Halloween Confetti

Happy Halloween!! I finished my Halloween table runner just in time last Friday, so it will actually be used for a grand total of four days before it's packed away for next year ;-) Oh well, that's generally how I roll when it comes to holiday decorations - haha!

The pattern I used is "Confetti" by Lazy Girl Designs. I highly recommend the Lazy Angle ruler/template for this project - it made the cutting go soooo much faster. (See this post if you'd like more details about the ruler/pattern/construction.) I used 40 Halloween-themed charm squares cut from my stash and 1.33 yards of Moda Grunge in black for the table runner front.

I free-motion quilted an all-over large meander in King Tut variegated thread #925 Obsidian, and finished the binding by machine. I like machine-finished binding for things that will get lots of washing - like table runners, placemats, and baby quilts. The finished size is 16" x 80".

And since I just realized this morning that I managed to buy every kind of chocolate Halloween candy BUT fun-size M&M's, I'm off on a treasure hunt to find what I'm certain are the only three remaining bags for sale in my area. M&M's really are the best fun-size candy... in my opinion!

I hope all your little ghosts and goblins have a fun and safe Halloween!!

Halloween fun

While I've been sewing the binding on Baby Ben's quilt during TV time at night, I'm playing with a new gadget by day - the Lazy Angle Ruler from Creative Grids. There are so many new patterns available that utilize this versatile tool, so I decided to try out one of the patterns for charm squares - "Confetti" from Lazy Girl Designs.

My kitchen needs a Halloween themed table runner, so I'm using 1 1/3 yards of Moda's Grunge in black for the background, and I cut 40 charm squares (5") from my stash of Halloween fabrics.

The pattern as directed will make a 32" by 40" baby quilt, but I'm arranging it to finish at 16" x 80" for my table. The top two rows have been sewn together, and I'm pretty pleased with how the points are matching up! Here's a close up of the unfinished blocks...

The pattern is very well-written and easy to follow - all the blocks seem to be coming together as they should. Basically the ruler is designed to cut an A and B section for each block from strips cut anywhere from 1.5" to 6.5". My background strips were cut at 4.5", so my blocks will finish at 4". There are a multitude of blocks you can create from this ruler; I've ordered the book "Lazy and Lovin' It" (also from Lazy Girl Designs), and Julie at Jaybird Quilts has published lots of patterns for this tool as well.

My next quilt using this ruler is going to be "Taffy" from Jaybird Quilts. I'm making the lap size for a class sample at my LQS, so I'll show you my cute stack of fabrics for that quilt next time.

Anybody else out there using this ruler? Any tips you've found out about for it? So far it seems pretty straight-forward to me, but a girl can always use tips!

more pillows

It's been "pillow central" around here for the last few days, and I have a couple of new ones to show you. Both pillow fronts are inspired by this tutorial at Film in the Fridge quilts and this post from Jessica at Give it a Go. And both pillows feature concentric quilting that I first learned about from Red Pepper Quilts' instructions found here.


My first 20" pillow uses several fabrics from Patty Young's Flora and Fauna line for Michael Miller and Kona Charcoal sashing. My daughter LOVES these fabrics and can't seem to stop collecting them. Here's a close-up of the concentric square quilting...

It's not difficult to sew, but the marking does take some concentration and patience. But if you can sew a straight line and pivot at corners, then you can do it!


And next up is a Halloween pillow using the same pattern for the front...

but the quilting is done in a spiderweb pattern...

I used the same principles as with the square quilting, but I sewed the intersecting straight lines where the pivots occur first. Then beginning near the pillow center, I just put a little curve into the quilting lines as I went, radiating out to the pillow edges, but never needing to cut the thread until the very end.

I'm so pleased with the spiderweb quilting, but I'm not sure what will happen to my Halloween pillow; it's not my favorite holiday, but I have a few friends who love that day. Maybe it will go to live with one of them...

Enjoy the day :)

Sneak peek

It might be that I am breaking some rules here, but I just had to show you a bit of these projects. My real-life sewing group, SewMod, has organized a row-quilt challenge. Each member makes a 40" row of a different specific block for every other member. We're supposed to be doing one row per month (in order to evenly space the work between the months of June 2010 and February 2011) but since procrastination is one of my dominant personality traits, I'm a little behind... but only a little.

We each provided all the members with an "inspiration" fat quarter of fabric in order to help with color selection. I decided to jump in with the pinwheels row first since I love, love, love that block. The inspiration fabric for this row is the green and white print on the far right. Can you believe that I had the blocks all together before I located this sashing in my stash? In the words of the multi-tentacled Davey Jones (Pirates of the Caribbean), "How fortuitous!!"


Moving on to the Dresden Plate row (another favorite block)... but wait, I have to make Dresdens with Halloween fabric? Huh? The inspiration fabric here is the center circle of black, purple, and neon-green eyeballs. Well, they turned out pretty darn cute, I must say...


I couldn't just keep these to myself until February, now could I?