Old Mill Path Quilt - Halloween Style

A bright and happy quilt made just in time for Halloween and best of all, it uses just one layer cake for the main design.  

The fabric:  Ghouls & Goodies by Stacy Iest Hsu for Moda.  One layer cake with some scrap black fabric for the border.  

The Pattern:  Old Mill Path by Missouri Star Quilt Co.  Their video shows in detail how to sew and assemble this pattern using their Drunkards Path ruler (small size).  Link to the video is HERE. 

This pattern is perfect for novelty designs, and I have made it before using another of Stacy's fabric lines called Safari Life.  

The blog post HERE explains how I made this block with lots of pictures if you are interested in more step by step details.  There is one difference between these two quilts.  The original pattern calls for the blocks to be made with two colors ...  the center 'star' and similar colored circles surrounding it (picture on the right).  In this Halloween quilt I mixed up all the circle pieces to balance all the colors (picture on the left).  

I try my best with circles and often end up seams not lining up as shown in the picture above. The reason why this can happen is two-fold.  Sewing curves is challenging and it's easy to stretch the fabric since everything is on the bias.  

But, it can also be because after you FOLD one 10" fabric square and cut through four layers of fabric to get your shapes ... the rotary cutter can shift a little on the curve.   This picture shows how uneven some of my cuts were.   I am merely mentioning this because it helps explain why, even if you think your sewing is pretty accurate on the curved parts - things can be a little off.  But bottom line, this is not something to stress or worry about.  NO ONE WILL NOTICE. 

I always trim my blocks and the previous post HERE shows how I line up the ruler to get this 8.5" x 8.5" square.  

Some soft minky from Hawthorne Supply Co.  in Aubergine ( purple eggplant) and some of their in-house printed Candy Stripe for the binding,  also in Aubergine, completes the picture. 

 Royal purple thread from Connecting Threads in straight lines on either side of the seams, and then on the diagonal in a 3.5 stitch length is simple and easy.  

That's it for this Halloween ... may your day be filled with Ghouls & Goodies! 

Materials:

Ghouls & Goodies by Stacy Iest Hsu for Moda

Missouri Star Quilt Co. Old Mill Path video / Drunkards Path ruler (small)

Hawthorne Supply Co. Minky & Candy Strip in Aubergine 

Warm & White batting

Royal Purple thread 50wt. Connecting Threads

Border: Chillingsworth Deadly Damask in Shadow from Echo Park

Size: 52" x 61"

Date: October 2020

Old Mill Path Pattern in Safari Life

I enjoy video tutorials from the Missouri Star Quilt Co. and when I saw the Old Mill Path pattern I couldn't wait to try it. Shortly after the video aired the holiday sales began at Green Fairy Quilts ... and all I needed was one layer cake to make a lap quilt ... SOLD!

Yes, there are curves.  Yes, Jenny from MSQC gives you lots of good advice to sew a perfect curve ... but my blocks came out a wonky 8.5" x 8.5'.   No worries - I love to trim and came up with a way to get a block that's almost perfect (my curves will never be perfect but almost is just fine).

Let's start.  I used the MSQC drunkards path template that is shown in the video. By folding the fabric I made a mid-point crease in all pieces (left pix), and marked that center spot with a pencil. Sew as the video explains and try to match the pencil marks in the center to keep you on track.  

Here's a wonky block with a 8.5" square ruler positioned on top.  Looks horrible but not to worry.  On both the horizontal and vertical measurements on the grid I put pink Post-It paper on the 4" line.  

Here is a close up of the top and right side. The left side and bottom also align on the 4" mark.  

Ideally it would be 'perfect' to have all the 'channels' measure the same width, but they didn't.  What is important is that when you trim your block 8.5" x 8.5" this way the 'star' feature and the curves will all be centered.  Your quilt will look consistent - even if on closer inspection some of the seams don't totally match.

The pix above shows how the 'star' seams (or 'channels') don't totally match up - but look how those curves create "almost perfect" arcs! Nothing screams 'mistake' as everything look pretty centered. I will never be able to create perfect curves but being able to trim a block to get that illusion means patterns like this are in my reach! If anyone has a different method or suggestions I would love to hear what you do.

I did 2 layouts - the left has similar background colors in columns. The right layout was random and the one I picked.  When I made this quilt I paired contrasting colors together, cut everything and sewed them together.  Layout was the last phase.

Next time I make this quilt pattern I will cut out everything and then do the layout before any sewing.  It may make color balancing a little easier. 

Safari Life by Stacy Iest Hsu had all the colors, images and contrast I needed for this pattern. A beautiful minky called Stone from Hawthorne Supply Co. is the backing.  Lastly, Aurifil 50wt. thread #6730 matched perfectly for the front and back.

Six blocks across and 7 rows down - one block for every 10" square in this Moda layer cake.  

Quilting was straight stitching on either side of the seams and through the middle of the 'star'.  

Materials:
Safari Life layer cake /  Stacy Iest Hsu for Moda
Stone minky / Hawthorne Supply Co.
Warm & White batting
Aurifil 50wt. #6730
Old Mill Path pattern from Missouri Star Quilt Company 
Drunkard's Path Circle Template Set - Small from MSQC

Size: 47" x 54.5"
February 2020