Weird Neighbors Tutorial
Weird Neighbors is an improv block that uses small/medium and angled scraps to construct colorfully wonky houses. Use this tutorial to make a bunch and build your neighborhood! Video Tutorial is at the bottom of the page.
The Weird Neighbors block came to me during Rachel Hauser’s (Stitched in color) 2024 30 Days of Quilt Design challenge where participants drew 30 quilt designs over the course of the challenge. This was among the first designs I drafted and I won the first giveaway!
I use five different solids for each block and try to maximize color and value contrasts. To emulate a warm inviting home interior, I set a “rule” to always use red, orange, or red-orange for the window. Color choice is always up to you - let your scraps speak to you. Compare the color image to the black and white image below to see how I’m creating contrast in different ways in my weird neighborhood. Also here, I have two blocks where I’ve pieced in the background and you can see that you might need to adjust your color palette based on your background color.
Houses vary in size and shape, but the house itself is generally 7-9 inches tall and wide and when you add a background border, they finish to around a 10” square. This block consists of four main areas, and I’ll refer to them as follows: the front wall where you can add a window or a door, the side wall, the front roof, and the side roof. I also reference the front wall + front roof as the front half, and the side wall + side roof as the side half. To construct this block, I press all seams open after piecing.
Decide if you want a left-facing or a right-facing house. For a left-facing house, the front wall and the front roof will be on the left side, while a right-facing house has these segments on the right side. This tutorial shows a left-facing house.
Start building the front wall by cutting a strip as wide as your window or door and two other sized strips to piece on either side of the window/door area. Sew the strip to your window first, then piece the other strips on either side of the window/door. My front walls tend to be about 5-6 inch squares. You can leave it pieced as is with uneven or diagonal edges, or trim to a more square shape of a standard size.
Pieces for front of house with window (left) and front of house with door (right). The windowed house to be right facing, while the doored house will be left fancing.
Lay your front roof over the front wall at an angle. Use the angle from the front roof piece as a guide to cut the front wall to the same angle. Sew the front roof to the front wall.
Now piece the side wall and side roof. Lay these next to the front bits from the previous step to audition angles. When you’re set, carefully move the front bits out of the way, and use the side roof piece as a guide to cut the angle for side wall. Sew the side roof to the side wall.
Now you have two halves of the house to join together. Lay the side half over the front half with the center seam aligned. There will likely be overlap in the fabrics. Cut the roof angle to desired steepness stopping at the center seam. Change your cutting angle and cut between the walls. These will be joined using a gentle y-seam (don’t panic!). Align side and top roof with right sides together. Carefully wiggle the pieces up or down so the seams are aligned at 1/4 inch. You can pin the seam in place or carefully bring it to the sewing machine. This step is pictured below.
Sew your halves together along this gentle y-seam starting with the roof you aligned in the previous step. Sew straight along the roof leaving the needle down when you reach the center seam (first photo below). Lift presser foot and gently rotate the fabric on top so the wall seams are now aligned (second photo below). You may need to adjust the fabric behind the needle to do this. Sew straight along the wall seam.
Trim off excess roof fabric to the house shape you like.
Ta-da a wonky weird neighbor house! Piece background fabric around your houses and join blocks together to make a neighborhood. Use the hashtag #weirdneighborsquilt and tag me @freetimefibers if you try it out!
Watch this video to see all the steps together: