Door Number Six

Today I completed the sixth of the door blocks for the Doors of Ireland quilt. If you're relatively new to this blog, then you may not know that I traveled to Ireland in June of 2012 for the International Quilt Festival of Ireland. While I was there, I became enchanted...perhaps even obsessed...with the interesting doors I saw. They came in all shapes, sizes and colors, and while there, I hatched an idea to make a quilt from them. I took pictures of hundreds of doors with the intent to make quilt blocks from 12 of them. Here is the one I did today.

This is the original door, and no doubt this picture was taken as we sped by on a tour bus.

Here is my quilt block:

Obviously, I left out the security screen over the window. I stitched the curtain rod with metallic thread, then appliqued the curtain over. The white letters are applique, but from tiny little pieces. Looking at this, I can see I need to trim some threads. I used hot-fix gold stars in place of the little ornamental deals on either side of the transom window, and I used a hot-fix nailhead for the doorknob. Since the original image cut off what was in front of the bakery, I decided a sidewalk was in order. 

Not all the details have been stitched into these doors because I'm saving some of that for when they are quilted. 

Here are the other five doors I've made so far. I have them pictured in the order that I made them. 

And I don't think this quilt can be complete unless I include the Mad Hatters Dingle door. I'm thinking I will probably strip piece that upper portion and then applique the rest. I'll probably include the dress forms in the left window. I'm not sure how I'll do the lettering since the font is part of the charm of this one. I may embroider it, or maybe do it with marker. I'll have to see how I feel when I do it. Also, I have to sometimes delete certain elements in order to fit into the 9-inch square I have alotted myself for these. When they are sewn into a quilt, each block will be 8-1/2 inches square.

So I usually just lay these pictures on my work table and stare at them for several weeks considering how to do each part, and so I won't do this one for a month or more.

In the meantime, my next goal is to make the next section for the Gardener's Journal quilt. I have the next three stitcheries complete...or maybe there were two, I can't remember. I just need to do the piecing around them.

And that's all the sewing I'm doing for today. Our temperatures have warmed up considerably this afternoon. Ice and snow are falling from the roof and trees and it looks like we're in for a warmer, if wetter, week ahead.

How was your weekend?

Oh yes, and before I forget, I'll be linking this post to: