"Building" Christmas Cottages!

My hammer is neatly tucked away so that's not what I am using to "build" Christmas Cottages. No, I am using my sewing machine to make the Christmas Cottage blocks for the exchange at FredasHive and I am having a lot of fun with this!!! Designer Nanette has created a fun block that a host of bloggers are "building" and then the little houses will be sent to her, sorted out, and sent back to all of us. We will all end up with cottages from all over the country, maybe the world!! If you pop over to MelsOwnPlace today you will see that she is having a wonderful party to show you the cottages that she has created.

A couple of week's ago, I posted my sample cottage block and now I am ready to make the dozen that I need to send to Nanette at Freda's Hive. Yesterday, I "fussy-cut" all the window blocks and some of the doors. So, above, you can see my first finished block. I've decided all my cottages will be gray brick as our house is gray, so it will be my "signature". Everything else will be different. I have lots of "snow-print" fabric so all my cottages will have snowy skies. Also, I decided that I want more than twelve blocks for a quilt so I am making two of each block and will send one set of twelve to Nanette and keep the other twelve identical blocks for me. Then I will add them to the twelve I'll get back in the exchange and have 24 for a big Christmas quilt to hang on the wall! Two blocks done, twenty-two to go.......... Then when it's all done and quilted, I have a lot of Christmas buttons and embellishments that I am going to add to the finished quilt. This is going to be a lot of fun. In fact, it already is fun. Just realized that I forgot to add the trim along the roof edge so I will have to go back and do that. Time now for lunch, then some more sewing room cleaning and then another cottage block. :-)