Happy Haunting: A Finished Quilt

I am very happy to say that my Halloween quilt, named "Happy Haunting" is finished!  This was my October goal (link #31) for A Lovely Year of Finishes.  I bought the fabric (Jeepers Creepers for Henry Glass) last November when it went on sale 50% off at my LQS.  I talked about the piecing of this quilt in this post. 

I have had so much fun quilting it, and it is the most dense I have ever quilted.  So be prepared for lots of pictures.  :)  I used matching thread on most of the prints, but used the clear thread on the house and characters.  I used the white Aurifil in the bobbin. 

 
It turned out so cute!  I didn't quilt on the trees and love how they puff out a little bit.

I spiral quilted the moon and quilted swirls in the orange background. 

I quilted barbed wire and eyeballs in the borders. 

I quilted on the printed webs in the spider border. 

My boys love this quilt so much that they have each claimed a character.  Cheetah is the grim reaper. 

Panda is the pumpkin guy.  (I think grandma and grandpa are the birds.) 

Monkey is the little ghost. 

Because daddy is the big ghost. 

I am the witch by default, because I am the only girl.  ;)

I think the little spiders (or is it the bats?) are Nana and Grandpa.  The spiders in the border represent all the aunts, uncles, and cousins.  LOL. 

I ended up using the green and yellow polka dot fabric for the backing. 

Did you know that hanging sleeves make great labels?  (I attach my hanging sleeve when I sew on the binding. Then hand stitch the bottom so that it has some extra give.) 

My boys love that you can see all the shapes on the back. 

In fact, they love it so much that they told me I had to hang it in the kitchen.  I couldn't hang it up downstairs like I was originally planning.  Vetoed in my own house!

It bugs me that it doesn't match the colors in my table runner.  I am told that I just need to make a new one, but I love Broomzelda. 

 

Quilt Stats #116

Name: Happy Haunting

Fabric: Jeepers Creepers for Henry Glass, Kona Black

Amount Used: 3.5 yards

Batting: Warm and White

Size: About 40 x 44 inches

Date Finished: October 2014

What I Learned:

• I can quilt really close together.
• Dense quilting makes the quilt stiff. 

XX,
Jasmine

P.S.  I am linking up with Finish it up Friday and Can I Get a Whoop Whoop. 

P.P.S.  Maybe Broomzelda needs to find another place and I really do need a new table topper.

Beary Blue: A Super Sneaky Finish

I am very happy to say that Panda's Christmas quilt is finished!  I have named it "Beary Blue" because it was completely inspired by the quilt Bear receives for Christmas in the book Bear Stays Up for Christmas by Karma Wilson. 

We love the Bear Books, and blue is most often Panda's favorite color.  Here is what Bear's quilt looks like. 

And here was my fabric pull. 

I had to be super sneaky with Panda's quilt.  I worked on it a little at a time: and hour here, and an hour there.  Those little bits sure add up!  After I finished my hubby's quilt, I put his squares up on the design wall and took a picture.  Then I labeled each of the columns, stacked them up, and hid the squares again.  Thank goodness for chain sewing which keeps everything in order. 

I finished the quilt top earlier this week. 

Then I stayed up late one night and got the quilt basted.  I am not normally a late night sewer, but I had to make sure that all three boys were asleep.  That night I draped it over my cutting table and locked the craft room. 

I was hoping to quilt it while he was at school, but he ended up staying home sick.  I knew if I left it on the table he was more likely to see it, so I decided to quilt it while he watched a movie. 

But every time he needed something I had to hide it with another quilt. 

I am grateful that Panda was more interested in his own agenda rather than what I was doing.  :D

Early this morning before he woke up and while he was at school I added the binding.  I added a label and had less than ten minutes to take pictures of it before picking him up at school.  (It was an extra short day today.) So these are not the best pictures and some had to be taken indoors because it was wet outside. 

Here is his quilt all nice and finished:

I just quilted it in the ditch to keep it soft and cuddly. 

I love how it looks on the minky backing. 

I did have to go buy more fabric yesterday for the binding and disguised it by a trip to the post office.  I love how the different blue frames the quilt but still looks good with the almost turquoise backing.  The binding fabric is a Quilter's Linen by Robert Kaufman. 

A friend stopped by and thought it really did look like the quilt in the book.  (This picture is from Bear Feels Sick). 

I look forward to lots of story time reading these amazing books while my Panda Bear is snuggled up in his own "Beary Blue" quilt. 

Quilt Stats #115
Name: Beary Blue
Pattern: 6 inch finished patchwork squares

Inspired by: Quilt in Bear Stays Up for Christmas by Karma Wilson

Quilting Design: Stitch in the ditch

Fabric: Miscellaneous blues and a yellow from my LQS

Amount Used: 7 yards

Batting: Warm and White

Size: About 60 x 72 inches

Date Finished: October 2014

What I Learned:

• I can be very sneaky with my sewing.
• Sometimes it is better to choose a binding after the quilt is put together.

So I now have two sneaky Christmas quilts finished and two more to go!

XX,
Jasmine

P.S.  I am linking up with Finish it up Friday and Can I Get a Whoop Whoop.

P.P.S.  I completely recommend the Bear Books by Karma Wilson.  They are so much fun to read aloud with their rhythm and language.  Plus Jane Chapman's illustrations are so cute.

