The final "Home is Where the Haunt Is"

The finale Halloween "Home is Where the Haunt Is" Quilt Along

For those of you just joining in, this is our Halloween Quilt Along.  This is the finale section of this project.  This pattern was designed by Kim of Kimberbell Designs.  She has wonderful instructions and lots of pictures.  You will enjoy this pattern.  Quilt kits are available in our shop!  You will need to purchase your own personal pattern for the dimensions and specific instructions.  

This quilt pattern will boost your quilting and sewing skills!  I highly recommend it!

 The Haunted House section is one of my favorite blocks in this quilt.  I really should title this "Did I really just do that?"  You'll find out why - read on.

Just a quick photo of the fabrics in your bag for section 7.   You will also need some scraps from your previous blocks for the pumpkins.  That tiny bag is housing our buttons.  The batting, muslin, and twine are for the little sign.   Follow the pattern dimensions and instructions for sewing the background pieces together.  Pictures of background fabrics are below.

 This section was all about practicing those new skills -  Like how to press the fusible web to the right side of the fabric? NOT!  Yes!  I did that.  It upset me too because I didn't have any extra fabric in my stash like this print.  I live a couple of hours from our fabric shop so there was no way to cut another piece by today.  I would have loved for that texture to be in the windows.  

 Here you can see that I have traced all of the pattern pieces onto the fusible web paper side and pressed them to BACK side of my fabric pieces.  Yes you can see my windows will be a nice boring cream color.  If you make a mistake like this and you purchased your kit from us, just email us and we might have some extra squares for you! 

I have trimmed my applique pieces on the solid line, peeled off the fusible web paper, and laid them out on the background.  NOTE the ric rac pieces tucked under the pumpkins.  I used a little fabric glue to hold them in place.

This comes together much faster than it looks.  I used the leftover gold from the witches hatband for one of my pumpkins.  Iron your background before you lay out the applique pieces.  I did this but the camera is picking up a couple of creases in the fabric.  

 The  windows have a machine straight stitch through them.  I measured and marked the center of each window so that I had a guide to follow.  You may want crooked panes.  Notice the door has stitching as well.

Again, I machine blanket stitched the applique edges.  Lesson 2 of this project has more "how to's" on applique.  I really needed this practice.  I didn't use any freezer paper or stabilizer for this applique.  If you feel like you need it, you may want to use some.  I really don't like the tear-away brands and I don't like the added expense of the wash away brands.   Starching your background fabric also helps with your applique to prevent puckers. I really didn't have any problems with puckers on this project.   Here is a link if you want more information:  Click here

 The points - stop before the end and decide how you want to proceed.  With a right angle, it is easy to stop at the corner with the needle down and rotate your fabric.    Because I didn't want stitch overlap on the tips of the moon, I stopped before the tip about one stitch length with needle up and switched to a straight stitch.  I sewed to the end of the moon applique leaving the needle down, rotated the fabric, and sewed a couple of stitches down the other side, lifted the needle, and switched back to a blanket stitch.  

Tip close up.   Remember to sew slow and steady as you blanket stitch around those curves.  As you practice, you will learn what works best for you.  I don't like to stop and rotate on larger curves like this.  I get wonky stitches if I rotate too often.  

Close up of the pumpkins - as you can see the ric rac is tucked under the applique.  I glued these down with a tiny amount of fabric glue.  

The only thing left - to hand embroidery my little sign.  No pictures here - WHY?  Because I used fusible web to attach the square of muslin to the batting BEFORE I traced on my pattern.  Yes!  I can't believe I did that either.  

My quilt blocks all sewn together. I am loving this quilt!  Of course this is without all of the embellishments.  I will post a picture of the completed quilt as soon as it is done.  Now off to the quilter.

Happy Quilting!