This is Halloween (the Quilty Version)

Halloween is a big deal around here. My husband used to be the manager of a party store, so we have a TON of decorations. Our house is “that” house when it’s time for trick-or-treating, and we get people from several neighborhoods away. So, when I started getting really into quilting last year, I knew I had to make a Halloween quilt for the couch.

I had seen a ton of lovely zigzag quilts online, but they were mostly in pastel or bright colors. I thought, why not orange and black? I found the wonderful no-triangle tutorial at crazy mom quilts, which makes a small lap size, perfect to hang on the back of the couch.

I used Kona black and a bunch of Halloween prints from Joann’s (40% off sale of course). One of them was even this cute Hello Kitty print!

I had just taken a beginner free motion quilting class at the LQS, and wanted to try that out. To make things a little easier, I stabilized the quilt first by quilting the printed zigzags ¼ inch inside the seams on both sides. Then I got brave and free-motioned watery lines in the black zigzags. Not too shabby for a first try! And it makes a fun (and slightly seizure-inducing) pattern on the back.

For the binding, I pretty much cheated and folded over the back. But I liked the polka dots so don’t report me to the quilt police!! All in all I’m pretty happy with this one, and my husband and son love it too. Success!

With the leftover prints, I was able to make a table runner and a Halloween-themed Scottie Dog (with a few other scraps thrown in).

So this year our living room is ready for Halloween! Still, it couldn’t hurt to start a few more fall-themed projects…

Purple Posh Quilt

I made this quilt as a comfort quilt for a teenage girl who was going through a tough time (my brother’s on-again, off-again girlfriend – oh hormones!). She said she liked purple, green, blue, and white. Well…ok. I wasn’t sure how I was going to make that work. All I knew was that I wanted to make it modern. I had the Posh quilt pattern saved for a while, and it seemed like the way to go. So then it was off for fabric. I lucked out and found the perfect fabric line, at Hancock Fabrics of all places! So I combined it with a few other fun prints and a few solids, and chose a medium purple Kona solid for the main background.

I picked a bright lime green for the back, but ended up using all of the remaining scraps for the back as well, and now I think I like the back almost as much as the front. I stippled all over with thread that matched the purple solid, and bound it with dark blue to frame it. I love how it turned out, and it was certainly hard to give it away. It was especially hard as I didn’t get to give it myself so I didn’t get to see a reaction. My husband loved it too, and wanted to keep it, so I might have to make another one for us!

As a side note, I completely underestimated the difficulty in getting decent quilt pictures. I work full-time so getting a nice sunny outdoor picture meant that I was limited to weekends. Then it seems coordinating a dog, toddler, and husband is quite the feat! I had countless running baby and dog butt pics before I finally got smart and locked them inside and used the neighbor’s fence as a helper instead. Much more cooperative.

Note the fluffy tail on the left and my son's awesome black socks on the right. I'm not sure this counts as nice staging :)