Monday, November 11, 2013

Dare To Be Different Halloween Quilt


Yay! I finally finished my first ever Halloween quilt! The pattern for this quilt is “Dare-to-Be-Different” by Karrie Winters, and can be found in the Summer 2011 issue of Stitch magazine. I should call mine “Dare-to-Be-Difficult,” because I voluntarily made several changes to the pattern that resulted in a slightly more difficult and much more time-consuming quilt that the one laid out in the pattern.
 

Change #1: Instead of using five solid fabrics for the quilt top, I used upwards of two dozen prints (one purple, a dozen oranges, and a dozen blacks).

Change #2: I made the sashing scrappy instead of using the same fabric throughout.

Change #3: After machine quilting the sashing, I hand quilted the center of each block.

Change #4: The binding is scrappy as well.
 


To add to the difficulty of this quilt, we recently experienced a day-long power outage, so I ended up hand quilting by the light from our living room window, which resulted in some very unhappy shoulder and neck muscles.
 


The only easy part of this quilt was choosing the backing: Pearl Bracelet by Lizzy House in black, of course.
 


All in all, this quilt took me almost thirteen months to complete. I may have made this quilt unnecessarily complex, but that’s why I love it! I didn’t have to hand quilt it, but I am so, so happy with how it turned out. Even though Halloween has passed, this quilt will be left out until I decorate for Christmas.
 

 

9 comments:

  1. oh it's worth every change-up you made! Absolutely perfect!!

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  2. Really gorgeous quilt - I think all the different fabrics you used really make it interesting and lively! I also love the hand quilting - it adds such great texture.

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  3. I really love how all the different fabrics make this quilt so interesting and fun. Your hand quilting really is a lovely final touch too.

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  4. i love the changes you made! the scrappy sashing makes it super dynamic.

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  5. Love the changes! Esp the hand quilting! and what a nice and unique Halloween quilt. :))

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  6. I love the scrappiness of it! Definitely worth all the extra time and effort :)

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  7. I love the geometry in this very striking quilt!

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  8. I love it, especially the scrappiness of it! What a fun idea to combine machine quilting and hand-quilting as well.

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  9. What a fun quilt! The quilting works wonderfully with the pattern!

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