Monday, October 31, 2011

The Ghastlies are HERE!



OH Ghastlie....

If you have this thing for Ghastlies
and they have tied you in a knot
and you wish you could get them out of your mind
than this may be a thought.

We heard her plea for a cure
Mdm Samm was pos/it/ively sure
that we could stitch the nights away
in hopes that we MAY----
( all 54 of us)  

BUT....

The side effects are Ghastlie
there is no mistaking too.
if you don't run this very minute
YOU too will catch the FLU...

We suspected all along 
this was her master plan
she did not want to be alone,
 with all - YOU Ghastlie FANS...
I have been just DIEING to show you my Ghastlie project!  Now I feel a bit goulish after so many wonderful Ghastlie projects have been shown!   Mine shadows in comparison!
Behold, the Ghastlie quilt!
When I first saw this quilt pattern at Kim's Big Quilting Adventure, I knew I had to make one similar!  I changed it up a little bit, leaving out the pink stars (I'm not a pink kinda girl!) and doing mitered corners on the border print.  The print was really difficult to piece together, and I ended up leaving it off the top since it's a directional quilt and that would be under the pillows anyhow.








For the quilting, I used my walking foot to first lay out a grid for the spiderwebs.  Then, I did each block individually and FMQ'd the interlocking webs.  I went in a spiral so I could keep the stops and overlapping stitches to a minimum.  I did use Hobb's poly-down batting in black, which I'm not sure if I like or not.  It did make it a bit more difficult to quilt compared to the usual Warm & White that I'm used to!  But, the quilt does feel really warm and fluffy because of it!  The backing is solid black, so I chose to do all the quilting in black.  Except the border - I was going to use green thread for the border with black in the binding, but I couldn't get my tension quite right - so ended up using clear in the top and black bobbin.  It worked out well, and I just did a random stipple in the border.  I have added this one to my Etsy shop.

I also got a great idea for using up my scraps from this quilt into another Halloween quilt when I saw this project on Moda Bake Shop.
I cut into all my purples and oranges in my stash, and some blacks and grays too.  I cut WAY too much and ended up with enough for 3 quilts!  One ''jelly roll'' I put in my Etsy shop, but one I saved for today!  One lucky winner will win this 'jelly roll' today.

Just leave a comment to be entered to win!  I will also be drawing a second name to give to Madame Samm Ghastlie at Sew I Quilt for the blog hop winner!
Good luck everybody!

And don't forget to visit the rest of the blogs in today's hop!
ON Monday October 31st
Day 6

Mrs Barb Ghastlie

EDITED TO ADD:
I had another Ghastlie finish - a quilt 'flimsy' finish.  I had so hoped to complete this quilt by today, but it was not to be.  I followed the Moda Bake Shop pattern, but made it bigger (it finished at 80x85).  I found the perfect mottled green that goes with the green print leftovers that I fussy cut for the equilateral triangles between the webs.





I am hoping that sometime this week I will get around to basting it so I can quilt it.  It can still be a Ghastlie November, right?  They are at the dinner table, maybe it's for Thanksgiving?! LOL :)


Friday, October 28, 2011

Blogger's Quilt festival - fall 2011

 If you are already a follower, this will be old news to you, but if you've never been here before....


Behold, my yummy scrumdillyumptious HST Wee Play quilt!

Warning, picture overload!
Prior to washing:


and then the post-washing wonderful crinkliness below!







 Then, I got my 17 year old son to hold it up for me outside........



then it went for a photoshoot on my vintage Serro Scotty camper trailer:


OK, the details about this quilt:
Wee Play by American Jane for Moda ( I can't remember if I used 3 or 4 charm packs - and equal white squares, which was a quilter's cotton)
Endless possibilities pattern from Moda Bake Shop
80/20 cotton/poly batting
100% sewn and quilted on my Pfaff Tiptronic sewing machine (no long-armer here!)
quilting - done with a variegated red cotton Gutermann (which was incredibly linty!) - I think I have about 8 hours into quilting this!
binding - scrappy to match, machine sewn to front, hand sewn to back (about 2 1/2 hours ugh)
backing - I believe this is by Benartex, but it wasn't labeled, so I'm not positive......  
here is the secret of the quilting......

This one is now in my Etsy Shop
I used a pre-printed backing and ''sort of'' followed the lines. I had to baste it with the back-side up as if the top was the backing and the backing was the top.  I used a bazillion safety pins to baste and I am happy to say that I cannot notice one pleat in the front!  There might be tiny ones, but I can't see any, so it worked out great!  I took artistic liberties to make some curves curvier and I didn't worry too much if I went off course a bit - you can't tell at all now that it's washed and the blue lines have washed out :)  I think this backing is from Benartex, but I'm not positive.  It was stuff I got before my LQS closed (owner retired) and they had a huge clearance sale.  It was cheap and I got all they had - now I wish there had been more!  I have enough to do another small quilt with this though, but I'm going to have to piece and wing it on matching up those lines where I piece it.  Should be fine for a baby quilt or lap quilt though :)

EDIT: one of my readers found sources for this backing material at fabric.com and at quiltnutsandbolts.com - it IS Benartex - thanks so much Linda!!!

Monday, October 24, 2011

design wall Monday - hexagon flowers

well, I didn't work on any quilting other than my hexagon flowers this week.  I have been too busy with ''work'' and family.  I did get some really cute hexie flowers done though!


and I'm getting a nice little stack of them!


I did do some stash cutting this morning when I saw the Halloween quilt project on Moda Bake Shop -
I cut 2 1/2'' strips of  blacks/grays/purples/oranges in my stash, and ended up with WAAAY more than I need for one quilt.  So, I have an extra ''jelly roll'' that I've put in my etsy shop.


Don't forget about the Ghastlies Blog hop that started today!  5 bloggers have posted their Ghastlie project and they ARE GHASTLIE!  And wonderful!!!  Be sure to check them out!  And don't forget to comment! :)



                                                              ON Monday, October 24th