Design Wall Monday - A disappointing kit

Now that UFO project #1 is ready to quilt I decided to pull out the next one on my February APQ UFO Challenge list. The second UFO on the list is Humble Homes, a kit I’ve had in a drawer for close to a decade, obviously without looking too closely at it.  Actually I guess it’s a PIG since it was still in the sack.  But I loved the design of this and looked forward to working on it - notice the past tense here. 

The Humble Homes kit has die cut houses and trees, background fabric and 6 fat quarters to use for the pieced border. However . . . as I sorted through things my disappointment grew.  The houses are NOT various shades of blue as I had anticipated. Gold, burgundy, purple - and I'm not sure I like some of them.  I was so disappointed to not see blue houses!!

Next I noticed the die cut shapes do NOT have fusible on them.  There was a little note in a baggy suggesting you use a dot of Elmer’s glue to attach them to applique.  Yikes!!  No fusible will certainly make the applique process slower. 

And then I noticed the pattern calls for 11” x 57” strips cut length of fabric - 5 of them total.  And it clearly indicated 4 and 1/8 yards of the background was needed.  Hmmm - no matter how I measured, there is only a bit over 2 yards of that cream background in the bag, and it was only 41” wide.  No way to get 5 of those strips even by piecing some.  So, I’ll be buying new background fabric for this one, and use the existing 2 yards for something else.  Or I could just buy another 2 yards of a similar color and alternate those rows like it was planned from the start.  

Since I'll be buying new background fabric I just might also shop my stash for blue fabrics to make the houses blue like the pattern picture.  Plus I would iron on the fusible before cutting those shapes so they are easier to applique.  The pattern contains the shape patterns, so there is really nothing stopping me from making it the way I want it to look.  I'm guessing this one might take me all year to finish. 

What is on your design wall this morning?  I'm linking up with:
https://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com/2021/02/design-wall-monday-february-8-2021.html