Halloween Couch Quilt

I machine pieced this quilt on my Bernina 240.

I quilted this quilt on my Janome QMP-18 long arm.


Finished size: 62" x 74"

(click on photos to enlarge)

🎃FINISHED QUILT:🎃

Front piecing: I followed the construction tutorial for Pat Sloan's "String Bean Challenge" to make these 16 Halloween-themed rectangular blocks, arranging them in a 4x4 grid.

Border: A 5" border (orange on one side, pieced Halloween fabrics on the other) surrounds the quilt's center.

Backing: The solid purple backing of this quilt showcases the spider web quilting so well! It is 2.5 yards of fabric, split diagonally and widened using a strip of pieced fabrics, framed with a 5" border of more festive Halloween prints.

Quilt Stitching, Center Pattern: I quilted the center using edge-to-edge "Spiders and Web" from Wasatch Quilting.

Quilt Stitching, Border Pattern: I quilted the borders using "Bat and Spider Border" from Intelligent Quilting.

Quilt Stitching, Thread: I used "Charcoal" (So Fine 50 #410) thread for the front of the quilt, and "Black" (So Fine 50 #411) thread on the back. For the borders, I used "Black" (So Fine 50 #411) on both the front and back.

Label: I embroidered my name and the year in black thread right onto the binding, one of my favorite ways to label a quilt.

Binding: I used the same purple fabric for the binding as for the center of the quilt, attached by sewing machine.

🎃INSPIRATION:🎃

I made this quilt for someone who is a Halloween afficiando, and has sadly been displaced by Hurricane Ian. Due to flooding, she has lost her home and virtually everything -  when she uses this quilt, I hope it brings her heart a little bit of happiness, knowing that she is being thought of and wishes for love and peace have been sent out into the universe for her.

💀PROGRESS PHOTOS:💀

This quilt was "built" in two phases. 

Phase 1: The center blocks were pieced and joined with sashing, the backing was pieced, then everything was quilted. However, after I removed it from the long arm frame, I realized it needed to be larger to really serve as a good couch-sitting, book-reading, cuddling quilt. To make it larger, I added 5" wide borders...

Phase 2: Pieced the borders, joined them with batting onto the previously quilted center, then quilted the borders separately with them already attached to the quilt!

🎃🎃🎃

PHASE 1

Construction (Blocks & Sashing):

An awesome quilting friend gave me all of the Halloween fabric scraps she had...and I also had some Halloween fat quarters in my stash from the "I Spy" quilts I make, as well as several saved scraps that would work great with the bold Halloween colors. I began looking for a block-based design that would highlight the colorful, fun patterns.

 I found Pat Sloan's "String Bean Challenge", and made 16 blocks, arranging them in a 4x4 grid.

Then I added sashing using starched black and white dotted strips, 2.5" wide.

I sliver-trim every time I join blocks and rows together, to be sure the end result is (hopefully) a quilt with a straight edge.

With all the blocks and sashing sewn together. At this point, the quilt top is 52" x 64". Might be large enough for a young person, but I began to wonder if it needed to be bigger.

Construction (Backing):

I had 2.5 yards of the solid purple I wanted to use for the backing, but it wasn't wide enough - it was about 7" too narrow. So I widened the back by making a lengthwise diagonal cut.

Then I chain-pieced together several squares from the Halloween fabrics I had left after piecing the center.

Once the pieced strip was added to the two halves of purple fabric, the backing was now more than wide enough.

Quilting (Center):

With backing and batting loaded, I float the top to be sure everything is squared and ready.

(I baste each quilt sandwich completely, down one side, across the belly bar, and back up the other side, advancing and repeating, before I actually quilt it).

"Spiders and Web" from Wasatch Quilting is a really cool design, and I discovered that the repeated rows wrapped and nested quite easily using my ProStitcher software.

Beginning the first of 8 rows.

Love the dark stitching against the colorful fabric patterns!

Coming up on the last row.

Once I finished on the long arm, I removed the quilt and saw how the stitched webs and spiders looked so amazing on the solid backing! In fact, I felt like the back of the quilt could also serve as a front, too. A truly 'reversible' quilt.

Trimming (Center):

Squaring and trimming the quilt's outer edges.

🎃

However, after I finished quilting and trimming, I realized this quilt needed to be bigger to really serve as a good snuggling-book-reading-TV watching quilt. To make it larger, I decided to add 5" wide borders, increasing its overall width and length by another 10". 

This would be the first time I tried adding borders to an already quilted quilt!

🎃🎃🎃

PHASE 2

Construction (Borders):

To add borders to the already quilted center, I referred to two different tutorials:

How to Make Your Quilt Bigger When It's Already Been Quilted

How to Make a Finished Quilt Bigger

, 

I layered the borders with a solid orange fabric for the front and a pieced novelty fabric border for the back, then sewed them onto the quilt. I followed with attaching a batting strip by zig-zagging an edge to the seam created from the previously attached borders.

After the fabric-plus-batting-borders were added, I pressed everything flat and trimmed the edges. 

Quilting (Borders):

To quilt the borders, I used "Bat and Spider Border" from Intelligent Quilting.

I first loaded the quilt to only stitch the two side borders.

I setup each 5" wide side to accept two rows of the "Bat and Spider Border". I wrapped the two rows to nestle, and I stitched so the spiders were facing the center of the quilt, and the bats were flying away. 

After finishing the sides, I took the quilt off the long arm, sewed on the top and bottom borders, then loaded it back onto the long arm for the final border quilting.

Trimming (Borders):

I lined up my ruler to cut exactly 5" from the seam where the borders were joined to the quilt's center. That way the quilt's outer edge will be parallel to the squared quilt.

💀💀💀

BINDING:

I joined together several 2.5" wide strips of solid purple fabric, until I had around 300" of binding.

Then I embroidered a very discreet label of just my name and the year, using black thread to be as inconspicuous as possible.

First I attached the binding fabric to the back of the quilt, using my sewing machine and a 1/4" seam...

...then I wrapped the binding around to the front of the quilt.

I always stitch on bindings using my Bernina 240's blind hem foot for nice and precise seams. 

WASHING:

I machine washed the finished quilt twice (cold water, no bleach) using dye trapping sheets (I use either Color Catchers or Color Grabbers). Lots of purple dye was washed away!

After washing, the quilt is wonderfully wrinkly and puckery, and also much softer. It drapes very nicely, too.

🎃QUILT SUMMARY:🎃

I machine pieced this quilt on my Bernina 240.

I quilted this quilt on my Janome QMP-18 long arm.

Finished size: 62" x 74"

Front piecing: 16 sashed Halloween-themed blocks made using Pat Sloan's "String Bean Challenge", arranged in a 4x4 grid.

Border: A 5" border (orange on the front, pieced Halloween fabrics on the back) added after completely quilting the center grid of blocks.

Back: Solid purple backing, split diagonally and widened using a strip of pieced fabrics, framed with a 5" border of more festive Halloween prints.

Binding: Machine-attached solid purple binding.

Quilting - Center Pattern: Edge-to-edge "Spiders and Web" from Wasatch Quilting. 

Quilting - Border Pattern: "Bat and Spider Border" from Intelligent Quilting.

Quilting - Thread: "Charcoal" (So Fine 50 #410) for the front of the quilt, and "Black" (So Fine 50 #411) on the back, as well as both front and back of borders.

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