When I was asked by Kim from Kim’s Crafty Apple if I’d be interested in participating in the “Home Sweet Home Quilt Along” I immediately thought yes!! I love a quilt a long, don’t you?

The idea was to design a house block or a tree block for the QAL.

I had visions of making a block with palm trees on a deserted tropical island, swaying in the breeze, at sunset.

In my head, it was looking amazing, but when it came to drawing it, I just couldn’t my “brain” picture onto paper. It will come though. Perhaps for Kim’s next QAL ;-)

So I thought, maybe I’ll change my tree idea and go with a house block instead? I was looking at my fabric stash and found this cute owl fabric which I’d  forgotten about - shhhh… don’t tell hubby. He thinks I have way too much fabric.

Who doesn’t love an owl… in a bird house? Owls obviously live in birdhouses, right?

So here is my ‘Home for Hoot’ pattern.




Download the pattern HERE so you can use it in your raw edge applique.

To make Home for Hoot you will need:

12.5” square of white fabric for the background
Fabric scraps for the bird house
Double sided fusible web (I used Vliesofix)
Coordinating cotton thread
Pencil, ruler and sharp scissors

The steps:

Start by tracing the individual components of the bird house onto the fusible web (paper side).





The square of the bird house needs to be a 1/4” longer at the top (where the roof will cover it) and 1/4” longer at the bottom, where the base will go over it.

Roughly cut out the shapes approximately 1/4” outside each line. Don’t use your good fabric scissors.

Now choose your fabrics. I decided to go with this aqua/white spot for the house. I think it’s one of my all-time favourite fabrics.

Fuse the web onto the back of the fabrics and then cut on the line.




I fussy-fused my owl so he was centred.
Fussy-fused… is that even word?

Next step is to remove the backing paper and lay out the components on the white backing fabric. Once you’re happy with the layout and that it’s not too wonky, fuse!





The fun part is stitching it all in place. You can hand sew with a blanket or straight stitch… or you can do it fast, like I do with your machine.

If you like contrast, black thread will work well and probably even make the design POP.

Today, I decided to match my threads. I went with aqua, purple and chocolate brown Gutermann thread.

(I haven’t tried Aurifil yet, so Mr Alex Veronelli, if you’re reading this, I’m happy to review some for you!!)

I played with the stitches on my machine and decided on blanket stitch for the actual house and then zig zag in varying widths and lengths for the rest.





And here you have it -Home for Hoot

As always, if you do make one, I’d love to see some pictures.
Add them to my Samelia’s Mum Flickr group HERE.


Happy Sewing!!!