Lovely Frankenstein's 31 Days of Halloween: No Bones About It

Depending on your work pace, you MIGHT be able to finish this in time for Halloween this year, but it's something to work on while you're still feeling spooky. 

I like the sample as is, but with different Halloween themed backgrounds it would be really neat too.

CLICK HERE to get to the PDF directly.  Thank you to  Michelle Engel Bencsko at Cloud 9 Fabrics for sharing.  If you click on the link for Cloud 9, you will see a bunch of other great free patterns. 

Lovely Frankenstein's 31 Days of Halloween: Boos & Ghouls

This is an adorable quilt along that just wrapped up a few days ago.  You can make these wall hangings in a snaps - the most difficult part is the half square triangles, and I knowyou have it down pat.

CLICK HERE to get to the quilt along.  Thank you to Becca at Bryan House Quilts for sharing!

Lovely Frankenstein's 31 Days of Halloween: Spooky Quilt

This is a cute, fairly simple quilt from Riley Blake.  The only time consuming parts would be the applique, which would be easily omitted.  You don't have to use their line, of course, but this would make a really adorable throw for the living room or for a kid's room.

CLICK HERE to get to the tutorial.  Thank you to Amanda from Jedi Craft Girl for sharing this!

Friday (Almost) Finish: Spooky Salsa

The view from my easy chair. Binding...quilt 1 of 5.

So it's an ALMOST finish...the binding is half stitched down.  Ha! I love the neon green thread used for the pumpkins.  

WIP Wednesday: Seasonal Projects

Well...I'm kind of back at it.

The past couple week have been wild and just plain crazy, but things are starting to regulate some.  But there's no rest for the wicked and seriously, the holidays are creeping up on us before we know it. Yes...Christmas in July.  It's an odd little world we quilters live in that we think about Christmas projects in July, but then again, these things take time, so we have to think about it.

So I just finished a smaller than expected Christmas table runner, and I have a Halloween lap quilt in progress, and I'm cutting for a fall table runner too (though, this one is a little more intensive piecing wise than the Christmas one).

Nothing totally exciting, but it's just a little something.

Friday Finish: Witch Hazel's Medicine Cabinet, I Spy and some Fat Quarter Loot!

The first Halloween project of 2014 is done.  BAM. 

 

Also, the I Spy quilt came back from Frances...dinos on the back!

Aaaaand these lovelies I won from Freshly Pieced's WIP Wednesday drawing a few weeks ago - a 10 piece fat quarter bundle from Bobbie Lou's Fabric Factory arrived today.  Thanks again to Lee at Freshly Pieced and Chelsea at Bobbie Lou's!

 

WIP Wednesday: Witch Hazel's Medicine Cabinet

...of the handful of you wondering...YES HALLOWEEN ALREADY.

We got in Halloween fabric, Spooktacular by Blend Fabrics and obviously I loved it and obviously I had to make a sample from it.

CUTE.

I made this pattern up a few years ago, but that just goes to show how good I think it is if I feel inclined to make it twice.

I like it so well because there's so much room for focus prints without being just giant squares.  These are only 9.5" squares.  I've got all the colors arranged.

Just the bottom row is 100% done.  More work to do on the rest...maybe I'll have it finished in a week or two!

WIP Wednesday: Halloween Dresden Plate

I already posted about this project here, but this is a very looooong term work in progress.  I don't think I'll be finishing this one for a year or more (hopefully not too much more).  Like the rainbow houndstooth quilt, this too is a mental health quilt that I work on from time to time when I need something mindless to do. I intend on hand appliqueing them down (we'll see how long I actually commit to that), so yeah...this is going to be a slow moving quilt.  That's just fine by me.

So I'm working away on my Halloween Dresden plate quilt.  I finally got all of the blades done.  All 400 of them.  Each 16.5" block requires 20 blades, and right now I'm sitting on a 4x5 block quilt.  I think I might be crazy.  I'm thinking of adding another 5 blocks to make it a 5x5 block quilt.  Someone save me from myself.

But right now I'm only working on the assembly of the outside of the plate. It's amazing how much they shrink down as you sew.  Ooh. Aah.

I haven't picked out what I want for the background, (though, for this I have a couple ideas) or the circle in the middle of each plate (for which I am totally and completely undecided) yet.  It'll come to me.  But in the mean time, I'll just sewing plates as I get the time.  Besides, I don't want all that bias on the blades hanging out all nakie for too long.

Here's one finished one.  Only 19.5 more to go.

Linking up with Freshy Pieced's WIP Wednesday....see the right side bar for a link to the blog.

