The Quilt Files, Episode 4

The big quilt is still in being displayed, but I have something totally cool and more appropriate for the season to talk about instead. As you'll remember, last time I wrote about my first applique project. It was fairly simple; a few large pieces, mostly symmetrical, so it was easy to fudge any flubs. My next applique project was a bit more complex, and it's hanging up in my entryway all this month:

I made this over the course of a couple of Septembers. The first one I spent piecing the background; relatively easy, because it was only a few squares with some borders in between. Then I looked at all the pieces that had to be appliqued onto the background and went, ulp! Back it went into my projects box until another September, when I had a little more confidence and a goal of getting it ready for Halloween. I tried not to think about the number of pieces to be appliqued (over 60, I think); instead, I just did a few at a time. I managed not to get any pieces cut out the wrong way, and got all the satin stitching done with the help of a ton of stabilizer. Then came the fun part!

It's hard to see on the big picture up above, but all the eyes on this wall hanging are made from buttons. Finally, something to do with the spare buttons in my button box! (I don't think I've ever made a shirt where the number of buttons I needed and the number of buttons I could purchase matched exactly, which is why I have a button box.) So some spare turquoise buttons came out for the cat; some gold buttons with crystal centers were given to the owl; I bought some iridescent purple buttons for the ghosts; and clear gold ones for the bat and this friendly spider here.

So now I have a Halloween hanging, to go with my regularly-scheduled rainbow round-the-world and the Christmas poinsettia my grandmother made for me. Someday, I hope to have a separate wall hanging for each month of the year, but that's going to take me a while. For now, I just have fun with this one every October.