A Halloween Finish

 

Remember these orphan blocks I found in a bag of scraps dropped off by a good friend?  Well, I am ready to share the quilt I finished using them.

I know many of you asked me how to make these blocks.  Well, the truth is I could never quite figure it out.  I think they were strip pieced using two fabrics.  Cut and then sewn back together again.  I believe they are one of those designs that when you sew them back together, you get a positive and a negative block.  You can see what I am talking about in the black blocks.

I am guessing the quilt she made used up almost all of one kind of block and the ones with the gray background found their way to me.

This is also the quilt that I decided to stagger the pink corner stones.  I wanted to add some color to the sashing but I knew if I used a cornerstone at each intersection, it would make the quilt really busy.  I love how this looks and will certainly use it again in another quilt.

It isn't a huge quilt - it measures about 50 x 60.  It was fun to play with block placement - I decided to group alike fabrics together in a row.

I had a few "reject" blocks (that were a bit smaller)  that I placed on the back.  The window/doorstop (top print) and the NY skyline (bottom) fabrics I pulled for the backing weren't quite big enough so this strip of blocks came in handy.  

I saw my friend (who is also one of my biggest scrap dealer) the other day and showed her the quilt.  It is going to go live at her house.  She decorates for the holidays and has lots of family that uses her quilts.  Plus she did do most of the work :)

I am just glad it found a quick home - my house is currently running over with quilts!

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On my Design Wall

 I am feeling a bit overwhelmed with all of the projects I have going on right now.  So I am trying to finish a few quilt tops.

Remember these orphan blocks I received from a friend?

I have sewed, trimmed and added some gray sashing to the blocks. 

 

I ended up with enough blocks to create 5 rows. At first I tried a random color placement but found I liked this grouped placement best.

When it came time to add the horizontal sashing, I wanted to add a bit more color.  I found a pink fabric for some corner stones but knew a square at each intersection would be too much.  So I thought I would stagger them like above.  I like it!  I will continue the sashing to the outer border.

This is certainly not your standard Halloween quilt.  

But I still think it is a whole lot of fun!

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Completely Side Tracked!

 This weekend, a dear friend sent me a text to let me know she was bringing me a quilt to have quilted.  Then she asked..."I found some orphan blocks.  Do you want them?"

Well, you can guess what my answers was!

Now I have no reason to adopt more orphan blocks.  I have already outgrown my orphan block suitcase and the second box I created is already over-flowing.  But the temptation of something new to play with was just too strong.

There are quite an assortment of various blocks but the ones that caught my attention were some improv Halloween themed blocks.  These are actually about 5 x 10" and there are quite a few in various states of completion.  

So even though I have CIL blocks to sew into tops, lots of other UFOs of my own to finish up and quilts to complete for my next Scrap Mixology pattern release, I am entirely focused on these.

...of course I am.  And I know that is not a surprise to any of you :)

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Spook-tacular Finishes

Out of all the holiday themed quilts I have the pleasure of quilting for my customers, my favorites by far are the Halloween quilts.  And with the holiday just around the corner, I am starting to see quite a few of them.

I just finished one that I had to share because the fabrics were so fun..  The fabrics consist of skulls and zombies!

And lucky me, there was a whole bunch of negative space for me to quilt.









I had to start out with a web in the corner with a spider hanging by a thread waiting for dinner...

Maybe it will be one of these bats.















I quilted this quilt in rows so you can see the bats here again on the other side.



Bats are super easy and I did these freehand.  You can easily just add them to loops and have a fun allover quilting design.

My customer made this quilt for her son. (Okay, adult son.) So I didn't want to get too Halloween-y and try and make my designs a bit more Zombie-ish.

I had an empty area in the design so I put in a Z for Zombie.

Or it can be an N for Noah
(so no one steals his quilt!)

My zombie knowledge is pretty limited but looking at the fabrics for inspiration, they all seem to be sporting band-aids.  So I thought, why not add some of those right in the quilting. 

This is what happens when my customers give me free reign!

And because I can't quilt brains, down toward the bottom of the quilt, I quilted in a little halloween candy.  Which I prefer to brains.

Here is a snapshot of the entire quilt.  You really have to snuggle up close to it to see all the detail in the fabrics and the quilting.

This quilt is one of three Halloween quilts from this customer.  When she dropped them off for me to quilt, she also brought me a bag of her leftover scraps.  (Sqeee!)  And as many of them were already cut into strings, I knew right away what I would make with them.

 So Friday night I sewed away into the wee hours and finished up the top.  (Yes, I am quite the party girl!)  I randomly sewed the string onto a fabric foundation.  This allowed me to easily sew the fabrics at different angles.

 And Saturday night I spent quilting up the top.

I thought it would be perfect to share as we are making a string quilt this month as part of Scrap-A-Palooza!  See why I love them so much!!

 The backing is quite the surprise.  Safety orange, lime green and yellow!

Perfect for Halloween.

The backing fabric I had wasn't quite big enough so I used up the rest of the scraps and sewed in this  scrappy inset.  

It was great fun making this quilt - now I need to get back to my neglected projects!

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