Hallowe’en 1904 QAL–Step Six • Final Post

July 13, 2016January 12, 2017 Elizabeth E.6 Comments

First up, some business to take care of.

I recently had a post about creativity/uniqueness/Uppercase/Collaboration, where I had a giveaway with two Uppercase magazines and a charm pack of Uppercase Fabric. So many of your comments were incredibly thoughtful about the process of creativity and the quality of being unique. Several were very encouraging to me, which was quite appreciated and touched my heart. Of course, I’ve pasted them in my journal for those less-than-stellar creative days. Thank you all so very much.

I used the True Random Number Generator (I like to spread the love around the random number generators), and it picked Mary, of NeedledMom. Email is on it’s way to you, Mary, and I’ll get the treats mailed off to you this week!

Okay, back to Halloween 1904. This was our schedule:

Step 1 (Preparation): February 13, 2016–buy all the fabrics and find the pattern. Patterns are available from Primitive Gatherings. The quilt measures 90 by 90, which is too large for me, so I’m only doing nine blocks. Each block is 20″ square, and with the outer borders, that should come to roughly 65″ square. I may change my mind, but this looks good from here.

Step 2: March 13, 2016–Cut out the quilt: the tan backgrounds of the squares, the border triangles, the smaller half-square triangles, strips for the wonky stars, but save the piano key border for later.

Step 3: April 13, 2016–Assemble four blocks and add large appliques; use Thelma’s method (of Cupcakes and Daisies) for adding the curlicue stem. Make and add half-square triangeles (HSTs) around these blocks, using the 8-at-a-time method of HSTs.

Step 4: May 13, 2016–Cut and make the wonky star blocks from templates and strips. I’m doing five blocks, so will need to make twenty wonky stars and true them up. Add on the large outside triangles.

Step 5: June 13, 2016–Assemble the rest of the star blocks, by adding their HST borders. In the pattern, they are mixed up and varied, but also harmonized (some have a mix of orange and black, some have just black, some have just orange.) Make your own rules and go with it.

AND NOW! WE ARE AT Step 6: July 13, 2016–Arrange the blocks on your design wall and stitch together. Cut the pieces for your borders. Make the four corner pinwheels. Sew borders together and attach them to the quilt. Ta-Done!!

AND THERE IS AN UPDATE AT THE END OF THIS POST, added December 2016

We finished up here last time, with the center of the quilt put together, the blocks placed and sewn together (and yes, I fixed the lower sawtooth edge on the right). Leisa and I are making a 9-block quilt; the pattern calls for 12 blocks.

Make more HST blocks: there are four blocks per pinwheel, so this time I didn’t use the eight-at-a-time method, but instead, followed the pattern’s recipe for two-at-a-time (check there for dimensions).

Trim each HST to 3″ using your favorite method, then stitch four together to make a pinwheel.

Press, as shown, with all seams to the dark, popping a few stitches in the middle to allow the seam allowances to make their own tiny pinwheel. Halloween6_1

True the corner pinwheel square to 5 1/2.”

You’ll be making four corner pinwheels.

Cut your pieces for your borders, following the pattern directions. For the smaller nine-block quilt, adjust down to 24 total per side. I tried to randomize the sewing of the oranges in between the black pieces, as I had many more different types of orange. Just do your best.

Press the seams going one way. You’ll notice that you begin with a black and end with an orange piece (or visa versa). I chose to press my seams toward the orange, from the black, doing the same on all four border strips.

Matching all the seams, pin and stitch on the borders: I sewed on the top border and the bottom border and pressed the seam away from the quilt top (towards the border). Then I sewed the sides on, but I left one inch free on the beginning of that seam and on the end of that seam, which would allow me to stitch on the pinwheel blocks later. You can kind of see where it’s not sewn down, above.

Now, audition your pinwheels–you’ll like them going one way or the other, or swap them out to get the look that pleases you. But please don’t overthink this step. When you get them how you like them, stitch them on the side borders at both ends. Press. Then finish stitching the side seams.

Halloween6_5 Now press those seams away from the quilt top, towards the border. You are done!

I went outside in the sunset and took pictures of the completed quilt top.

I know when you were deep in wonky stars and then deeper in making millions of half-square triangles, you wanted to quit; however, this last part is easy-peasy, so you should come roaring into the finish line.

