Happy Halloween - a little early

When I first learned to quilt I went to the Annual Quilt Odyssey in Hershey. Pennsylvania. I found these cute little foundation pieced block patterns called Little Bits by Cindy Edgerton. They were miniature quilts printed on tissue paper. There were so many I liked and they were only $5 each (for 4 copies of the pattern), so I bought a few. The only place I could find them was at the Hershey Show, so each year I’d go back and buy some more. I even bought duplicates and didn’t even realize it until I moved.
I never made any of the patterns because the first time I tried I ripped up the tissue paper and just couldn’t finish the project. Well, I really wanted to make a mini-quilt for my cubicle at work. I recently moved into a new building with very neutral colors and I wanted something bright and fun, so I decided to try the Little Bits Halloween Miniature Quilt. I taped the tissue paper to copy paper, scanned it into the computer and then printed it on the paper I use for paper piecing. It worked perfectly.
This weekend I pieced the quilt together, it’s adorable. Just need to sandwich, quilt (stitch in the ditch) and bind and it’ll be ready to hang. But it’s an October quilt for Halloween and September is just starting and when I looked in my stack of patterns, I found a perfect mini for September. I’m going to try to make that one this weekend. But in the meantime, here’s the top of my Miniature Halloween Quilt.

Quilt for Cindy

I have owed one of my friends a quilt for a while. She likes angels and I bought fabric about 5 years ago for a lone star/angel quilt. Never did get it made. Then I found some Jim Shore angel fabric a few years ago and got that and some coordinating fabric. When I found out I’d been moving away, I planned to make matching wall hangings for us out of that fabric. Never did get those made either. Then I found out she was getting married. Perfect time to make her quilt. Except I put it off too long and then I had surgery and couldn’t sew.

Then I finally recovered from the surgery and twisted my knee so I still couldn’t sew. If I hadn’t waited until the last minute to decide I would make a quilt this wouldn’t be a problem. But .... finally I was feeling better and really wanted to make the Jim Shore angel quilt. Once I decided what I wanted to do, I was sure I wouldn't get even close to done in time for her wedding celebration and Aloha party (she is moving to Hawaii with her new hubby) and was pretty sure I wouldn’t even get done in time for her birthday, so I decided a Christmas present would be best.

But I went and got a cortisone shot in my knee and was feeling pretty good, so I figured I’d see what I could get done so I could at least show her a block or two or a picture. It was amazing. Once I decided on a plan, it went together smoothly and quickly. Hardly any unsewing necessary. I actually got the top done the day before I was flying back to Maryland for her party. It came out much better than I thought it would. I didn’t have enough of the Jim Shore fabric and wanted to use purple since it’s her favorite color, and luckily in my stash was the perfect color and with some creative thinking I was able to incorporate the coordinating fabric - made hearts and stars blocks with fussy cut angels in the center - alternated those with Jim Shore angels from the panel I had bought - and put it together with some gorgeous gold fabric for sashing – the top was beautiful.

But I didn’t have any time to get it quilted. So I called my favorite long arm quilter (Peggy in Jarrettsville) and she fitted me and my quilt in to her very busy schedule. I dropped the quilt and backing off on Thursday (rented a car and went right from the airport). She let me pick the thread and quilt design and I found a design that matched the blue fabric and a thread that matched the gold sashing. She must have stayed up late because Friday morning she called to say it was done. AMAZING!!! I drove back (2 hours) and picked it up – and she let me trim and sew the binding on at her house. It looked perfect. She even pressed it all out for me so all I had to do was hand sew the binding to the back. So I headed back to Fort Washington to spend some time with my best bud who lives there and we watched movies while I hand sewed. I got it done Friday night and Saturday was the party. It worked out perfectly.

Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of Cindy with her quilt, but she loved it. I posted a picture of the top on facebook and my daughter said it was my best quilt I had made so far. But she didn’t even get to see it all quilted and bound. It’s even better in person. And it really is my best work to date. Love it. Hope you enjoy the pictures.