Halloween in August

Did you notice all the 'Christmas in July' events this year?  I noticed several, and some were at quilt shops.  I have completed my 2nd Halloween quilt for this year.  Actually, I made a Halloween quilt top while I was out camping in June/July.  That one still needs the backing constructed and the quilt quilted. After that quilt, I made another quilt top out of those scraps and some other scraps in my Halloween Scrap Stash.  Say that fast four times.  Anyway, I finished the scrappy one and hand-stitched the binding on, so I could enter it in the Western Idaho State Fair.  It has been entered.  All the quilts will be judged on Wednesday, and then on display when The Fair opens on Friday, August 20.  If you understand log-cabin blocks, you will notice that this one is four really big log cabin blocks using varying widths of fabric strips.  It is a liberated log-cabin block quilt.  Officially:  scrappy, wonky, liberated log-cabin Halloween quilt.

I have this overflowing bin of Halloween fabrics, which I have gotten under control.  I can actually get the lid onto the bin. That is why I made two Halloween quilts this summer.  The previous one, I completed in February and posted a photo at that time.  I managed to make that photo look like it was Halloween, but how do I get some spooky fall look in August?  I took advantage of the smoke from all the wildfires that are polluting the air in the valley (and all over the place!).  My husband and I got up early on Sunday morning and drove out toward Caldwell and found a couple of fields to pose in front of.  I had my husband bring his gloves and he was allowed to hold the quilt up with his fingers showing.  How liberated of me, to allow such a thing.  Anyway, it is kind of a scary pose in the fog (smoke) with some eerie orb in the background (the sun).

Here is a shot of the back.  It has a six-inch wide casing across the top, so The Fair folks can hang it up.  The casing covers up the way cool bat fabric that I used at the top of the backing.  Oh, well.  It was long-arm quilted by Virginia at Crab Apple Creek Quilting.  I knew I wanted these spider webs when I took it to her.  She made it happen!

Three Projects Finished Last Weekend!

     Last weekend I had the most fun!  I can't remember what I did Saturday morning, but my friend, Teresa, came over in the afternoon and we did a quilted pot holder project.  What I like is that no matter how easy the project, I always learn something new! How does that happen?  I remember that I learned two new things, but now (nearly a week later) I can only remember one of them. Hmm.  Maybe if I look at that pot holder, I will remember! 
     We made the Folded Pot Holder, from Quilt Expressions blog.

I top stitched mine, then afterward noticed the fancy stitching in the photo on the instructions.  They used co-ordinating thread, so it was hard to notice.  The two things I learned are 1) how to make that little angled fold joining the binding up after sewing it clear around the edge; 2) that you can stitch the binding to the back-side, then turn it to the front and use a decorative stitch to sew it down.  I did this on another project to see how that would work, if I used a decorative stitch.

     I had made a kitty quilt for Merlinda, but it needed to be bound.  I had left-over orange binding strips from the pot holder project, so I used the decorative stitch instead of hand-sewing the binding down. On a kitty quilt it doesn't matter which side you sew it to first.  Then I used my special foot, to run along the edge of binding and machine sew the binding on.

Here is the finished kitty quilt with some of the same binding as the pot holder.

 

After those two projects, I used some scraps from Aoi Has Two Sisters quilt to make a pillow cover.  It is a liberated log cabin block.  Liberated log cabin blocks are found in the parts dept. of Collaborative Quilting, that I discussed in my previous post.  Love those liberated blocks!