Halloween Circle

Up until now I've been writing about my designs chronologically. I'm going out of sequence now because this is a good time for a Halloween design.

This was based upon my "Circle of Seasons" which I'll write about soon. It has a snowflake in the center, then spring green leaves, flowers and along the outside fall leaves. As I was working on it, my mind wandered on to other possible circles, the Halloween Circle being one of them. I changed the outer fall leaves and decided to fill the center with Halloweeny designs. The bats and the pumpking came quickly. I even tried a bigger pumpkin in the center. But I abandoned that when I came up with the spider idea. 4 small spiders are way too many spiders for me. So the pumpkins became smaller and went in the inner circle. I love the pattern the vine makes as they curl around.

The spider was a challenge. All my initial sketches either looked dorky or too cutesy for this design. There's nothing wrong with a cutesly spider, but I didn't want one here. (That sounds like a challenge to me - maybe I'll have to come up with a good cutesly spider now) I design best from observation but I draw the line at going into the yard and looking for good spider specimens (If I still lived in Arizona it would be easy). So, I did the next best thing and went to the library for an insect and spider identification guide. The spider is still totally made up. But I used the (really creepy) spider pictures in the guide to gauge body and leg length and proportions. I think the plan worked rather well because if I catch that spider in the corner of my eye I have to repress the urge to smack it. (Absolutley no spiders where harmed during the design and stitching of this pattern)

I've designed many versions of a "Chrismtas Circle" and a "Winter Circle" but haven't hit upon the magic combination where it "works" yet. Stay tuned, I'll have more circles eventually.

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It's about time - the big reveal

My bright quilt was finished in June but I wanted to wait until both were done before sharing the pictures. Quilting the blue quilt didn't take long but finishing the binding sure did. I did procrastinate a bit as it was too warm to have a huge quilt on my lap for most of the summer. After this, I'll probably do all the binding on my sewing machine (and stick to smaller quilts). Notice the cut-out corners? That was a challenge. I found instructions here and it looked easy enough but I wished I had practiced some. After a lot of finessing I finally got good miters but I could have done much better. The cut-out corners allow the quilt to hang nicely over the edges of the mattress and it's a perfect match for a full sized mattress. But, the top edge isn't even close to the pillows. I wonder how the quilt fit on the bed it was made for. Here, at last, is the original quilt that I was copying. I just noticed - all of the baskets are

The last 2 blocks and the tops are done!

I needed 2 more blocks to finish the gray version of the quilt. I ended up making simple 9 patch/half square triangle blocks. One is the yellow block in the lower left. Here it is closer up. When I made the half square triangles I had the red fabric going the wrong way so you are seeing the backside of the fabric. So the red in the triangles is a little lighter than the red in the center. It wasn't worth redoing. The other corner has a blue block and I managed to get the front of all the fabrics showing. So, here's what it looks like almost complete. And here's the blue version of the quilt. I've got the backing and the batting for the gray quilt (the backing is in the washer now) and I'm working on the thread to use for quilting and how to quilt it. They are too big for me to free-motion quilt. I don't have the space. As it is, quilting with the walking foot will be a challenge. These tops deserve so

Basted

A few weeks ago I was at the Local Quilt store basting my bright sampler. It's been ready to go for a while. I've been working on a baby quilt and it's now done. It's been a while since I've quilted so I'm glad I had a quilt to warm up on. Next I need to pull a folding table out of the garage and re-arrange my quilting space. This quilt will have a lot more drag than the baby quilt. I've also been looking at pictures of similar quilts looking for quilting pattern inspiration. I'm thinking of taking the easy way out and u se wavy lines like this quilt . I should start quilting next weekend!

Erica's Stitches

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