I love the timeless beauty of gingham (otherwise known as "Buffalo Plaid"). Michael Miller has the collection Gingham Play in beautiful colors that you've seen here before. Allow me to remind you of them! Gingham Play fabrics I combined them with another fabulous blender which Michael Miller has had for several years: Fairy Frost . Gingham Play and Fairy Frost I made about a dozen Grandmother's Flower Garden blocks using the Gingham (and some Cotton Coutoure ) and then some hearts out of the Fairy Frost. I used 2" paper hexagons. Of course, I had to rethink the colors of the threads I used because a standard white (which I use without thinking) was peeking through to the front. I have all sorts of bits and pieces of spools of thread that were perfect for these fabric colors. Hexagons and matching threads I've been playing with these off and on for over a year. Here is what I was able to pull together yesterday and photograph. Yes, I do have a turquoise Garde

I have been stitching a few dozen quilt tops into finished quilts and then donating them to my local quilt guild (Reston Quilter's Unlimited). To be honest, because I sew for a living, it's not hard to do. I take a lot of my class samples and put the teaching blocks together (when I retire a class) and then my friend Jeannie C. quilts them. I put the binding on and she adds them to the piles to go to various charities. This first quilt is from my Arrowheads workshop. Easy to make with NO funky templates! Fresh Catch Arrowheads: 48" x 48". Block Size: 12" I used some Windham Fabrics called Fresh Catch. And the back also has some fun motifs - perfect for that child who likes to go fishing with his/her dad or mom. Arrowheads quilt back The next quilt was made using some fishing motifs from Benartex: "Keep it Reel". Here is a closeup of some of the panels. I had a blog post last year on how I used these fabrics to make some simple pillowcases. Some fabrics

 Owls. And cats. Who gives a hoot? Owl Be There. Two giant 18" blocks I fussy cut these hexagons so I could capture those awesome tree motifs with the hooty-owls perched up in the curly limbs. Isn't this the cutest fabric? It's an older one by Benartex: Owl Be There. One 18" block And here is a REALLY old quilt with some very cute motifs. I was working with fat quarters, so that's how I was able to give it a border. This appeared in my second book, Supersize 'em Quilts (2009, Martingale). Big Block Star And some really cute pillowcases from several years ago. I gave these to my little grandsons (who aren't very little anymore). Fun Halloween pillowcase (front) I had to piece the pillowcase because of the amounts of fabric I had. Not to worry. Kids don't mind! Back of pillowcase And the last pillowcase I'm sharing today. There's one of those owls captured in a smaller hexagon. But - oooooh - where did those spiders come from? I hope you've e

This is one of my very oldest Halloween quilts that I still own. I distinctly remember buying this kitty fabric at Walmart for $1.00 a yard! I had just learned a new technique from a guild friend which I called Magic Stax. This was before Bethany Reynolds published her similar technique called Stack 'n Whack. I made this in 2002 and it was published in Quilt Magazine. Halloween Pinwheel Quilt Here is a photo of the fabric. Note that sweet kitty (who's about to be chopped into little triangles). Then when you cut seven more squares the EXACT size, cut them and then swap the piles, you get a kaleidoscope result! This is SO much simpler than cutting all those individual triangles. One stack of 8 triangles become one kaleidoscope block And then a second group of 8 triangles: I have made several quilts using this technique. Do a search for Pinwheel blocks and you will find them here. Here are two other quilts with black cats featured. This was made about 20 years ago and these block

So many cute prints - and since I've been sewing for a few fabric companies for the past 25 years, I've had my share of these fabrics. These are from 2014, the Spooktacular Collection by Benartex. Spooktacular Collection I made some little bloomers for my granddaughter. And can you believe those ribbons of ghosts and pumpkins? I wish I still had some. I think I gave them to my grandsons. Then I wanted to capture some of those "harmless" looking spiders and feature them in - what else - a quilt! I cut out squares and then sewed corner triangles on them. You may remember this picture from 2014. Here's one of those snowballed blocks: a bottle of Hell Fire - can you believe it? And the finished quilt was perfect when I captured those border rows of bottles of witches' concoctions. I sent this to one of my little grandsons in Pennsylvania. Spooktacular Quilt And my grandsons were still little in 2014 (elementary age now), so I made them some pajama pants. Aren'

This is my Halloween Boo Quilt . It was the result of a quilt guild block swap and I won these 6 blocks! I saw them as houses and I gave them roofs and fences and made a neighborhood of them. I quickly added those bats, a tree, the fencing and, of course, BOO! Halloween Boo Quilt : 52" x 72" Two of the blocks are from commercial patterns, so I couldn't exactly replicate them in my Etsy pattern , but here are a few that are: Ghost and pumpkins Moon and pumpkins The Great Pumpkin And, yes, I have patterned the bats and cat and the BOO! And the tree, fence and star! What about those bats? I have shared them a few times in the past. Here is a table topper I made several years ago. And, oooohhh! Those creepy spiders! Bat Wreath Let's see the appliqué patches before they were attached. They're just chilling on that piece of fabric. Bats And here is the quilting from the wrong side. I used these images many times in my annual quilting calendars. Here's one from 2013

I've made quite a few Halloween quilts over the years. Fun fabrics combine with easy blocks to make great holiday creations. Though, to be honest, it was my LEAST favorite "holiday." When my 3 daughters were growing up, the schools always had dress-up days for Halloween and they went on parades throughout the school. I didn't want my kids to be ostracized, so I played along. Only one rule: they couldn't be anything "wicked" or "evil." And I was NOT going to invest more than one hour's worth of sewing time! And, yes, I did take them out trick or treating in our neighborhood (and left my husband home to hand out all that "yummy" candy to the other kids). Here is Harvest Pumpkins . It was first published in Quilt Magazine in 2004. It appears in my 2012 Wall Calendar of Quilts (which is now a 92 page pdf I sell on Etsy). There are a total of 13 quilt patterns in there! But, you may be interested only in this quilt (and not the other