Starting Renovations on a Haunted House Quilt

A few years ago I constructed a haunted house quilt. It was so much fun to sew, this year I thought I would build on the basic design and nail down a new, more detailed version. I also wanted to write and publish a pattern, since the original house was built before I was writing patterns and there was no blueprint for it.

Here is the historic haunted house:

The original structure has good bones, but like most modern homeowners, I want more amenities. So the renovated haunted house will have lots of  bells and whistles. I’ve begun with improved landscaping. Here are the rough plans for the front lawn:

Next week, I should have more details to show you, including additions to the main structure 🙂 Meanwhile, here is the link to historic haunted house for sale in my shop: Haunted House Quilt

More housekeeping: here is the link to the pattern for the Easy As Pie Stroller Blanket that I promised a few weeks ago : Easy As Pie Stroller Blanket Pattern .

 

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Every Day Can’t Be Full of Sunshine

Every day can’t be full of sunshine. Sometimes its nice to enjoy a dark night with a bit of rain. That’s kinda how I see Halloween. It’s a time that reminds me life has a bit of the unknown, even a bit of spooky darkness.

Here is a new quilt I finished this week. It’s called  “Spooky Raven Halloween Quilt”. It is made from a really cool Halloween print called Raven by Rosemarie Lavin Design for Windham Fabrics. The fabric was such a great pattern, I decided to just add some lines of reverse applique and leave the rest of the quilt to display the iconic Halloween motifs.

Here is another photo:

The quilt is available for sale in the shop here

Creating Takes Courage

Yesterday I broke out a brand new fat quarter pack of  21 pieces of Riley Blake Halloween Kid’s fabric. I bought it at deep discount last spring and squirreled it away until I was in a Halloween mood. Yesterday was perfect. The kids were back to school, my day’s schedule was open to design and sew and be creative. So I pulled the pristine bow off the perfectly wrapped cotton squares and laid out all 21 pieces of fabric.

Then I hit a roadblock. Or maybe it was a mind freeze. Anyway, I hit hours of paralysis where I could not decide what to make out of this perfect fabric.  A big part of me loved the fabric in its untouched rectangular state and did not want to change it by cutting it. Another, more creative part of my mind was exploding with possibilities so much so that they all  jumbled together and caused dizziness along with the paralysis.

Eventually I committed to a design but the quilt did not get finished in time for this week’s blog.  Here is the work in progress:

One project I did finish last week was the pattern for the Easy As Pie Stroller Blanket. It is available in the shop here.

 

 

 

 

 

I Know It’s August, But I’m Thinking Halloween

Autumn is my all time favorite time of year. I love the crispy cool days and the changing leaves. I love the smell of brand new loose leaf paper and freshly sharpened pencils. I also love just a bit of scary. I’m mostly a wimp, so no horror movies or blood or gore. I like Charlie Brown’s Great Pumpkin or maybe the Wizard of Oz if I close my eyes for the flying monkeys part. 

Here’s my most popular Halloween pattern:

It’s called Ghastlie Halloween Crazy Quilt and it’s available in the shop here The quilt is so easy to make– start now and you’ll have it done for Halloween!

Having Christmas Fun Early

I’m having such fun putting together Christmas quilts. I decided that whatever I wanted to make, I’d go ahead and make. So here are my latest two Christmas quilts, one is a geometric bit of everything and the other is a super traditional nod to Christmas past:

This geometric quilt came together like a painting. I started with preparing the canvas, the three quilt layers of top, batting and backing. These layers were pinned to keep them from shifting. Then the fun began. All my scraps and small pieces went flying everywhere and the best ones landed on the quilt. These were moved and trimmed and layered and finally pinned in place. Then they were sewn to the quilt. I love sewing the appliques and quilting at the same time. It is just a lovely economy of effort and creates a beautiful pattern on the back of the quilt. This holiday quilt is a bit expensive, $105.00, because there is a surprising lot of time and dense sewing invested.

The quilt above  was labor intensive, this one was just fun and easy. I loved quilting following the outline of the little winding road between the houses. Such fun and I could almost smell the pumpkin pie, can’t you?

Once Upon a Fairy Tale Quilt

I really love the fabric line, Fairy Tale Friends by Moda. I bought a bundle of fat quarters through a great deal from Craftsy. The fabric is rich in color and has a great texture.

 I used 4 fat quarters in the same color family to make this first quilt. The bundle came with two craft panels with scenes from fairy tales. I knew I wanted the quilt to showcase parts of the panel, but it took  a bit of thought to decide how to do it. Finally I chose a mottled red flannel as a frame for the pictures. The flannel is also used for the back of the quilt.

The best part of the project is that I only used 1 of the 4 colorways in the fat quarter bundle, so I have lots more fabric to mess around and make more quilts with 🙂 Yippee! I’m such a fabric addict 🙂