Wednesday's Wanderings #5 - Key West Conch House

 

 Key West has it's own architectural style of houses.  Often they make me smile with their gingerbread detailing, simple style and pastel colors.   Although they are not all painted pink or blue, they do have similar characteristics to suit the tropical climate.   They are called conch (pronounced konk) houses since they were originally made from ground up conch shells.  Although conch shells are no longer used in their construction, they typically have galvanized steel roofs, ventilating roof hatches, window shutters and porches with an overhang. All of this "to beat the heat". 

Here is a sampling of some of my photos:

This is a photo of my favorite breakfast spot, Blue Heaven.  It's an outdoor restaurant with the best pancakes, all served with roaming roosters and cats.

I used fusible machine applique to create this block. 

 A machine blanket stitch was used to stitch it down. 

I also used machine stitching for the porch railing.

The most fun was creating the palm fronds.  I wanted them to be 3-D.  To achieve this, I fused 2 pieces of fabric, back to back.  Then I cut it out. 

 I only stitch the fronds down the middle to achieve dimensionality.