Door Block

My drawing of the block

The block challenge at the Clark County Quilters guild for 2019-2020 was to make a door of a place someone would live that finished to seven inches wide by 10 inches tall. One inch of fabric was needed on both sides of the block as well as the top. 

Those rules felt doable. I needed a design. I thought about wooden plank doors surrounded by rocks. I thought about the door of a tent. I thought about decorative doors surrounded with stucco. I looked at castle doors and ship doors when I was traveling in London during Christmas last year. I tried drawing a few thumbnail sketches. Nothing really excited me.

I decided I would pass on the contest. After all, I had quilting to do on my daughter's "Leaves" quilt to finish before the April show. I wanted to concentrate on that project. Then I received a request from the block chairperson. She asked if I would please make a block because with a couple weeks before the acceptance deadline, she had received eight blocks. She also said that four of the eight were made by the same person!

Selvage panel

Again, I thought about the challenge. I looked at my front door. I drew it and then I modified it. I still wasn't excited about making the block until, I thought about what I would put on each side of the door. I have siding around my front door.

In thinking about the siding, I thought about all the selvages that I had on hand and decided that those could represent "siding."

I sorted strips that were red because that is my favorite color and yellow because that is my friend JoJo's favorite color. I thought a yellow door with red accents might make a happy looking block.

Close up of incoming mail

A small scrap of a grey print fabric became the window. I tried to use this same print to act like a step; but, I didn't like the way it looked so I didn't use it.

I used red ribbon from my stash to divide the door into "panels." Some ribbon pieces I couched into place and some pieces I straight stitched into place. For dimension around the door, I decided to use two different blacks for the door moulding. I even mitered the corners of the inner moulding; but, the mitered corners aren't noticeable on the finished block.

After I had stitched the moulding to the door, I stitched the selvage section or "paneling" to the moulding. I added a wide section of paneling for the top of the door.

Close up of house number

Then I looked through my scraps searching for a fabric that would serve as the walkway. After I had stitched the walkway in place, I started adding some details to the block.

I appliquéd a mat to lie on the walkway. I used red embroidery thread to embroider "Welcome" to the mat. I also embroidered the house number in red and chose to mark it as the year, 2020. I cut small pieces of black ultrasuede to serve as the door handle, key hole and mail box. I appliquéd these in place with black thread.

I embroidered the word "Mail" to the mailbox. Then I cut three equal lengths of selvages that I appliquéd into place to serve as "letters." I used a fabric pen to ink a stamp and I drew a few lines on the "letters" for realism and then I said it was good enough!

Finished block

I mailed it to the block contest chair person the second Thursday of March. Because COVID-19 canceled our in person April 2019 show and the rescheduled in person November 2020 show, I get to wait for the November 12 virtual guild meeting to see what it looks like with other people's blocks! The block committee chair will stitch these blocks into the guild's next opportunity quilt. I will be sharing the link to the virtual show in an upcoming post. Stay tuned!