P.P.P.S.  I am also linking up with Jennie of Porch Swing Quilts for her Santa's Sweatshop linky party.

Halloween Quilt in Progress

I have made some good progress on my Halloween quilt which is my October goal for A Lovely Year of Finishes.  I decided to keep it simple.  I cut apart the panel of Jeepers Creepers made by Henry Glass last year and tested it out with the companion spider print for borders. 

I like how the gray tones down the orange, yellow and green, but I thought it needed something between the orange border and gray spiders.  So I decided to add a narrow black border. 

As a side note, I just have to say that this is why I love my LQS.  I realized to sew the borders without piecing one of the sides I would need 37 inches and I only purchased one yard during the after Halloween sale.  They gave me more than 38 inches!  And I had enough.  :)

I worked on it some more today and was able to finish the top.  Here it is finishing at 40 x 44 inches:

I plan on binding it in black to give it a nice frame.  The backing will be a combination of the yellow and green polka dots and the candy corn from the top picture.  I still need to decide on that. 

And here is my sneaky sewing update...  Panda's quilt top is finished! 

I will post more about the inspiration behind it later. 

Plus, I have already made two more draw string bags from Jeni's tutorial.  These were made with the dimensions she gives in her free tutorial.  One is for my niece A who just turned six, and the other is for me.  :)

My husband was surprised that I made two when only one was needed.  I told him that it was just to use up the rest of the fabric and not create scraps.  ;)

My boys are still deciding what fabric they want for their bags and I am still deciding on how big to make theirs.  

XX
Jasmine

P.S.  I am linking up with Let's Bee Social and Needle and Thread Thursday.  (Buttons on sidebar.)

Turning a Comforter into a Quilt

Have you ever wondered what a quilt is technically?  I have.  According to Wikipedia, "A quilt is a type of blanket, traditionally composed of three layers of fiber: a woven cloth top, a layer of batting or wadding, and a woven back, combined using the technique of quilting."  I once saw a definition at a quilt show which went on to say that quilts are stitched together, not tied.  Something tied is more of a comforter.  So I have always considered tied items blankets or comforters. 

When I was pregnant with Monkey I didn't have much energy for quilting, so I tied a simple minky comforter for the twin bed in his nursery. 

I trimmed all three layers with right sides together, stitched around it and turned it right side out.  Then I put it on large quilting frames and tied it.  I stitched around the edge and in the ditch around the border.  I did this because I did not want to bind it as it was made entirely of minky with a polyester batting. 

Now that Monkey has been sleeping in the big boy bed for awhile, I was getting tired of all the ties.  For some reason the ties on the argyle minky kept coming undone and driving me nuts.  Even in the picture below you can see some ties are missing.  The ties on the brown minky stayed nice and tight. 

So I decided to take all the ties out and quilt it.  I used my Janome 6500 with the walking foot to quilt it on some of the white printed lines. 

I just clipped the ties as I came to them.  I figured it would be like taking out pins in a pin basted quilt. 

It actually worked very well, and I am so pleased with the results of three hours' work. 

I now consider this a quilt!  What do you think?  It has three layers with batting in the middle and is stitched together by machine. 

The borders do ripple a little because of how I originally put it together three years ago.  But the back isn't too bad either. 

I know it could have been a lot worse!

The important thing is that Monkey loves his quilt and the ties are no longer driving me batty. 

Quilt Stats #114
Name:  Minky Argyle Quilt
Fabric: 60 inch wide minky
Amount used: 6 yards
Batting:  Low loft polyester
Size:  About 70 x 90 inches
Date finished:  September 2014
What I learned:

• Some things are better quilted.
• I can quilt something which was once tied.
• If I were to do something like this again I wouldn't quilt that outside border until the inner panel was quilted. Then I would bind it more traditionally. 

XX,
Jasmine

P.S.  I am linking up with Can I Get a Whoop Whoop and Finish it up Friday.

The Month of September & October Goals

Even though September was a busy family month I was much more productive.  I was able to completely finish two quilts and lots of little projects.  Plus a couple more things I haven't even blogged about.   ;)

Berry Pie was the first quilt I finished.  It was my September goal for A Lovely Year of Finishes. 

It makes me so happy to see this quilt used frequently, and not just by my sons.  We all use this quilt!  (Even my hubby.) 

The second quilt I finished is the sneaky sewing for my husband.  I designed this quilt specifically for him, and I love how it turned out.  I call it "Bear Tracks."

My small projects included pillows, blankets, and a bag.  I wrote a tutorial for how I made the simple minky pillow cases... 

 And organized my scraps while discovering that I have used more than 200 yards of fabric this year. 

 Plus I turned a blanket...

Into a quilt! 

[More on that finish in my next post.] 

Holy Cow!  I am tired just thinking about it.  Because I also spent a lot of time celebrating! 

However, I was able to do some hand sewing during soccer practice and piano lessons. 

I now have one flower worth of squares done. 

I hope I can still do a lot in October.  My goal for A Lovely Year of Finishes is to make a Halloween quilt. 

Plus, I need to continue with my sneaky sewing for the three boys while disguising it with other projects. 

Wish me luck!

XX,
Jasmine