Halloween Dresden Plates

This is just one of those "work on whenever, it's going to be a UFO for a loooong time" quilts...I'm doing a Halloween themed Dresden Plate quilt.  Again, this was inspired by one I saw on Pinterest.

CUTE.

Believe it or not, I actually wanted to do this in Christmas prints (can you hear it?  Snow is falling in Hell), but I didn't have the variety I do in Halloween prints...soo...I'll stick with Halloween.  I know, surprise, surprise.

This is enough for 5 and a half blocks (20 pieces per plate, not including the center).  This is 90 different Halloween prints...no repeats...from only a drawer and a half (and only maybe 2/3 of the prints of that drawer and a half, some prints were too large for this).  I have a couple stacks and another drawer to go. The rest I'll fill in with Halloween colors.

Don't mind the dog toys there, or the fleeing dog butt...Tina didn't wan to be in the picture, but her butt did. 

Maybe I like Halloween prints a little too much, lol.

Portland Modern Quilt Guild BOM 2013 - "Finished"

I finally got around to finishing the block of the month for last year.  The last two blocks were a rough finish...

I did NOT do the curved seams (after 8, I kid you not, 8 attempts...thank God for applique)

 
And I miscut half of the pieces for the last block...3 hours later...

So I got the blocks laid out...

 

I decided to make the blocks 16.5" inches, so the quilt would be a little bigger.  Originally, I chose a Michael Miller Hearse print as my border, but after I got the block assembled, the hearse fabric was just "meh." 

So I opted for cheesy monster movies!

 Now it's off to Frances for quilting, and it'll sit in the binding pile until I feel like binding it.  Probably in gray.  Another one bites the dust! (except for binding...)

Lovely Frankenstein's 31 Days of Halloween: Halloween Cross Stitch

While this cross stitch pattern is great on its own, who ever said you can't take a cross stitch pattern and convert it to patchwork?  Choose your raw square size, and get to work!

CLICK HERE to get the free pattern.  The site is largely in French, but it is quite understandable (I don't know a lick of French) since it shows everything in pictures.

Lovely Frankenstein's 31 Days of Halloween: Monster Madness

If done in the right fabrics, this would be a really cool, kid friendly Halloween quilt.  You could make some of the eyes angry, or scared or just plain bug eyed, and how neat would it be to use some of that glow in the dark fabric or thread for the eyes?

This pattern is for sale over at Reanna Lily Designs.  CLICK HERE to purchase the pattern.

Lovely Frankenstein's 31 Days of Halloween: Applique

Pinterest is AMAZING.  There is so much to see there, so many great patterns and ideas for the pinning.  The downside to it though, is sometimes things get pinned without a link to a pattern, or any credit to the designer. 

Such is the case with this quilt. 

I have no idea who designed it, what pattern it is, if any.  All I know is the blocks are made from Moda's Spooktacular line from 3-4 years ago, and probably a layer cake of it.  So, if anyone knows what pattern this is or who designed it, please speak up! 

But the point is, is that is is a very simple quilt.  Just squares and sashing.  But look what happens when the single appliqued spider is added over the top of the finished blocks?  WOW!  The spider and the quilting took this quilt from basic to brilliant! 

So there's some food for thought...for any quilt, not just a Halloween quilt. The addition of a large scale, single applique over the top of a simple quilt really takes to the next level. How cute would it be to add an ornament, or reindeer over a simple square Christmas quilt? 

Lovely Frankenstein's 31 Days of Halloween: Ghostly Ghoulash

Even ghosts have to scare up some grub!  This little wall hanging would be a fun addition to your Halloween kitchen.

This is a pattern available for purchase at Maudie's Cottage.  

CLICK HERE to get to the patterns - the one you're looking for is toward the bottom of the page, and is called "Ghostly Ghoulash!"

Lovely Frankenstein's 31 Days of Halloween: Halloween Dresden Plate Block

How cute is this Dresden plate table topper!  I'm going to have to give this one a try...or just use the Dresden Plate block itself and make a whole quilt...I have way more than enough Halloween fabric to do it with! 

Thank you to LuAnn at Loose Threads for sharing!

CLICK HERE to see the tutorial.

Lovely Frankenstein's 31 Days of Halloween: Little Monster

Another year and another slew of quick and simple, unique, interesting and/or spectacular Halloween projects are in!

Let's start off with a monster of a block...

If you are a paper piecer, then this is a snap! Thank you to Vicki from Quilting Lodge for sharing this.

CLICK HERE to see the block and get the PDF to make it. 

Finished Project! The Easter Bunny Stocks Up

When this pattern came in to the shop, it was too cute to pass up...who would have guessed the Easter Bunny was a trick or treater and thrifty Easter Basket shopper?  It made me giggle, so I had to make it.

