Ghastly Games

I don't know which is more inspiring...  seeing all the fabulous new fabrics making their debut at Quilt Market or seeing all the absolutely amazing Blogger's Quilt Festival quilts!  Either way, I just want to barricade myself in my studio and quilt my brains out:-)

I had the idea for this quilt last year but never got a chance to make it and it's been haunting me ever since.  As soon as October rolled around I started having all sorts of Ghastly thoughts:-)  I pulled out my stash and immediately got to it.

There are tons of great tutorials on how to make a circle quilt out there.  Mine is loosely based on this Liberty Mini (which I'm totally going to make someday) by Purl Soho.  I used the Easy Circle Cut ruler to cut my circles out of sheer fusible interfacing (Pellon 906F) then pinned this to my printed fabric so the fusible side is facing the right side of the fabric.  Stitch around the circle using a 1/4" seam allowance and then trim your circle using pinking sheers so you don't have to worry about clipping the curves.  Make a small slit in the fusible and turn the circle right side out.  DO NOT IRON!!!

Once all my circles were made I assembled the checkerboard background, basted it, and quilted 1/4" on either side of the seam lines.  Once I arranged the circles the way I wanted I fused them to the quilted top and then quilted around each circle.

You'd think I'd have learned my lesson but I used this leftover binding from my Ghastly Coffin quilt without measuring it first...  it was THAT close but I made it:-)

I was totally inspired by the fabulous presentation by The Story of Kat at our October BMQG meeting on hand-embroidered quilt labels.  My text is a little too tight and I definitely need to work on my stitches but I'm learning to embrace imperfection.

This perfectly captures my vision but those Ghastlies may still be haunting me;-)

Go find your inspiration at the Blogger's Quilt Festival!!!

Quilt Stats:
Finished quilt is 40" x 40"
Fabrics: The Ghastlies, Ghastly Family Reunion, and A Ghastly Night by Alexander Henry, Onyx Grunge by Basic Grey, Fairy Frost Glow White by Michael Miller
Batting: Quilter's Dream Orient
Thread: King Tut 978, Rosetta Stone