Skip to main content

Quilted Trick or Treat

I think the color orange shouts "look at me," it's like when someone sneaks up behind you and startles you --but you are happy to see them.  Combining a color scheme in a design takes a lot of thinking, especially when I am also figuring out the design.  And while I have heard it said that quilting is time consuming, I think the planning takes the most time, it's so much math!!  The truth is, as a beginning quilter, I have yet to follow a pattern. I have "invented" my handful of projects on my own because I thought is was easier, what was I thinking? 

Size about
12 x 36 inches
This was my big Summer Craft for 2009 and it was my second quilting project,  they get a little bigger as my skills and confidence improve.  Each quilt usually has some new technique I haven't tried before. I have really taught myself, by reading all types of books on quilting that I have bought over the last few of years, subscribing to these magazines, and examining quilts more closely. I wanted to learn how to do real quilting, not the kind I did when the kids were babies, although those were noble efforts.  I made this one for my friend, who is the Cat Guardian Angel in the neighborhood.

First, I started with a charm pack (about 30 precut 5 inch squares) the collection was "Spooktacular" by Sanae for Moda Fabrics (sorry no longer available).  For me the design and color schemes really play off each other. Seeing the colors and patterns laid out, almost sorts itself out in my mind with automatic deletions and combinations that work well together. Below are the three main blocks of the design, everything else became a border element.

For the top square, I cut out the shape of a cat face, ironed it on with fusible interfacing, same for ears and nose. The eyes are buttons, the whiskers and mouth are stitched.  I just quilted in shadow/echo fashion around the outline of the cat.


For the bottom square, I cut out a Frankenstein face by making a green rectangle and a small black rectangle piece at the top for hair and sideburns. I used black Ric-Rac for the spiked hair effect.  : ) I love that part! I stitched the scar with a special embroidery stitch from my new sewing machine, Audrey. Buttons for eyes and nose, scrap mouth stitched over with a blanket stitch.
For the center, that was just black and white, I spelled out trick or treat in contrasting colors and patterns from the charm pack. I ironed them on, using fusible interfacing and sewing a zig-zag stitch around each letter, see photo on right. The quilting pattern for this block, if you will notice, is a spider web pattern.

My friend hangs this on her door, inside or out, for Halloween. I think the best feature is that it's washable in case sticky fingers come in contact with it. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Christmas in July - "All I want for Christmas" Wall Hanging

It's here! The Christmas in July Blog Hop has started and I am stop #3 on the hop, so make sure you see what Amy and The Patchsmith have made so far.     I love a charm pack, it's a tiny sampler of a great fabric collection! I'd like to show you how to make this whimsical door or wall hanging for Christmas, it's an easy pattern to repeat with any Charm Pack.      What you will need besides fabric, sewing machine & thread! 1 Charms Square pack 2 Fat Quarters that coordinate with your charms and applique graphic Backing Fabric Lite Seam to Seam for applique (2-3 sheets) or whatever other fusible product you like Embellishments like buttons, Rick Rack or ribbon (depending on your project) Neutral (white) 2 1/2" strips for borders (4)   The  finished size is about 12" x 36" unless you add more sashing or borders.     The first thing you do is unwrap your charms pack and la...

Christmas Once a Month Project #5

First, I must beg your pardon as I overlooked the date (15th) for the Christmas Once a Month posts as outlined  here  at Julie's blog. I don't know now if I'm ahead or behind?    In any case, I do hope this project will make up for my oversight. I have had this pattern on my mind since I first worked with half square triangles on this project .  I am happy to say this is one of my own inventions, as I did not use any pattern. Yay! I started with a clear idea and made the rest up as I went along! Some people collect scraps for a giant scrappy quilt, I prefer more immediate gratification by making something more compact in a fraction of the time! Truthfully, finishing something (like a quilt) gives me great satisfaction and a sense of accomplishment I don't get doing other things;  I'm addicted! One perk was that I did it entirely with leftovers: Squares, 5 inch charms and smaller 2 1/2 inch squares, various strips...

Friday Night Block Party: Pinwheels

Welcome to the Friday Night Block Party here at Summercrafter.  If  you missed the first one , don't worry there's another one today!  Every Friday I will be featuring a new quilt block and the name or names associated with it and a little history.         Today's featured block is the called the Pinwheel. (It's on the button above!) I love it because it means fun! It makes me think of ...       Ferris wheels     and cartwheels  and wind. The Pinwheel block, was created in the United States around the 1800's. It became a very popular quilt block pattern and continues to be used in a variety of styles. There are so many ways to accent the "blades" with the colors (light/dark) patterns and placement, both within and around a quilt.  And it's really not a difficult block to do, I'll show you three different kinds of pinwheel blocks to try. Look ...