It's called "The Easter Bunny Stocks Up" and is by Cranberry Designs' Rockin' Redwork line.  I'm not much for doing embroidery - it's gorgeous but I don't have the attention span for much of it - but this was adorable and simple.  And, I had a total blast quilting it! I don't have a picture of the finished product (just finished the binding yesterday and neglected to take a picture of it), but the binding is purple and I'm pretty psyched about the whole thing.  It feels good to start and finish a project within a week...it happens so rarely!

Sunday - Not a Day of Rest!

Today was a really, really full day.  I intended to sleep in, but after a 6:30am call from John, before he went out to the fire line, I was really cat-nappy.  I kept waking up and at about 9:30 I gave up?  Sunday, a day of rest? Pssh.

I completely forgot the Silverton Art Fair was going this weekend, so I called Mom up and to see if she wanted to come with me.  She, Dad and I ended up going, and wow...Sorry guys, but this year was disappointing!  Usually it is such a great fair, but this year it seemed like there were fewer vendors, and among the vendors that were there, a lot of them had similar stuff...lots of metal garden decor that was similar, lots of jewelry that was similar, lots of similar style paintings...only one booth stood out, and she was a doll/jewelry make that had a lot of spooky themed stuff.  I wish she would have had a business card available!

But once we got back, I got to binding a few samples that I needed to finish for the shop.  I got the Thanksgiving quilt done, and I'm just about finished binding the Halloween panel.  When I got home, I got the Generation Q quilt from my last post ready for quilting, as well as a Fall quilt and a Christmas quilt that have both been waiting to be finished in my backlog.  Looks like we'll have a change of the guard in the shop pretty soon...it may be August but it's time to get ready for Fall and the holidays....Already...Despite all the samples, I am NOT ready for the season to change yet! Wah.

I need to get pictures taken of the quilting-ready and 100% done quilts...I promised Isabelle I'd have them posted on Facebook tomorrow, so I have no excuse to not have them posted here.  Until tomorrow~!

PMQG Block of the Month: January - April

So the first third of the blocks for the Block of the Month I'm doing with the Portland Modern Quilt Guild is complete.  The point of the program is to make one block for yourself, and one for charity.  For the charity blocks, we can do "black, white and a splash of color," "scrappy" or "ROYGBIV."

For my charity blocks, I chose to do the black, white and a splash of color.  Honestly, I didn't think to take pictures of these blocks, but I have been changing up the splash of color each month. 

For my blocks, I also chose to do the black, white and a splash of color, buuuuuut I chose a theme...and it should not be surprising at all to anyone reading this blog.  Yes indeed, my Block of the Month is Halloween themed.  Hey now, this girl can never, ever have too many Halloween quilts!

So I grabbed all of my Halloween themed black and white prints, and I've been tossing in splashes of orange, green, purple and pink, with the intention of using my Michael Miller hearse fabric.

Hearse fabric. I like the touch of morbid humor, with the little casket bouncing out of the back.

So here are my blocks thus far...

 January 

This block was tricky for me because my brain did NOT want to think of this in tube format, which is how it was initially assembled and which is why not all my prints are right side up. I just figure the skeletons have been listening to too much Lionel Ritchie and started dancing on the ceiling.

February

I initially was going to just keep it to purple, orange and green, but I had this bright pink and orange geometric and I thought it'd be fun to pop in there.  

March

Not going to lie, I'm going to use a LOT of that bat print because it is my absolute favorite.  The green is much more of a bright, borderline neon green instead of the kind of bluish green it shows here.

April

This is when I wish I had a better camera than just my cell phone camera.  The pink is much more similar to the bright pink from February instead of the bubble gummish pink in the picture.  Also, the strip in the middle isn't burgundy, it is a really rich deep purple more similar to the purple from February as well, and the spots are a bright pink.  In person, it is much more cohesive than this crappy picture shows.  Someday when I am rich and famous I will have better equipment to take better pictures with.

I am SO impatient, I can't wait to get the other 2/3 of the blocks done so I can see what the whole thing will looks like...but that won't be until December!

Lovely Frankenstein's 31 Days of Halloween: Halloween Creature Wall Hanging

 

 This wall hanging is cute on it's own, but I think it's better as a jumping off point to something more. I found it over at Celebrating Halloween and unfortunately, this is another where no designer name was given so I can't give credit to whoever made it.  But how fun would it be to extrapolate the designs here, and make a table runner, or maybe a throw?  The appliques are just too fun!

CLICK HERE for the free pattern!