All Hallows Eve
Quilt #174
68″ square

Update (December 2016): I finished the quilt, taking it over to my quilter. She got it back to me by the end of November and by December, the binding and sleeve were on.

Here’s the back!
(Now back to the original post)

Congratulations on finishing your Halloween Quilt, and so early! Thanks for following along our QAL. Hope you enjoy your quilt this Halloween!

When you finish, send me a photo (or two) and I’ll put them up on the blog. Happy Haunting, everyone!

Halloween QAL · Quilts

Hallowe’en 1904 QAL–Step Five • Giveaway

June 13, 2016June 14, 2016 Elizabeth E.36 Comments

ATTENTION!! THE LAST TWELVE REMAINING PATTERNS OF HALLOWE’EN-1904 IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD ARE NOW AVAILABLE FOR SALE AT PRIMITIVE GATHERINGS ONLINE.

ONCE THEY ARE GONE. . . THEY ARE GONE!!!

Okay, see the rest of the post for the backstory.

When I was at Quilt Market, I stopped to see Alma Allen of Blackbird designs in her booth in the Moda section and asked her if she had any remaining Hallowe’en-1904 patterns. Because I’m running this QAL, I get a lot of questions like, “Where can I get the pattern?” for as you know, they’ve been rather elusive. Downright scarce, actually.

(Alma is shown above with her newest quilt, The Raven.)

“Well, actually,” she said (and I paraphrase), “I was going through the warehouse and found the last box of those–didn’t know I had them. There’s twelve. Would you like them?” Gulp, golly. . . YES! for I knew that a lot of people had been looking for them. I walked over to Lisa Bongean’s Primitive Gatherings Booth across the way (Lisa is the nicest person ever), and ~~since it was the last day of Quilt Market stammered out my request~~ asked her if she would buy them and get them for us? Yes, she said. And she has.

So here’s a link to the LAST REMAINING 12 PATTERNS ON THE FACE OF THE EARTH that you can buy. Get over there right now and get them. Alma does not intend to make this available as a PDF file after these are sold, so if you want one, you know what to do. Well. . . actually there’s only 11 now. (I just bought one.)

And yes, I do have a giveaway today, but it’s not the pattern (go and get one, NOW, before they sell out). Read through to the end to find out what our giveaway is for today. Now, on to the business of our Quilt-A-Long.

If you remember, I left you with the instructions to get your wonky/appliqued stars done and get them assembled into a block, and add those corner triangles. This month, you are going to make half-square triangles (HSTs) until your rotary cutter falls apart. I’ve updated the previous post about making wonky stars, as I refined the method as I went.

After making all these wonky stars, I just have to say it’s probably about similar the work in terms of appliqué vs. wonky. You’ll be sick of either method by the time you are done, but you’ll also be an expert in that method, too. (Making gives, and making takes.)

I laid all the blocks on my kitchen floor to motivate me to get going again. Notice that three of the “starry” blocks have orange stars, one has black stars and one is a mix. The big triangle borders are varied; I used deep green triangles on that one in the second row to the far right, but it’s so dark, it reads as blackish.

Now it’s time to make half-square triangles until your hand falls off. . .or your rotary blade needs changing. I use Bloc-Loc rulers to make my life easier in trimming, as it has a groove in the underside that nestles onto that fold of your seam, keeping it from moving around while you trim. I can do a whole bunch at one sitting and I think they are more accurate.

Now commandeer the guest bedroom, and lay out your star blocks. Lay out your HSTs around the edges. Because we use the 8-at-a-time method (talked about in an earlier post) I have multiple sets of 8 identical HSTs. I used three sets per block, swapping out a few here and there to keep the eye moving around my quilt.

Sew them on, as discussed in Step Three (that earlier post I keep referring to).

Because I had four appliquéd blocks, it was a no-brainer to put them in the position above for the initial run-through of placement. One by one, I put up the star blocks, auditioning them. Of course, I could have planned out where the dark triangles were and the HST color placement, but I didn’t.

This is how I ended up, complete with a whoops:

I’ll fix that today. But now I’m caught up with our QAL, and getting ready for the last step (yes!!) in our quilt making: the borders.

Here’s our schedule:

Step 1 (Preparation): February 13, 2016–buy all the fabrics and find the pattern. Mine was purchased from Common Threads in Waxahachie, TX (www.commonthreadsquilting.com). The quilt measures 90 by 90, which is too large for me, so I’m only doing nine blocks. Each block is 20″ square, and with the outer borders, that should come to roughly 65″ square. I may change my mind, but this looks good from here.

