Fall Shenanigans Quilt Tutorial

with
Jenny Doan

Fall Shenanigans Quilt Tutorial

Quilt Size: 40" x 40"
Time: 17 Minutes
Jenny Doan demonstrates how to make a fun Halloween themed wall hanging quilt using Under A Spell 10 Karat Crystals by Jennifer Pugh for Wilmington Prints and a Large Simple Wedge Template for 10" Squares. This quilt combines cats, witch hats, and one big pumpkin.
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video transcript

Hi everybody, it’s Jenny from the MSQC. And Halloween is almost upon us. Now you may not know this but before I was a quilter I was a costumer. So I love Halloween, I love dressing up. It’s just a fun time for our family. And as we got closer to the holiday I just wanted to make a little wall hanging. So take a look at these little wall hangings behind us. This is the one we’re making today and talking about. This is the fabric that we’re using. We’ve got three cats, four hats. Now we already have a video on how to make the cat so you can make a whole quilt of cats if you desire. Now this other wall hanging over here, this was the one that I used all kinds of scraps for to decide if I indeed wanted to do a wall hanging. This was my practice one over here. So these are all random scraps, just not any line of fabric or anything like that. Just random scraps I have. But I couldn’t resist showing it to you because it’s so so cute. So today let’s talk about this one. Let me show you how to make that.

So what you’re going to use is one packet of ten inch squares. And we have used Under A Spell by Jennifer Pew for Wilmington fabrics. You’re also going to need a half a yard of background fabric. And this, just this little bit of fabric right here is what we’re calling our background. And then a half a yard for your border out here. Now before we go too much further I want you to notice the quilting on this. Because the quilting on this is all spider webs and you can see those spider webs on the back. Aren’t they so cute. We’ve got a few random threads here but other than that I just love those spider webs. I think they’re really, really cute. And it’s a fun time to be able to use them. So let me walk you through these blocks because it’s just really fun.

We’re going to start with the cat. For your background on your cat you’re going to need a five inch square, a 2 ½ by five inch rectangle and a 2 ½ inch square. And for the cat I’m just going to go ahead and cut him for you while we’re, we’re watching right here. We’re going to use a five by 9 ½ inch rectangle. So we’re just going to cut a half an inch off this end over here. And then we’re going to cut his head which is a three by five inch piece. So three inches by five inches. And then we need two little 2 ½ inch squares for his ears. So we’re going to cut this into 2 ½ right here and we’re going to come over here and cut this 2 ½. And that’s all it takes to make this kitty. So let me show you how to put that together.

Alright, first thing we’re going to do is we’re going to put his little tail on over here. And we’re going to do that by adding our 2 ½ background square to our orange. This is going to be a ginger cat. You can see this is what the block looks like. And I’m calling him a tabby because he’s a striped cat. This is going to be a little ginger cat. And so we’re going to just sew on this line. I made a finger pressed line diagonally across my 2 ½ inch square. We’re going to sew right on that line right across there. We’re going to trim that off and press it back. Over here, let me get to my iron.. There we go. Now we are also now going to make his ears. So we’re going to take a 2 ½ inch strip of background. And we’re going to put two 2 ½ inch squares on here. And I’m going to finger press them. So you’re going to fold. Really what you want to do is you want to put your wrong sides together when you fold this. It’s way easier to sew in the ditch than it is on top of that mountain. So you’re going to put a square like this in each corner. And they’re both going to go, oops I almost did that wrong again. Alright so we’re just going to fold this wrong sides together and line them up. Now you want to put them on here so that you’re going to sew into the middle and into the middle on both sides. So let’s go to the sewing machine and do that because you want his ears to lay right. So follow the line. I got down here to the bottom and then I’m just going to leave my needle down and pivot. Make sure my square still stays lined up. There we go. And now we’re going to fold, trim these off and fold them back. Just like making a little flying geese unit for his ears. That’s all that is. Alright we’re going to press this back right here and press it back. Alright.

So now we’re going to attach this to his face part, that’s the three by five inch piece. We’re going to lay those right sides together and sew a quarter inch seam across those. And we’re going to press that open. And then we’re going to attach that to the background of these right here. Now this piece goes to this piece. And then we’re going to attach this body on here and that makes our cat block. So let’s go ahead and do this one. I’m going to bring the body over to the sewing machine so that I can have it right here when I’m ready to sew it. I’m just going to lay that right along that edge. We’re going to sew a quarter of an inch and then we’re going to open that up. I’m just going to kind of finger press this so it lays down and then I’ll press the whole block when I get back over there. You want to turn this so you make sure the tail, the background fabric meets up with the background fabric. And then we’re just going to sew a quarter of an inch straight down. This is such a quick, fun little kitty. Alright now let’s press him open. And you’re going to make three of these. Oh he’s so cute. Let’s see make sure my seams are all going the way I want them to. Let me lay this guy down. Alright here he is. Isn’t he cute? You’re going to make three of these. And you’re going to sew those together, you know, one, two, three, in a row. So you’re going to sew that little unit together.

Then we need to make the hat. This is our hat block. And it’s super easy as well. So we’re going to take a hat piece and a background piece like this. And we’re going to lay those right on top of each other. And I’m going to put my background one on the top. And now I’m going to use my simple wedge ruler. So the first thing, to make the hat I’m going to use the simple wedge ruler. But the first thing you want to do before that is you want to cut off one inch off any side because this is going to be your brim. So if you have stripes you want to check them to make sure they’re going to the right way. But I’m just cutting an inch off over here and setting that aside up here. Now I’m going to take my two squares and fold them in half to mark a middle line. Just we’re marking a center line here. Alright you probably can’t see this, I have a tiny little fold right there. And I have a dot line on my, my simple wedge. We’re going to lay that right on the fold. Right on the bottom. You might notice that your point comes off the top a little bit. That is perfectly fine. Now we’re going to cut both sides like this. And this is going to make our hat and our background piece. So now I’m going to pull this piece off and you can see that hat just magically appear. Magic because it’s Halloween. And then we’re just going to sew these side pieces on here like this.

