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

Kaleidoscope Quilt in Materialize (#100)

It's time to celebrate ... my 100th quilt in my favorite month with Halloween fabric - perfect!  Here is Tim Holtz's new collection called Materialize.

Dark and moody, full of grunge accents ... who can resist Edgar Allen Poe's soulful gaze - not me!

Time for some quilty specs:  the blog post (here) gives all the directions you need to make this type of kaleidoscope quilt. One block has 8 focus fabric, the other has 4 focus fabric.  Everything else is black.

I use Accuquilt dies for this style of quilt which are fun & fast ... BUT here are some words of caution.  Accuquilt doesn't oversize it's shapes for further trimming.  No matter how carefully you sew, chances are you will end up with some wonky blocks.  

My advice is this:  iron and starch your fabric before cutting and always sew a scant 1/4" seam. This allows you some wiggle room after assembly to square up your blocks to a perfect 10.5" x 10.5".  Lastly, if you plan on making a few of these quilts, a 10.5" ruler is worth the investment.

Black Aurifil 50wt.thread and minky highlight all the distressed motifs that are pure Tim Holtz. Quilting is wavy line stitching on the seam lines and then through all the triangles - almost like you are cutting a pie.  

For those of us who like to play with fabric, Materialize is pure Gothic fun for sewers. 

 I was recently told that Halloween quilts should only be used in October ... I think not!

The black fabric almost looks like bats and the young man receiving this loves things with a 'ghoulish vibe' ... Happy Halloween my friends. 

Materials:
Materialize / Tim Holtz 
Wintergreen Ebony / Moda
Hallows Eve / Northcott
Dimple dot minky / black
Aurifil 50wt. black (#2692)
Warm & White batting
Accuquilt dies: Triangle-Isosceles 5" x 6" / HST 3" Finished
Size: 60" x 76"
October 2018

Chillingsworth Halloween Scrap Quilt (#85)

Is it ever too soon for Halloween?  I think not!

This paper pieced coffin template is free, along with other wonderful tutorials from Jeni Baker of In Color Order. I loved it and not knowing how to paper piece wasn't going to stop me ... with the help of YouTube, Google and a love of coffins ... viola!

I had saved a bag of scraps from my other Chillingsworth quilts (here).  Made some 'fake' flying geese with half square triangles.

Every inch of border fabric was cobbled together.  I ran out of the black background after two coffins which worked out fine because my paper piecing skills really need a proper class of instruction.

It's no secret I love Aurifil 50wt. for piecing and quilting.  It melds into the minky I frequently use and I rarely get thread breaks or loads of lint.  What I am having fun with is using brighter thread colors that make even my simple quilting look nice.  On the front is hot neon orange #1104.

And on the back is black dimple dot minky quilted with Aurifil 50wt. #5004 (dark grey) in the bottom bobbin.

When I ran out of scraps the quilt was just too small, so I did cheat and buy a yard of Chillingsworth damask - but seriously, who can resist these tiny little skulls?

And here is the big reveal.  Another "Frankenweenie" quilt whose criteria is to use up every last scrap of leftover fabric from other quilts.  

Something new for me to do is link up with others - but I am pleased to join Scraptastic Tuesday hosted by She Can Quilt which I subscribe to and have enjoyed reading for some time.  Lots of inspiration, tutorials and guidance ... a great site to check out.

Materials:
Chillingsworth / Echo Park
Aurifil 50wt. #1104 and #5004
Warm & White batting
Minky / dimple dot black
Thanks to Jeni Baker In Color Order
Size: 52" x 51"
August 2017

Chillingsworth Quilts (#38 & #39)

A half yard bundle of Chillingsworth fabric made two great skeleton quilts - inspired by a picture from the International Quilt Market, June 2014.

Left:  59" x 69"             Right:  60" x 69"

The quilt tops were cut and sewn at the same time to help me keep track of the layouts. 

They sat finished for a year, waiting for me to learn free motion quilting so I could stitch around the skeletons.  I never learned so it was time to experiment.

I did a grid pattern that was pretty nice - using this video from Nancy Zieman.  She uses this technique on a placemat but I found it also works on something as large as the skeleton panel (24"x44").  My lines are spaced 3" apart and since this panel didn't have an edge to sew off - I just sewed down the side of the panel until I came to a part that needed quilting.  This panel was done with one continuous line of stitching, following a grid made with a Washable Wonder blue marker.

This skeleton panel was done free form using a walking foot - going forward & backwards and around the image ... much harder since my sewing machine was too small for so much minky & batting stuffed into the throat. Never again!

The darker areas of the quilt were sewn with broken zigzags and straight stitching.  Aurifil 50wt. thread was used for piecing & quilting - and worked really well tension wise - the grey stayed on the top, the light sand on the bottom. 

Materials:
Chillingsworth /designed by Echo Park
Aurifil 50wt.
Warm & White batting
Minky / dimple dot beige
July 2015

Chillingsworth ... ready to quilt

Inspired by a picture from Pinterest (from the International Quilt Market), this Chillingsworth quilt top is finished and ready to sandwich. 
The back will be beige minky and quilted using Aurifil 50wt. light sand for the top and bottom bobbin around the skeleton -  and then a combo of light sand & smoke for for rest of the quilt.  I don't want to take any chances that a darker bottom thread might peak through in the light areas due to bottom bobbin issues.

The square blocks are cut at 6" and the Half Square Triangles also started out at 6" - made and trimmed to 5" finished size.