Good Morning, Quilters!
Today, I will share my quick process for creating the Pumpkin whole cloth quilt.
First, I’d like to welcome all the new readers joining us from around the world, and from my own backyard. I had the pleasure of meeting so many new quilters this week at Sew With Me in Lake Elmo, MN! We had a great time quilting Halloween-themed motifs together!
Halloween Whole Cloth Quilts
I LOVE quilting for Halloween! This 15 x 15 inch pumpkin wholecloth quilt took me just a few (contented) hours to quilt. I was in my happy place: sitting at my BERNINA Q20 sit-down longarm, playing with thread. (If you are in the market for a sit-down longarm, I LOVE the Q series machines, and BERNINA is doing a trade-in event right now.)
Minimal Marking Method
When I have just a few minutes to be in my sewing room, I love to make small whole cloth quilts. They don’t require a lot of preparation, so I can get right to the fun part of quilting: playing with thread and motifs. Over the years, I’ve realized that I am an impatient free motion quilter. I don’t want to spend a lot of time prepping a quilt, I just want to quilt. I usually mark just a few broad outlines, and then jump in and start stitching. In this pumpkin quilt, I marked the outer square and the pumpkin and in less than five minutes, I was ready to go.
Thread First
With the quilt marked, the next task was to choose a few threads. As you may know, I have an enormous collection of cotton, Rayon, Polyester and specialty threads, so narrowing the candidates takes a bit of time. This is play time. In the border of the quilt, I look for colors that blend, a few that contrast, and then I look for a specialty thread or variegated thread that has a little WOW factor. In this quilt, the WOW factor thread was Fabulux, a variegated, 30wt trilobal polyester from Wonderfil.
Test Tension
Once I narrowed the spool candidates, I began stitching samples in the border. First I swirled and twirled, then I added a few Jack-o-Lanterns (the Jack-o-Lantern motif tutorial) and Diamond motifs as I worked to adjust the tension. I always plan to cut off these initial tests when I bind the quilt, but more often than not, I get carried away quilting the borders and incorporate the swirls into the final quilt edges. The random motifs add interest in the borders. That’s it! A few marks, choose thread, test tension and quilt!
The Pumpkin Whole Cloth Quilt is Fun!
When you have fun quilting, your quilts will be fun! I hope you can tell I enjoyed creating this quilt. It’s not perfect. Instead, it has a hand-drawn quality and the imperfections keep you looking. Remember that whenever you get frustrated with your quilting–perfection is over-rated and it looks computer-generated. The imperfections are a feature, not a flaw! Make several of these little quilts-because all your friends and family will want one to tuck under their Jack-o-Lantern!
Website Email List
I think the email list is sorted out…If you got this post notification in your email–then you are on the list! Thank you for all your patience!
The Quilt Projects List
Searching for and listing projects continues at my house….(Read more at Create a Quilt Project Inventory.)
We will be setting priorities soon!
Please Share!
Have you completed YOUR inventory?
Are YOU quilting any Halloween quilts?
What is your favorite Spooky motif?
We’d LOVE to hear!
Happy Haunted Quilting!
Lori
PS…More Free Motion Machine Quilting 1-2-3 has the Halloween motifs. It’s available in print HERE and now available as an e-book HERE.
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Kathie
Sadly, I did not get an email of this post, but my Bernina newsletter did route me to your new website. So nothing lost and everything gained. I don’t celebrate halloween. I do love pumpkins as a fall motif. I get inspiration from the motifs from your books whenever I start a new project.
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Donna Johnson
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