Now this one right here, you just want to match this one up as close as you can. There’s not much overhang or anything like that so just match it up as close as you can. We’re going to sew this piece to this side and we’re going to sew this piece to the other side. So I’m going to take both of those over to the sewing machine. And you just want to make sure you get them going the right direction. So you may want to lay them back down as you get ready to add the other one. Alright. So there’s this side and I’m going to roll this back and finger press it. And especially press nice with your fingernail up along the point because that’s where you add the other piece of fabric. So then you can see I just make sure that’s going the right direction. We’re going to lay this one over like this and just put it on. Again match it up as close as you can. Now we’ll go press the whole block open. Alrighty. So lay that back, lay that back. Now we’re going to add the brim. If there’s any little pieces that didn’t line up perfectly, this is where you want to trim those off so you have a nice smooth edge. So I’m just going to come up here. I just have like itty-bitty little bits to trim off. So I mean you can’t even hardly see that. So then you’re going to add your brim. And you’re going to take your hat piece and line it up on here like this and just sew a quarter of an inch right across. Now because we’ve taken two seams on the top your little brim piece is now going to be longer than your hat. But I just like to sew it on like this. And then I flip it over to the back and whatever is sticking out right here I’m just going to trim that off. So you’re just going to trim that. And then I’m going to press this open. These are so fun. So when I was making these I thought this would be an awesome little Christmas tree also. You know, I mean you could, you could do, instead of a brim you could do a little stem block in there or something like that. Isn’t that cute? That little hat. So you’re going to make four of those. And when you go to sew them together, you’re going to sew them top to bottom just like this. You’re going to sew that seam in there and just make four of those and sew them together. So we’ve done the cat, we’ve done the hat. Let’s move onto the pumpkin.

Now the pumpkin is just like a tiny little quilt of five inch squares. And so we have some of those right here. You’re just going to cut your ten inch square into fourths. And then we’re going to sew those together. And just like that you’ll just lay them on here and sew across. And we made five in a row. So here’s a row right here. Here’s five. And you’re going to do four rows that have five in them. So I have the rest of that right here. And see how it just makes like a little mini quilt. So let’s go ahead and sew this together. You want to match up your seams. A helpful thing to do is to iron one row of seams this way and the other row that way. So they all just lay together as we put them on. And so we’re just going to attach this one, a quarter of an inch seam. And match up your seams as we go along. I can feel, that one’s not quite lined up. There we go. And you just sail along the side. And that’s our little pumpkin and we’re going to press him open. Make that seam lay nice and flat. Now he looks a little square. So we need to round out those corners.

So what we’re going to do is we’re going to take our background fabric and we’re going to cut some five inch squares from our background fabric. We’re going to fold those in half and give us a sew line. We’re going to put one of these on each corner. And we’re going to sew from corner to corner so they’ll look like this and you’re going to put one on all four corners so let’s go to the sewing machine and just sew those on. Now once you have your little five inch squares cut and folded that line is right there ready for you to go. I’m going to go ahead and fold this last one right here. And then we’re going to sew these on the corner. Now you just line them up right on the corner. And you sew on the line. And now I’m just going to turn this and come right around to the next one and sew the next one on. Alrighty. So this is what gives our pumpkin that rounded shape. And what we’re going to do now is we’re going to go and cut these extra corners off right here and then press them open. Now I’m kind of abouting a quarter of an inch from my seam. I’m just almost, almost measuring. Alrighty here we go. Last one. Alright now let’s press these back. And because they’re, they’re folded they’re almost laying down as it is. One more. Here we go. Alright, so this is our pumpkin. And he fits right in here like this, just like that.

So now what you need to do once you get your pumpkin done, you’re going to add your little borders on your pumpkin. And this is a three inch strip. Check the pattern to be sure. This is a seven inch strip up here. And we’re going to put that across the top. Once you get those all around the pumpkin you’re ready to add the stem. And honestly I just cut a little, a little shape out of my fabric. I found a scrap. Let’s see if this will fit and traced it on. Yep see this one will fit on there just right. And so you’re just going to cut this out. And I just, I’m just doing a little bit of, let me come over here to the middle so you can see what I’m doing here. I’m just using my rotary cutter and cutting around the shape and then over here. There we go. Alrighty. So once you get your little shape cut, your little stem cut, make sure you clean up those edges and it’s all nice. Then what I did was, now remember I’ve already got my border sewn on here. So let me grab a piece of this background fabric and put it across the top. So my border is sewn on here like this. We’re just going to pretend that. And I’m going to give me enough room there. And I’m going to lay my stem right here, up here. I’m just going to use some lapel glue. You could put it on some fusible. You can do whatever you want. We’re just going to use a lapel stick right here and stick it on there like this. And then just machine stitch around that. So that’s all I did to that. Once you get your borders on here you’re going to attach this to your cat unit up here and you’re going to run your hats down your side.

So let’s look at these quilts a little bit more. This is really a quick and easy project. So much fun. These are our little pumpkins, our hats and this up here. I used over here, you know you can see I used all different kinds of prints for my cats and my hats and gathered oranges for my pumpkin. Just a really fun project. So we’re calling this tutorial Fall Shenanigans because it’s fun to have some shenanigans around Halloween time. And we hope that you have a wonderful holiday and enjoy this tutorial from the MSQC.

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