Mini HOME Christmas Blocks – with Christmas lights!

After playing so much last month with my moody little HOME blocks (which became this and this), and then making my HOME beach hut pillow cover, I wanted to sew more blocks.  I chose a Christmas theme, using the 4″ HOME quilt block size and alternating red and green colors.  Now I’ve got a small collection of mini HOME Christmas blocks.  And let me tell you, they are CUTE!

Happy sigh.  Placed next to each other, I really like the secondary patterns in the corners.  This would also be a fun theme to explore in a larger project.

Since these are Christmas houses, I thought they might like to have some little Christmas lights.  Why not?  The question was, white or colored, and how to do it.  I decided to try colors, hoping to play up the candy shop color scheme in these blocks.  First I selected six bright colors, and next I got out a ruler to measure the length of the roofline.

I decided that a 1/4″ spacing looked nice, and it allows me to rotate twice through all the colors with the first color on both edges and center top.  I marked my lights with Sharpie, making tiny dots that aren’t difficult to cover with a French knot.  Let the embroidery stitching begin!

And they are so much fun!  I love these blocks with their little lights.  Of course I had to keep going until all of them were fully decorated for the holiday.

Once I finished these mini HOME Christmas blocks, I looked at a 6″ Christmas themed block I’d sewn, and figured, why not?  Using the same six colors, and the same 1/4″ spacing, I marked more lights and started adding French knots.  Naturally we needed another line of them on the second roofline as well.  I mean, who doesn’t love Christmas lights?

I’ve discovered my new favorite embellishment for these little blocks.   Obviously I need to do something cute with them.  I’m thinking more than one something cute.  Stay tuned for more!

I’m headed back to my sewing machine.  Have a great day!

-Jennifer