First in line is my Sunflower Bargello quilt. This is based on a pattern by Jen (Jennifer Houlden) www.quiltsbyjen.ca
I had several reasons to attempt this quilt. I love sunflowers, I've always wanted to make a bargello, and I had a nice big wall in my living room to show it off. As I may have mentioned before, I'm terrible at following patterns. Right away I made a mistake in the cutting directions and had to alter my borders. But I was very satisfied with the results and most importantly my husband thinks it's beautiful.
My second quilt is a wall hanging I made for my daughter. Although Halloween was never a big deal in our home she likes to decorate for it in her own home.
I started out using the quilt Fall Shenanigans by Jenny Doan as inspiration but have made major changes to the layout, pattern, everything.
Jenny's quilt was great for Halloween but I wanted to extend the usability into Thanksgiving.
I redesigned this quilt to have a removable panel. I also had a large piece of bargello left over from the sunflower quilt and decided to incorporate that into an applique pumpkin rather than piecing a pumpkin like Jenny's. Alongside the pumpkin are two fall leaves. The bottom panel is made up of two pieced black cats in different poses and a witch's hat. By creating tabs with velcro the lower panel can be removed following Halloween and the rest of the quilt displayed through Thanksgiving. I did some simple Free Motion Quilting and finished with a facing rather than a traditional binding. A wooden dowel across the top keeps it hanging flat. An additional tip? Next time you make a quilt that turns out slightly wonky, don't cut it square. Block it! When I crocheted afghans, they would often lay kind of wonky so I would block them. I did the same on this wall hanging and it really worked to get it square. I gently soaked it in the bath tub, used the washing machine to wring out the excess water, then I laid it over some spongy baby block tiles (don't know what they are called) and pinned it square. I set a fan to blow over it to help it dry.
Entire quilt. |
Thanksgiving Section |
Halloween Section |
Here it is on her living room wall. |