Friday, January 13, 2012

What Makes a House Wonky?

 To me, two signature elements of a free pieced house are the triangular roof and an off-kilter chimney.
 Obviously not all real houses have that kind of roof, and in the real world, chimneys have to be straight. (and that's not a chimney on the right.. that's the steeple of a nearby church...)



Wonky houses are often brightly patterned,

Real houses... not so much.
 



  
Wonky houses and real houses often display asymmetry.
 Even while trying to be symmetrical at the same time.

When I make free pieced houses, I am not interested in making them "real." I want to use fun colors and prints. I want to make the roofs asymmetrical, rather like a hat sitting on a head.
I want the colors to be fun and happy, or whatever I want the house to feel like.  Use "real" houses as inspiration if you want, but don't get all worked up about making your free pieced house look "real."  


P.S. Each of these "real" houses is located within a mile of my house.


3 comments:

Clare said...

Exactement! The whole point is to have fun and enjoy yourself.Don't stress about it. They are supposed to be wonky.

Judy in Michigan said...

Your examples truly exemplify the points you are making!! Well done! You are a FUN person!!! Thanks for the smiles.

Cyndi loves to stitch said...

Beautiful WONKY Houses!!!!I put together an a "Uglie Fabric" challenge block every month a few years ago. One of the first few month's challenges was "I want to live in a wonky house." We all brought a piece of "uglie" fabric(not necessarily ugly hence the mis-spelling just uneeded or unwanted) and shared a portion of it with all who wanted to particpate and we all made wonky house blocks. The blocks were set together and given to a charity. It was a lot of fun. That quilt was given to one of the group's friend who was putting together a charity event and it was auctioned off in England for a kids needing housing project of some sort, I think it brought in about $2200 for the charity it went to. YEA!!! Great job with yours would like to see your wonky house quilt when done.