Step 6: July 13, 2016–Arrange the blocks on your design wall and stitch together. Cut the pieces for your borders. Make the four corner pinwheels. Sew borders together and attach them to the quilt.

Yes, I combined the last two months, so we’ll be done early–so you can get it quilted!

When I was at Market, I talked the people at the Steam-A-Seam booth (The Warm Company, who also make Warm and Natural Quilt Batting) telling them how much I liked their fusible product for the quilt I’ve been making (I used it on all the appliqué parts). I also used it on my Christmas Tree Skirt and really am a fan. Next thing I know she’s handed me some packages for a giveaway, so here I am, giving it away. There are two packages of Steam-A-Seam 2 sheets (5 sheets, 9 x 12 inches in size) and two packages of Lite Steam A Seam 2 (8 sheets of 9 x 12 inches). The Lite Steam A Seam 2 has upper and lower case letters printed on the the release sheet, so when you fuse them down, then cut them out, they’ll be going the correct direction. They also include one blank sheet for your design. Very cool product.

To win all FOUR packages (share with a friend), please leave a comment telling me if you think Halloween should be a kids’ holiday (candy, traditional costumes and pumpkin carving) or an adult holiday (more sophisticated, more zombies, blood and gore, fewer pumpkins). I’ll pick a winner and announce it on the next post. UPDATE: Giveaway now closed.

Halloween QAL · Quilts

Hallowe’en 1904 QAL–Step Four

May 13, 2016June 11, 2016 Elizabeth E.4 Comments

It’s the WONKY STARS step!

If you are appliquéing your stars onto your smaller background blocks, go for it and we’ll see you next month. For the rest of you, even those not making this quilt, I’ll walk you through a stack and slash version of a star, pioneered by Thelma of Cupcakes and Daisies.

You’ve seen this before; this is an image I found on the web some time ago of the quilt we are making, Hallowe’en 1904 by Blackbird Designs. Yes, we are again hard at it for the Hallowe’en 1904 Quilt-A-Long. All of four of us will have quilts ready for Halloween, so I’m excited about that prospect. Well, maybe it’s more than four of you out there in the Internets, but at least two of us — Leisa and I — will be among those finished in time for that fall celebration.

Again, Leisa and I are making NINE blocks, down from the original twelve in the pattern. I posted a version of smaller quilt *here,* using all twelve blocks and formulated by Mary Burton. But we’re doing nine, with four appliqué and five star blocks.

A recap of last month’s sewing:

Yes, all four are done, even the one with the weird-o leaf. It’s staying put for now.

Here’s my tip for touching up those stray bobbin threads that work their way up if you are doing satin stitch: get out a Sharpie marker in the color of your thread and color it in. I also use it for errant free-motion-quilting oopsies.

And this time, we’re heading right into How to Make A Wonky Star. If you want to go the traditional route, of cutting and appliquéing your stars down to your background, go ahead and get going, and we’ll see you next time, on June 13th. Anyone else who wants to learn this technique, stick around.

(from here)

It’s not a new technique as we used to use it to make things like nine-patch blocks: stack up a bunch of fabrics, cut, swap out the fabrics and sew. I also found a version of this stack-and-slash used in a star block, and the copyright on the page says it’s from 2000-2005. And Bethany Reynolds is credited with the first national use of the technique known as Stack-N-Whack. I tell you all of this to say there is nothing new under the sun, especially in quilting, but only new turns at an old technique or form or idea.

We’ll get this far this month, but will do five of these blocks, saving the points around the outside for next month (although you are free to move forward if you want).

Get out your strips of fabrics, cut according to the chart.

Different versions of the Stack & Slash Star pattern. Halloweenqal4_2 I drafted and revised this star block multiple times, trying to get the proportions of the Stack & Slash pattern correct. For this reason, please print off only enough for your own use. Please don’t print off enough for your mother or your girlfriend; send them here to get their own. Download the PDF file here: Stack&Slash StarEastmond Print off two: one to use for a template for your star patterns, and one to use as a map for when you are piecing.

You’ll notice on the pattern that there are lots of little diamonds and slashes. (These are your notches to help you get the thing back together. It doesn’t matter if you use mine, or make up some marking system of your own, but please do this!) Lay some clear template plastic over the pattern and trace. Looks like mine got reversed somehow, but really it just doesn’t matter one way or the other. Now pay attention to what is the center of the star (A1, B1, B2 and C1) and what is the background (all the rest).

