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Are You Ready for Halloween? Now You Can Make a Fun Halloween Quilt That Will Have Your Family and Friends Asking Where You Bought It. And this Quilt is So Easy to Make You are Sure to Have it Finished Weeks Before Your Trick-or-Treat Doorbell Rings.
From: Penny Halgren
Greetings Quilter, Halloween is one of my favorite holidays! I remember many Halloween evenings sorting through all of the various candy treats. And the Trick or Treat costumes! I remember one year when Stephanie was in pre-school, I spent hours making a Rainbow Brite costume. She looked adorable And one year when Bubba was in pre-school, he and his buddy, Thomas, were Ghostbusters - including the proton packs. Now that was fun! As my kids grew, their costumes took on a different look. Stephanie once made a costume from brown felt and went Trick or Treating as a bag of M&Ms. I think she was 10, she's now 27. Suffice it to say, it's been years since I made a costume. And I had never made a Halloween Quilt - until last year. I'd seen lots of designs, but nothing that really imspired me. And I just love Halloween fabric. But somehow, no Halloween quilt ever found its way to my sewing machine. Last Halloween, as I was looking at all of the fabulous Halloween fabric, I decided to create a special quilt - but what? In one way, I thought it might be fun to take small pieces of each of the 54 Halloween fabrics displayed on the rack at the quilt shop and make a scrap quilt. On second thought, I figured that would be rather boring. Maybe take a quilt block, like Spider, and make a bunch of them, each with a different fabric, and have a Spider quilt. Although that was slightly less boring than a simple scrap quilt, it still didn't get me too excited. Confused, but not discouraged, I headed home to think about a Halloween quilt some more. As I was looking through my books of quilt blocks, I started finding all different kinds of Halloween-themed blocks, with names like: The Bat, Spider, Witch, Ghost Walk, and Candle. As I sat looking at that variety of blocks, I wondered if I could tie them all together. Somehow, I also missed making a sampler quilt in my days as a beginner quilter. Or, maybe it was that I avoided it. It just seems like more fun to make a quilt with a theme than to make a bunch of blocks that are put together simply as sewing lessons. So putting a random Halloween collection of blocks together as a sampler and adding sashing between the block didn't have too much appeal either. Then it occurred to me - how about setting these blocks in window frames and making it look like a Haunted House? That sounded like fun, and pretty easy. But it didn't stop there. I always enjoy making interesting borders on my quilts. Then I thought of candy corn - those orange, yellow and white triangle shaped candies. Why not make a border that looks like candy corn? And then the whole quilt came together - Trick or Treat at the Haunted House As I looked at each block, I realized that this would make a great quilt to learn how to quilt or improve your skill, but it wouldn't seem like some kind of homework assignment from your high school teacher.
Each block in this quilt represents a somewhat different challenge - whether it is stitching it together or choosing the colors. This quilt gives you an opportunity to learn (or practice) all different sorts of piecing techniques. Some of the patches are simple squares and half-square triangles. Some blocks include Flying Geese and half-square rectangles. The Witch includes isosceles triangles, and Ghost Walk includes some curved piecing. And, to top it all off, each of these blocks is a slightly different size - on purpose! Some of the blocks are 4 patch blocks, some 9 patches, and to make the math easy, I decided to just make them a normal size for the block type that they are, and the 4 patches ended up being 8 inches finished size, and the 9 patches ended up being 9 inches finished size. Well, that assumes totally accurate piecing, which never happens at my house! So in my quilt, even the 8 inch blocks vary from 7 3/4 inches to 8 1/4 inches. Because each block is a different size, adding the window frames allows you have consistent size blocks before you add your sashing - one great technique for getting the same size blocks in your quilt. Plus, the different window sizes adds to the fun of the Haunted House theme. All of the blocks are great for beginning quilters, and following my easy-to-understand step-by-step instructions, you are sure to have a quilt you will be proud of - finished even before Halloween, if you start right away. Or, you can save it for next Halloween and work on it next year. The instructions show and describe exactly what to do and how to do it. You are literally walked through making this quilt. Nothing has been left out. I share all of my tips and shortcuts so your quilt can be finished with a snap of your fingers, and you can sit back and enjoy Halloween preparations with a Haunted House quilt hanging on your wall. And, your curves and window frames will be so perfect and so easy, your friends will be asking you where you bought the quilt! Quilters are raving about our Step-by-Step Learn How to Quilt Resources:
