The {finished!} Halloween Quilt

My mom has a theory about holiday quilts: she thinks they don’t have to be perfect because they’re just out for a month or two. Since she’s not especially in love with Halloween, this goes double for Halloween quilts—costumes, too, for that matter. I’ve interpreted her theory in a different way: by "not perfect" I’ve meant "not finished." I have two Halloween quilts in various stages of incompletion.

One is the first quilt I ever pieced. The entire top is finished and has been waiting to be quilted for five years now. I don’t know what to do with it—I hate how it turned out and so spending the time to quilt it seems pointless. But I also don’t want to throw it away. So it sits in the bottom of the box of Halloween decorations and makes me feel guilty every year.

The other one I love. The fabric has these six great witches (witches are my favorite Halloween theme), so I set each one into a big frame, and then freeform quilted around them. The quilting is finished, but I had the great idea of sewing the binding on with a scallop stitch. I got about 1/4 the way through this process, which requires a double needle, when my double needle broke. Every September for the past two years I’ve thought to myself "go! Go right now! Order a new double needle. Order five or six or ten so you’re never in this predicament again!" And then I go back outside.

But! This October, I did something I have never done before: I finished a Halloween quilt. Don’t believe me? See for yourself:

(Kudos go to Kendell for helping me figure out a way to hang the quilt from the fence. The opposite of kudos to me for not waiting until there wasn't a shadow to take this picture.)

Perhaps I managed this because it’s really a simple quilt. I started with the panel and then added strips, frame-style, until it was huge. Then, aside from the panel (which is full of free-form quilting), I quilted in squares. This is a really simple process, sort of the opposite of quilting in the ditch. You start with the right edge of your sewing foot against the seam of the piecing. You use this seam as your guideline. Once you’ve outlined the inside of the seam, you do the same thing for the outside. Here's a close-up of what I mean:

I like the pattern of four long lines it made on the back:

I’m sure there’s a name for this style of quilting, but I don’t know it. I do know it’s what all the cool quilters are doing!

I'm pleased with how the back of this quilt turned out, too:

(Have I said before that I love pieced backings?) (Those little white blobs are ghosts.) Although, that extra strip at the bottom was really a mistake. When I finished quilting I realized that even though I had a good four inches of extra fabric on the top, the bottom edge of the backing was too short. This reflects my impatience with the quilt-sandwich process. I didn’t get it sandwiched straight. So, I straightened up the edge and added the little strip. It’s OK.

But! I’d like to point out the binding, just because it is not, despite how it seems, cut on the bias.

I hate and abhor cutting bias strips on the bias. You end up with 2,857 seams. It makes me crazy. But I love the diagonal-strip look it gives. Enter this fabric, which might just be the perfect Halloween-quilt binding ever  because the stripes are printed diagonally. Brilliant! I would thank the manufacturer except I already threw away the selvage so I don’t know who makes it. Another thing I like about the binding is it’s a little bit wider on the front than I usually do. I cut the strips to 2 ½" instead of the usual 2 1/4", and then I sewed it to the back using a scant 3/8" seam. This made for a little bit of extra fabric to fold up to the top—and, somehow, made all the corners turn out perfectly. (Corners didn’t use to give me trouble, but somehow since the great Hot Pad Sewing Caper of Christmas 2010, I cannot seem to get them square anymore. Or, only half turn out square.)

At any rate. This quilt is based on a pattern called "Russian Shawl," from Jane Brocket's book The Gentle Art of Quiltmaking. Her quilt is assembled as a giant log cabin; I assembled mine as a giant frame square: start with the middle square/rectangle; add the top and bottom strips and then the left and right strips and just keep building. I don't think it matters which way you go! If you wanted to make something similar, here are the measurements: 

• Fabric A (the middle piece): Mine is a panel about 15" x 18". If you don’t want to use a panel, you could start with an 18"x18" square. Use a fabric with a big, bold print for the middle!
• Fabric B (the narrow strip around A and E): ½ yard
• Fabric C (the first wide strip): ½ yard
• Fabric D (the narrow strip around C and F): 3/4 yard
• Fabric E (the second wide strip): 24"
• Fabric F (the third wide strip): 28"
• Fabric G (the fourth wide strip): 1 yard
• Fabric H (the binding): 3/4 yard

(You will have bits and pieces left over; use them to piece the backing.)

The narrow strips are 2" (cut, not finished) and the wide strips are 5 ½" (cut, not finished).

Happy {Halloween} quilting!

 

Comments

[Erin]

Love it, Amy!

[Donna Jannuzzi]

It is super-adorable, Amy! I love everything about it. =)

[Jenna]

OK, I am totally in love with this quilt!!!! I love everything about it the pieced backing, the imperfect bumps & bulges that come when we make something with love, and the combinations of colors, patterns, & design. Wonderful.

[Aly Dosdall]

wow! amazing work amy.

[Melanie Bell]

Love it! :)

[Isabel]

You, Amy, are AMAZING. It's adorable. I especially love the black fabric with the hidden skulls on it.

Here's a question, what do you do with a holiday quilt? How do you display something like this? I'd hate to think that after all that work you'd put it away for 11 months out of the year.

[emily pitts]

impressive! indeed.

[Chris S.]

I love it and am amazed by your talent!

[Lisa]

oh. my. goodness. Amazing!!!!

[Becky K]

So, I thought I commented on this yesterday, but I must have done something wrong. I love this quilt! And no wonder we are sisters: I have a lot of quilts that are just tops and nothing more because I tend to like to work on the top part of the sandwich rather than the middle and back.

I love the panel you found; so cute!!