Working with a single layer of fabric (yes, you can stack them up, but don’t put the fabrics back-to-back unless you want to have some “regular” stars and some “reversed” stars. It will drive you a bit crazy, but it’s do-able, in case you forgot), lay out the background templates. (See example below)

If you do the usual cut of WOF, you’ll have part of the fabric facing you and part of it will be facing down to the cutting table, because of that fold. Unfold it before cutting and you’ll avoid this problem. I just had to go back in and cut some parts “backwards” and I made enough for a star or two. So you’ll notice that some of my stars are wonky to the left, and some are wonky to the right. It just doesn’t matter. Really.

Cut around them.

Start stacking up your pieces underneath the templates as you cut them

VERY IMPORTANT: To get the appropriate amount of wonkiness, you’ll need at least FIVE different background fabrics, because there are 5 different pieces to the background. If you want to have the star pieces all different, you’ll need FOUR different star fabrics, because there are 4 different pieces to the star. But so you don’t lose your marbles in construction, cut FIVE different background fabrics and FIVE different star fabrics.

You’ll need to do some shuffling as you sew.

This is the “map” of the Stack-and-Slash Star (another printed copy) so I could use it as a way to keep all the pieces straight. Here you see five different star fabrics.

I cut, then laid out the five different background fabrics, too.

First we’ll do the BACKGROUND fabrics. Leave the star fabrics along.

1–Leave background stack A3 (upper left in this photo) alone. Starting with stack A2 (upper right), take the top fabric and move it to the bottom of the stack. Now move around the star in a clockwise fashion (or refer to the photo to the left which has the pieces listed).

2–Take C2: Take the top TWO fabrics and move them to the bottom.

3–C3: Take the top THREE fabrics and move them to the bottom.

4–B3: Take the top FOUR fabrics and move them to the bottom.

All the backgrounds have been switched, but the star’s pieces are still in the same order. Now we’ll do the STAR fabrics:

1–Referring the map above, start with A1 (leave it untouched).
2–B1: Take the top fabric and move it to the bottom.
3–C1: Take the top TWO fabrics and move them to the bottom of that stack. Now keep reading.

4–Since you have FOUR star pieces, you’ll need to do some switch the the top FOUR fabrics on the piece B2, and move them to the bottom of the stack. I don’t know why, and no, this isn’t the Gospel Truth, and yes, I could have said it wrong, but that’s what I did to get them all different. This way, when you sew that last star (star #5), you won’t have two the same on the last one. If you do it differently, please let us know in the comments.

If this is all too confusing, on YouTube there are multiple videos — just type “stack and slash,” or “stack and whack.” If you have a lot of time, *this* one is in four parts, but it’s very thorough.

Now we start sewing them together. Sew the A parts together.
Sew B2 and B3 together, then sew them to B1
Sew the C parts together.

Above I show how I’m sewing them in parts, always replacing them back on my “map.”

Some sections need straightening up before I sew the next seam. If they are too out of whack, just even them out.

Now all the B-pieces are sewn together.

Sew them to the C-pieces.

I evened out that edge. Notice that monster dog ear at the top right. Don’t even worry about it–just slice it off.

Join the sections together, pressing the seams to one side. All the outside edges are skitty-wampus, but it’s all sewn!

Now it’s time to even them up to our Gold Standard Measurement of 5 1/2″. Find the A1 piece and put that in the upper angle corner and then monkey your ruler around until you have a nice mostly-even space around all the start points.

I put tape on the 5 1/2″ mark so I could frame it up better. Now you see better how I laid it on the wonky star. Repeat this over and over. You can cut and sew a bunch and it goes much faster, but have chocolate at the ready.

Add on your outside large triangles, varying them from orange to black, as are your star points. We’ll save the outside HSTs for next month. So, get busy making wonky stars and we’ll see you on June 13th!

Here’s our schedule:

Step 1 (Preparation): February 13, 2016–buy all the fabrics and find the pattern. Buy your pattern from The Primitive Gatherings Online. Link is *here.* The quilt measures 90 by 90, which is too large for me, so I’m only doing nine blocks. Each block is 20″ square, and with the outer borders, that should come to roughly 65″ square. I may change my mind, but this looks good from here.