WIP Spooktacular Halloween

I've been a little busy and distracted this last week, so I don't have much done since my last post about this project. Going to Quiltcon should not have meant loosing the weekend to work but apparently it did. I was inspired by going to the convention but didn't really feel like doing much of anything until late in the day on Sunday. I have however made some progress.

I'm almost done with the entire top portion. I had the panel quilted and finished quilting the body area around the lettering. All I need to do is some tight spaces actually close to the words. Then I can start on the bottom.

So far I've been using black thread to quilt with since it will blend in. I was planning on using the variegated orange thread for the colored sections in the center and I had some plain orange I used to applique the letters down. Then I found glow in the dark thread at the con. I have to figure a way to work this into the quilt.

With some of my new patterns I'm already planning on what to do next. I got this small focus freeway pattern that I want to work on. It's mostly applique work. I just need to pick my fabric. This would make a fantastic gift to some of my friends who love photography. I just gotta keep my mind on the present project. I've got too many WIP stuff going on, but I think that's a normal quilter's dilemma.

For today's tea I'm going to bust out an tea I don't use much. It's one I got before our local Teavana closed. The Vanilla Creme blend. I don't think they make this stuff anymore. It's got a warm almost caramel flavor to it. The photo is not mine. I stole it from the web but this is what the canister it was in when in store looked like. Someone is selling it on ebay if you want one.

WIP Happy Haunting Halloween Wall Hanging

Laying out the applique 

So this thing is coming out bigger then I expected. It will end up being more like a throw. The size issue started right from the beginning. When I started making this in 2016, the middle section is from a quilt pattern. I was starting with the block sizing that was given in the pattern. I should have at that time made the blocks smaller but they say hindsight is 20/20 and I can't change it now. So we're going with the larger quilt.

Top without letters

I have it broken up into three sections. I'd be done piecing it but I decided to try to quilt them separately and then put them together afterwards to make quilting it easier and give me a chance to do a higher fill pattern. This is the same technique I used when making my row by row quilts, so I'm fairly confident in going with this route. I've built in strips to cover the attachment points. 

The top portion contains a large open spot and a panel. I found this batik in my stash that has a floral print. Even though it's a floral does seem to work with everything once I put the letters down.

I have appliqued the words from the bonus pattern we got for going to all 4 shops. I didn't get the kit for this pattern because I didn't honestly think I'd use it at the time. I'm still glad I didn't because I got to use the colorful scraps from the corners of the blocks in the center section. They contrast nicely with the background and strangely I don't think they over crowd the whole thing because of the color differences.

Center without 2 inch border strips

Also note this is the first time I've used my machine to applique. Usually I do that by hand but it takes forever when I do. It's hard to get a sense of this because I didn't take a photo of everything laid out together. I'll have to have one for my next update post. This section is complete and has been basted up for quilting.

Bottom portion ready to baste

The center section is suppose to resemble a calendar page. I have 5 rows of seven blocks with two of them being small round accents from the panel piece I got. I just did a small border around this to use as a buffer and to help when attaching the top and bottom sections.  The photo was taken before I added that in. It's the same batik fabric used in the top. This piece hasn't been basted because the fabric I used for backing on the other two sections is too small. I'm going to do some decorative patchwork with the  scraps to fill out this a bit more. It will probably resemble my flying geese type row on the bottom section.

Appliqued letters

The bottom section has the majority of the applique work. I used the kits I got with the house, tree and trick-or-treaters to make this cute scene. I did not measure my fabric when I cut it for this section. I cut it the same size as the top section. The problem came when I realized my appliques were too large. Now I could have quilted it and then attached it to the center then put the applique on, but I decided I didn't want that. So I used all the triangle scraps my Tri-Tri Again blocks left over and made a sort of flying geese pattern row. I did cut the white squares new for this row. I hadn't used that fabric yet. Since it came in the layer cake, I wanted to try to use at least one of each of the fabrics. This section is also basted up for quilting.

Basting down

I'm actually stopping for the night so I won't be tired when I start quilting. I still have thread choices to make. I have some orange variegated thread I'm thinking of using for the center section and maybe a grey or black for the other sections. I have to look at my collection a bit more. The piecing and applique portion of this quilt has only taken about two days. I went out for part of the days and put my work on hold. I'm hoping the quilting doesn't take long because I've already got the next project bugging me for attention.

For tea today I found this Hibiscus Peach by Pure Leaf. It's been a while since I spotlighted their tea because I always get the green or black unsweetened tea. I've become diabetic and need to watch my sugar. This is a new product of theirs and is sweetened but it's not overly sweet. I found it very refreshing.

WIP - Spooktacular Halloween Wall Hanging/Quilt

It may be a bit early to be thinking about Halloween but since I was dipping into my WIP pile I have this one I started but didn't get far into. In Oct 2016 I did a small shop hop that consisted of 4 shops.

It was near the end of Oct. I don't know why I didn't blog about the shop hop at the time. I know that was around the time I lost my job and was very depressed. I did not get much from the hop because I wanted the patterns but needed to be conservative with my money. I am still very happy I got them because Halloween is one of my favorite times of the year and I don't really have many projects I've done with a Halloween or Fall theme.

The pattern was of an applique of a Halloween scene of trick-or-treaters that says Happy Haunting. The samples I saw were a cute play on the silhouettes that ranged from a quilt to wall hangings. I have the kits for all the people but the words.

At one shop they used part of a quilt pattern to make a quilt/wall hanging that looked a bit like a calendar. I wanted to do that with my project. I had a layer cake of Haunted Gala by Moda already in my stash and picked up the Tri Tri Again pattern for the day slots from the shop. I started this almost immediately and then something happened to make me put it aside. I don't remember what but it's over two years later and I've not picked it back up.

I have 29 of the Tri Tri Again blocks complete. I want the hanging to have 5 rows of seven so it matches a calendar page. Two of the blocks are going to be of the circular details in the center of the panel. I'm most likely just going to use the top part of the panel for the hanging since most of the colors are leaning to that color scheme. I will save the bottom house in orange for another Halloween wall hanging project.

I plan to work on it next. I'm still forcing myself to work on the Rose for My Boyfriend and I've not been able to work for the last week on that. I can't let myself switch or I'll never get this done.


The Shops that participated were:

Atomic Fibers - Oak Ridge TN
Gina's Bernina Sewing Center - Knoxville TN - This is where i picked up the pattern.
Lana's Quilts and Sew Much More - Cleveland TN
Chattanooga Quilts - Ooltewah TN (Also found this awesome article about them in the Badass Quilters Society blog)

I always like the trek from Lana's to Chattanooga Quilts because the path takes me by the Little Debbie factory. They have their factory store there and it's fun to stock up on snacks.

Today's tea is Bigelow's Orange & Spice. One of my favorite teas is the Hint of Orange that Petros sells. The celestial seasons Orange tea is closer and this one a bit bolder then the other two. I have a habit of picking up Bigelow's though because I don't always think of that. I just think "Ooh! Orange Tea", and grab it. I like the Bigelow's a lot also. I wouldn't buy it if I didn't.