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A warm hello and thank you to the wonderful denizens of Bluesky who use the #quiltsky hashtag. I recently found out about this hashtag’s existence and used it over there, and a really wonderful community of people showed up and supported me when I was in the middle of this little project and GENUINELY considering abandoning it.
But I didn’t - and now I’m happy to say I finished this Halloween quilted table runner.
Here’s how it all went.
No one suffers more than the cats when their human is deep in the Quilting Mines. Or so they tell me. Good thing I have made a lot of progress and am getting closer to done on this one.
House maintenance projects seem to spawn more creative projects sometimes, often out of pure necessity. One recent represented quite a timebomb here at my house from the simple process of basement decluttering in prep for some urgently needed basement work. On a neglected shelf, this paper bag had been sitting for years and I had totally forgotten what was in there.
I put raised beds in my backyard this year and for the first time in a few years I was able to grow a few veggies at home. Life got busy and I definitely was not able to tend to things as I know I really ought to - honestly most years that’s how it goes with my gardening. Thank goodness nature is so resilient and persists despite my neglect. And also thank goodness I am not actually dependent on my garden for substinence, because clearly I’d do a poor job of keeping my family fed.
The temperatures are dropping around here and it’s feeling crisp and chilly. And I live in Massachusetts, home of Salem and all things spooky, so of course my mind is turning to Halloween.
I’ve had plans and stashed fabric for ages for Halloween quilts. The idea started in 2014 on a trip to Japan in mid-October. I saw how Halloween is interpreted in modern Japanese pop culture and I loved it - it was cute and just a little spooky, but nothing gory or creepy. Spoopy, I guess. That’s my jam, and this version of Halloween isn’t one I can easily find in the US for Halloween.
A quick writeup for a very quick project. I’m not telling you how to live or what to do, but just me personally, I really hate t-shirt quilts. I have look at lots of them, and I know people really love them to give and recieve, I know people have made good business making them, and I know people get very attached to their own. I get it! But I have genuinely yet to see one that I liked.
I don’t have the time or frankly ability to make my growing kid lots of cute clothing she’ll quickly grow out of - I limit myself to cozy pajamas and the like that will get a lot of repeat wear. But one thing I have made for her that has gotten a lot of mileage has been custom headbands.
You can buy headband ‘blanks’ at lots of craft stores or online. They’re just plain plastic, and you zjuzh them up by covering the plastic with fun fabric and any adornment you like. My kid loves a small bow slightly offset, so that’s what I make.
After buying the pattern in 2021, I recently decided to be brave and just get this project done. I had somehow convinced myself that my sewing skills weren’t up to this ‘advanced beginner’ pattern, I don’t know why. Maybe because it’s lined and I had a bad experience trying to make a lined jacket years ago for a costume?
Well, when I actually got started, I found this jacket to be a very satisfying and easy to make. I got it done in about a week, cutting to sewing.
I’m as guilty as anyone walking down the craft store aisles in August and September and oohing and aahing over the … frankly…. kind of UNREAL amounts of Halloween stuff that comes out now. I’m a proper millennial and love Halloween but even to me it’s starting to feel very excessive and, how shall I say, landfillcore?
But when I see something black cat related I do stop in my tracks and I gotta admit. Michael’s… ya got me with these two plaster cats. They were just unpainted and unprimed, as bare as can be, and have a little LED candle light inside so they glow. It’s up to you to make them truly yours. And well, I have two black cats for real, so it’s got to be a law somewhere that I must pay tribute to them. Right?
When your bestie sends you a sewing video in Instagram with zero ulterior motive but to share it and go “oh, cool!”, for me it is inevitable that I’m going to look at that sewing project and wonder if it’s something I can make for him. Because sewing isn’t really his thing, but if a sewing project caught his eye enough to send it my way, well, I take notice!