Happy Halloween!

Monday, October 14, 2019

This quilt has been two years in the making!! I am so excited to be able to cross it off my WIP list and use the quilt!

HST Halloween quilt made with Cats, Bats, & Jacks fabric by Riley Blake Designs


This quilt actually started back in January 2018! I submitted a quilt design to QUILTY magazine, and it was accepted for the Sept/Oct 2018 issue. I immediately acquired a bundle of Cats, Bats, & Jacks fabric by My Mind's Eye for Riley Blake Designs (still available here!) to make that quilt. (You can still get the digital back issue here!) (And you can read all about that quilt here!)

Jumbo Flying Geese Halloween quilt

When making the magazine quilt, it required jumbo flying geese, and the method I used made lots of goose poop - leftover half-square triangles. I saved them all so I could make a second Halloween quilt with half the work already done!

HST Halloween quilt made with Cats, Bats, & Jacks fabric by Riley Blake Designs

I trimmed all the HSTs to be 7 1/2" square.

(You could definitely make this same quilt by making your own HSTs too! I would cut solid white and Halloween fabric into 8" squares, place one white and one print square right sides together, draw a diagonal line on the white square (or use a laser!), stitch 1/4" on either side of the drawn line, cut on the drawn line, press, then trim them to 7 1/2" square.)

HST Halloween quilt made with Cats, Bats, & Jacks fabric by Riley Blake Designs

Next, I put all the blocks up on my design wall (just a flannel backed tablecloth!) and decided how I wanted them arranged.

HST Halloween quilt made with Cats, Bats, & Jacks fabric by Riley Blake Designs

I sewed each row together first, then sewed the rows together. I press the seams in the odd rows (row 1, row 3, etc) to the left, and the seams in the even rows to the right. This allows me to nest the seams as I sew the rows together, helping to get more points to match up.

HST Halloween quilt made with Cats, Bats, & Jacks fabric by Riley Blake Designs

The top was finished in time for me to take it to a local pumpkin patch for some photos last weekend!

HST Halloween quilt made with Cats, Bats, & Jacks fabric by Riley Blake Designs

For backing, I sewed three pieces of backing fabrics that were left over from other projects. (The orange and black plaid was the back of the first Halloween quilt!)

HST Halloween quilt made with Cats, Bats, & Jacks fabric by Riley Blake Designs

I tried convincing the quilt that longarming was the way to go due to time, but the quilt argued hard that straight line walking foot quilting would be better. The quilt won.

I pin basted the quilt with Warm & Natural batting.

HST Halloween quilt made with Cats, Bats, & Jacks fabric by Riley Blake Designs

It took about 2 minutes to quilt each line from one side of the quilt to the other. I calculated that it would take about 2 1/2 hours to do all the quilting - and the reality was spot on with that!

HST Halloween quilt made with Cats, Bats, & Jacks fabric by Riley Blake Designs

I pieced the HSTs and top together using White #2024 Aurifil 50wt thread, but for the quilting, I decided to go wild and choose Orange #2235 50wt Aurifil thread!

HST Halloween quilt made with Cats, Bats, & Jacks fabric by Riley Blake Designs

I used three of the leftover fat quarters (they each had white for the background color) to make a scrappy 2 1/4" wide binding.

HST Halloween quilt made with Cats, Bats, & Jacks fabric by Riley Blake Designs

Then I machine sewed it on! (Tutorial here.)

HST Halloween quilt made with Cats, Bats, & Jacks fabric by Riley Blake Designs

Crossing off this WIP deserves some celebration!

HST Halloween quilt made with Cats, Bats, & Jacks fabric by Riley Blake Designs

Once finished, we took a trip to a different local pumpkin patch to take a few photos. (Everyone takes their Halloween quilts to the pumpkin patch for photos, right?!?)

HST Halloween quilt made with Cats, Bats, & Jacks fabric by Riley Blake Designs

I am as happy as a jack-o-lantern with how it turned out!

Walking foot quilting on HST Halloween quilt

The finished quilt measures 56" x 56" - a great throw size!

HST Halloween quilt made with Cats, Bats, & Jacks fabric by Riley Blake Designs

The back really shows off the zig-zag quilting lines too!

Back of HST Halloween quilt

OH! And did I mention that the fabrics GLOW IN THE DARK?!?! My boys are SO excited about that feature!!

HST Halloween quilt made with Cats, Bats, & Jacks fabric by Riley Blake Designs
HST Halloween quilt made with Cats, Bats, & Jacks fabric by Riley Blake Designs

I gifted the first Halloween quilt to a friend, but I knew this one would be mine right from the goose poop beginnings!

HST Halloween quilt made with Cats, Bats, & Jacks fabric by Riley Blake Designs

I think it's going to fit right in here for many years to come!

HST Halloween quilt



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16 comments:

  1. I like this ... the size of the blocks show off the prints so nicely. So many times we lose the prints and that's what attracts in the first place. I like it a lot!! Thanks for sharing.

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  2. Love your Goose Poop quilt!! I hope you take a picture of it glowing in the dark!!!! You definitely found the best places for its glamour shots!

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  3. You’re a riot! Goose Poop! How apt! The quilt and the photo shoot are fabulous!

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  4. I think the orange quilting thread is perfect.

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  5. Love your quilt in the pumpkin patch. I also like your backing. Very nice.

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  6. Always a great quilt with HSTs - but the goose poop - too funny! Have a great day and lots of spooky fun this month.

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  7. Your boys are loving it already. Looks like a fun day!

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  8. The quilt is fun, but those three littles are just too cute!

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  9. Love your quilt!
    I never heard the term "goose poop" before...I love it! And that is why I like quilters so much...always a sense of humor!

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  10. Congratulations! That's a fabulous quilt and the photos are such fun. If I had a longarm again, I would not be WFQ, I can tell you that. LOL No matter what the quilt said to me! I like the orange thread for the quilting, and it looks wonderful.

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  11. Just a newbie here, but that is so beautiful! I can only dream of making something so nice! Can I ask how or what you used in the quilting to measure the distance of the straight lines? Is there a foot with a guide on it?

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    1. You could totally make one like this!! I used my walking foot for the quilting. It comes with a small guide that clips in. I put it on the smallest setting and then kept that guide on the previously quilted line as I stitched the new line. They ended up a little less than an inch apart.

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  12. I love this and have put on my bucket list. I would like to see a diagram of how you quilted it. Did you start in the middle and work your way out? Is that a zig zag from one end to the other?

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    1. Yes! I did a zig zag from top to bottom. So I started at the top of the quilt, in the center, and followed the seam line in a zig zag all the way to the bottom. Then I went back up to the top, and did the same thing again, just using the guide on my walking foot next to that first line. I did the center zig zag and all the lines to the right first, then I flipped the quilt around, started in the center and went to the right side again. It took some patience since I had to stop with the needle down, lift the presser foot, pivot the quilt, then start again every time I had to change directions, but it was worth it!

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  13. Brilliant use of leftover pieces and turned out SEW Cute! Absolutely LOVE that you call it Goose Poop. I will be using that terminology from now on. You have started a Thing!

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