Quilting Secret Santa: House Gift Box

I spent Saturday at an all-day meeting of my quilt group, Cyberbee.  We meet 5-6 times a year, and several of our meetings are all-day events.  We catch up with each other, do some sewing, have a fabulous potluck lunch, show and tell, and discuss future projects.

At our December meeting, we have a gift exchange.  Last year we changed from doing a "dirty Santa", where each recipient in turn could pick either a new gift or one that had already been opened, to a Secret Santa, where you know for whom you're getting a gift.  We keep a little spreadsheet on our website listing any preferences in color/fabric styles, as well as any new toys we'd like to have. 

This year I drew my friend Jean.  One of her gifts was some red and green silk thread for Baltimore applique.  I decided to use this house as my gift box for it.  I used the Home Made template at PaperTrey Ink. It's so easy to put together, and awfully fun to make the windows, doors and other decorations. 

Here is the front.  I used a bit of batting to look like smoke coming out of the chimney. 

And the side and back, where I added a pine tree.  ('Tis the season, after all.)

And, finally, a picture of the house with the roof off, revealing the gift inside. 

Hopefully, Jean will be able to use this little house to store something for herself. 

I'll be making a few more of these houses to hold Zhu Zhu pets for each of my boys.  They will fit perfectly and give the hamsters a place to sleep each night.