And this resource is just the same. Beginning quilters make beautiful quilts using our practical, no-nonsense resources. Intermediate quilters have refined their quilting skills using the Guides, and have learned new techniques that make their quilt making easier and quicker. Most of our other resources teach you how to make a quilt using just one block. This resource is very different. In this 154 page, fully illustrated step-by-step Guidebook, you get instructions for 12 different Halloween-themed pieced quilt blocks, including my original design - Pumpkin. I was shocked when I started looking for a cool pieced pumpkin block. There was none to be found, and when I started drawing one, I figured out why. Getting the triangle eyes and mouth just right without making them applique pieces is quite challenging. I spent hours playing, and finally got a design that is easy to piece and doesn't use any weird size pieces or applique! And the pattern for the quilt and each of the blocks is yours when you invest in the Trick or Treat at the Haunted House Quilt Pattern. You get 12 quilt block patterns and step-by-step instructions for each of the blocks including:
And you get the step-by-step instructions for putting the quilt together. This quilt has a unique feature in that each block is like a window in an Attic Windows block frame. These instructions show you exactly how to add the frames to each block in order to make its individual window. Then you will see how to trim each block and add the sashing with cornerstones, completing the center of the quilt top. These blocks will go together with ease, as you can see on the videos that are posted on my favorite video site, graspr.com:
Even this Border is Easy! Once you have competed sewing the blocks together, you can easily follow the step-by-step instructions to make the pieced triangle border. Although it looks complicated, the border is really simple, and following the directions, you can have it fit exactly, which can sometimes be a challenge when you are sewing a pieced border. The idea of this border was to have it look like candy corn pieces. And by simply sewing strips together and then cutting triangles, the candy corn border begins to unfold. Piece the different colored triangles between the candy corn triangles, and your border becomes an interesting part of the quilt design. Layer it, quilt it, and add binding, and your quilt will be ready for Halloween. Because Halloween is so close, I was really anxious for you to have an opportunity to make this fun quilt to decorate your house for Halloween, even though my quilt is still just a quilt top, and these instructions do not include quilting and binding the quilt. But, you see, there is no rule that says that a wall hanging for Halloween needs to be quilted and bound. It could be a great Halloween wall hanging with just raw, uneven edges! However, I know that it is important to many quilters to have a complete quilt, and because these aren't actually complete instructions, I'm offering this pattern to you at a very special Incomplete-Halloween-Quilt rate.
This isn't some whimpy pretend step-by-step book where they make a list of what you have to do, then let you figure out how to do it. Nope, this is our usual fully-explained step-by-step guide. The instructions for each block include 5 to 8 pages of great easy-to-understand instructions with actual photographs of making the block right next to the instruction. The instructions for adding the sashing and borders also include full-color photographs and easy-to-understand descriptions that range from 5 to 9 pages. Just enough to give you exactly the instructions you need to sew each step easily and perfectly. And all of the instructions include my tips and techniques for creating perfect blocks and borders.
This is Great! So, What's the Deal? At this point, you are probably thinking that this is going to cost a small fortune because it has so much information jam-packed into it. After all, usually you get instructions for just one block and finishing instructions that include a simple border. With this you get instructions for 12 different blocks, adding an Attic Windows frame, sashing and a pieced border. With this one resource, you could have everything you need to make this quilt plus 12 or more other quilts - each one unique - using one different block at a time or combinations of blocks. For example, you could make a quilt with just Witches and Bats for your 5 year old grandson. Or Pumpkins and Candles for your 12 year old granddaughter. Heck, mathematically, you could make hundreds of quilts using the instructions you get here. And if you had to go out and get the instructions for each of these blocks individually, you'd be paying at least $12 apiece, or $144.00 - and you wouldn't get the complete instructions, you'd be getting the "whimpy list of steps and you figure out how to do each one." Or, you could sign up for a workshop for each block and take up 12 Saturdays and $480.00. At least that way you would get some complete instructions - but think of your time, and you would be taking the notes. You get all of the notes in this package.
But, that's not the deal here. This deal is a simple $31 - the number of days in October - about the price of a small cup of McDonald's coffee a day - the unflavored kind! And you can decide any time during the month of October, because we are keeping this going until October 31. plus, as a special bonus deal, I will make a DVD of the videos that penny has made showing how to make this fun halloween quilt. just think, you will have the demonstrations at your fingertips. you won't have to remember where this page is, or where the videos might be online. and, it will save your fingertips so you can pet your cat - or dog!
Plus - you getSpecial Introductory Membership in TheQuiltingCoach.com
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