Bloggers Quilt Festival

Welcome, Festival Goers!

This time around, I have decided to share my favorite quilt-du-jour and most recent finish, my Ghastlies quilt.   I found the perfect "haunted house" at which to photograph my quilt...very spooky!

 

I made this one with no pattern or plan in mind, just started with a few wonky blocks around fussy cuts from Alexander Henry's The Ghastlies line, and the project grew.  I added oranges, purples and pinks from my stash to compliment the greys and blacks, and had a blast bringing it all together.  One of my favorite parts is the wonky border, and the huge spiderweb quilting.  I did a tutorial for the quilting here (and there is also a Ghastly giveaway that you can enter if you'd like!).

The back is a simple spiderweb print from the local Fabricland, which, we discovered by fluke recently, glows in the dark!  My kids were VERY excited by this, really ramped up the "cool" factor for them (is "cool" the word to use these days??).

Wishing you all a spooktacular Halloween, and thanks for stopping by!  You can peek at some of my other finished quilts here if you'd like.  Enjoy the Festival!

Update:  It is nomination time, so if you are kind enough to nominate my quilt, I am #352!  Best categories would be:
- quilt photography
- home machine quilted (spiderweb!)
- throw quilt

Thank you!

Ghastlies quilt is finished!

It's done!  Muahahahahaaaaaa!  (Did that sound evil?)

This quilt has to be the most "unnecessary" quilt I have ever made.  And the most fun!  It all just fell into place so instinctively, and I enjoyed every minute of the process.  Let's face it, normally I utter more than a few curse words in the quilt-making process,  but this one was smooth sailing!

Truth be told, I don't even really like Halloween.  But when I was introduced to Alexander Henry's The Ghastlies while at Sewing Summit last fall, I loved it, and bought a half hard with no particular plans.  I started making some wonky blocks with it last fall, inspired by Thumbelina's quilt.  I thought I would just make a wall hanging, but as the blocks accumulated, I ended up with more than enough for a quilt, especially once adding the wonky border- this thing finished at 65 by 75 inches!

Once the top was made, I instantly had visions of quilting it with a large, sprawling spiderweb. The epicentre is to the top left of the quilt (you can click on the photo to enlarge and see the quilting better).  I used a thick Aurafil thread in a yellow-orange shade so that the quilting is quite pronounced.

 I used the same thread to topstitch the binding for continuity.

I even love the back- found this perfect spiderweb fabric at Fabricland on clearance for $3.50/meter.  Score!

It was Canadian Thanksgiving yesterday, and we headed out to rural Manitoba to have dinner with The Hubs' family.  This "Haunted House" is just down the road from their farm....all perfectly rusted and falling down!  Even the day was grey and rainy and desolate...perfect for photographing a Ghastly quilt.  I have to give a shout-out to The Hubs for climbing over barbed-wire fences, avoiding the multiple cow patties, and patiently holding this up in the rain while I gleefully took photos!

Wishing you a SPOOKTACULAR day!

Shared at Quilt Story and linked up to A Ghastly Gathering at alidiza, which runs until October 28!

Beginnings, middles and endings

Beginning a new quilt....using the Linky Love pattern by traceyjay.

In the middle of some adventurous quilting.

Finished a project with this lovely Malabrigo yarn, but it's a gift for someone special who often tunes in here, so you'll have to wait for the full reveal!

Speaking of beginnings, looks like we are beginning a new season today. Not ready for that white stuff.

Seriously. We were doing this just 4 days ago.

Mother Nature sure has her mood swings!

Ghastlies quilt top

I had never even heard of The Ghastlies until I was let loose on a bunch of genuine quilt shops in Salt Lake City during Sewing Summit last year.  I am not much of a Halloween person, but when I saw this fabric I couldn't resist picking up a bit, just in case.  I managed to put together a couple blocks last fall and decided to pull it out again to see if I could make some progress this year before Halloween came and went again.  My intention was to make a wall hanging for our front door, but I was having too much fun and soon amassed more than enough blocks for a full quit!

 

I did the individual blocks with no rules or measurements in mind, just added fabric until I felt they were fun.  I added some purples, pinks and marigold oranges from my stash for pops of color along with the greys and blacks, and I love the combination.  I spliced the blocks all together very free form with some Alexander Henry Heath (I am sure there is an easier way to do this than what I did) and then decided to frame the collection with a wonky border in the coordinating fabrics.

Some of my favorite characters! Of course the knitting sisters are featured in there :)

Even spliced a few extra ghastly folks in along the borders.

I had fun every minute making this quilt top.  Now to decide on some fun quilting...I am thinking spider webs??

Ghastly!

Picked up some of The Ghastlies fabric while in Salt Lake City. Had never seen it before! Had no ideas for it whatsoever, but it was too cute to leave behind. If you saw my haul from SLC, you know I was hardly discriminatory...don't think the word "no" was in my fabric shopping vocabulary that weekend!

The last thing I needed was to start a new project, what with 6 quilts already in progress and a mile long to-do list!



Anyways, not sure where I am going with this.....



....but I sure am having fun getting there!