? I’d love to know. Drop me a line in the comments section and tell me about your favourites….

Till next time….