Our house, in the middle of our street - is it Madness?

Our house, in the middle of our street

The answer is "No," it's not anything to do with the Madness song, but it is "Our house, in the middle of our street" - a stitched version for the York Embroiderers and Stitchers (YES) ARCHITEXTURE exhibition in June 2025 (more details here.)

Pattern Piece

I thought I'd just say a little about the making of "Our house". The construction was inspired by a friend's card, which was a flower that stood up on a base. I used this idea for the basic shape and made a paper pattern. I cut the base shape out of pelmet vilene. Then using fabric and Colour Catchers, which you put in with your washing to stop colours running into other clothes, I cut out the basic shapes of a simplified version of my house. I always save Colour Catchers as they come out of the wash all sorts of colours! These were then added to the base using Bondaweb, a double-sided iron-on adhesive web which is attached to a transfer paper.

Back & Front, Before & After Machine Stitching

The whole thing was then machine stitched to make sure none of the pieces came off. To emphasise the windows at the front, I added 2 strands of Anchor soft cotton which I couched down.  I also added some detail to the door to reflect the panelling and the door furniture.  Then to cover the edges of the front path, I added french knots and drizzle stitch for interest.

Window detail before and after couching and extra door detail

Path Edge Detail - French Knots & Drizzle Stitch

Our House - Layout

Finally I made a couple of chairs from the wires off sparkling wine corks and a table from a tin base and a bobbin to go at the back of the house and "Our house, in the middle of our street" was complete.

Back of the house with table and chairs

I did have to add a cardboard support up the middle as the pelmet vilene wasn't quite stiff enough to hold the house upright and added some velcro dots to hold it together.  The tree and the shrub were added, which made the piece more stable as well as reflecting some of the plants in my garden.  I think you'd recognise it as "Our house".

Do come along and see all the buildings that will form a central display at the YES ARCHITEXTURE exhibition.

Another Brick in The Wall

My Stitched Brick

I'm a member of York Embroiderers & Stitchers, who are a friendly group of stitch and textile enthusiasts of all levels of ability and experience. Later this year we will be holding our ARCHITEXTURE exhibition at the Tithe Barn in Nether Poppleton, York, YO26 6LF from 27-29 June 2025 (save the date!). As you can imagine from the exhibition title, there will be traditional and contemporary textile art on a theme of architecture alongside other 2D and 3D pieces. More details here.

  

Nicky's dyed fabrics ready to be stitched into bricks

As part of that exhibition members are stitching "bricks" which will be constructed into "The Wall" for the exhibition. Each "brick" represents whatever gives the person who made it, strength and stability and together represents the group's values of friendship, diversity and support. The fabric the bricks are made from was dyed by our chair, Nicky Brunger, so that the colours would be harmonious.

Stitched brick - work in progress

Of course to make a wall all our bricks have to be the same size and orientation so the finished brick must measure 8 inches by 4 inches, be in a landscape orientation with a 0.5 inch border without stitching. The stitched area was therefore 7 inches by 3 inches.  

Stitched brick - work in progress

At first I marked the area to be stitched with pins but soon realised some tacking stitches would work better!

Stitched brick - work in progress

I used a variety of stitches such as french knots, detached chain stitch (lazy daisy), ordinary chain stitch, straight stitch, back stitch, star stitch, using colourful threads and yarns in a variety of sizes.

Stitched brick - work in progress

I should say that before I started stitching I had ironed on some stabiliser to provide a better base for stitching (also provided by YES). You can see that the back is quite chaotic!  

I then added some calico to the back, stitched it together with right sides facing and left a gap to turn it through and then handsewed the gap.  And here is the finished stitched brick ready to be added to The Wall...

Finished Piece

My brick is covered in stylised flowers and represents a colourful, joyful world from which I get my strength and stability.

I'm looking forward to seeing the finished wall. I hope you'll come along to ARCHITEXTURE to see it too!