Spook-Free Hallowe'en Mini Quilt

I haven't made anything for Hallowe'en before, but this week, I remembered a little something extra I received with my August Cotton Cuts subscription box...

Yuma QAL - A Finish

As the Yuma QAL is coming to a close, I'm ready to share my own Yuma quilt's photoshoot.

I'm a huge fan of smooth quilts - my usual method for laundering my quilts is a machine wash then tumble dry till half dry then press till fully dry and smooth as new.

This quilt had other ideas, I guess there's always one!  The 100% cotton Quilters Dream Request batting and the American Made Brand solids shrank at different rates during the first wash, and no amount of pressing can fix it - and yes I have tried.  So let me introduce you to what's only my third ever 'crinkly' quilt!!! 

The quilt's for my daughter, Flicky, to remember this summer and looking forward to all the future summers we're yet to share, I love you so much Flicky x

'For all the summers yet to come.'

I hope you've enjoyed the #yumaQAL, I've had fabulous feedback about all my #yumaQAL tutes from lots of you who are making Yumas but particularly about my piecing and joining rows tute.  I've created a link page for all my Yuma tutes and posts, and you can link to it here or via my tute page in the sidebar but for one last time here're all my previous posts links:

Monday: my fabric choices

Tuesday: creating the HSTs and Pieced Triangles

Wednesday: Log Cabin blocks

Thursday: piecing and joining rows 

Friday: finished Yuma Quilt top with added borders

and finally: quilting my Yuma

Last week I had the best news, Ivete and Andrea @Gotham Quilts like my solid Yuma Quilt so much they're now selling it as a kit so you can make my quilt yourself.  I'm happy dancing at the great blog post they wrote about it too!!!

Here's a link to purchase the kit and

here's a link to the free Yuma Solid pattern.

Angie @Gnome Angel also wrote a fab post in the last week about losing her sewjo while making her Yuma.  Hopefully, normal service will be resumed for her very quickly, but I did do another happy dance when she featured my solid Yuma in her post and said it's her fave :D

The original free Yuma Quilt pattern is available here and if you make a Yuma be sure to share your work on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc using the hashtag #yumaQAL.  Even if you're not making your own Yuma click through to the Instagram #YumaQAL and take a look at what everyone else is up to.

YUMA QAL SCHEDULE

Each week another blogger will be sharing their #YumaQAL experiences with you.

17 June - kick-off blog post on Gotham Quilts
week of 22 June - made by ChrissieD click here to find all my Yuma QAL posts
week of 29 June - Faith and Fabric
week of 6 July - Daydreams of Quilts
week of 13 July - Lisa in Port Hope
week of 20 July - Sunflower Quilting
week of 27 July - Roar Haus
week of 2 August - Gnome Angel
10 August - Life Under Quilts
12 August - closing blog post on Gotham Quilts and start of linky party
19 August - linky party winner(s) chosen

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Disclaimer: Gotham Quilts supplied the fabrics used at a discount price to mbCD otherwise this post is for informational purposes only, no payment or commission is received on click-throughs and opinions are my own.

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A Foxy Circle Quilt - Cloud9 Fabrics Challenge

In June, we were lucky to have Michelle Engel Bencsko, Co-Founder, Design & Marketing Director at Cloud9 Fabrics come along to our NYC Metro Mod Quilt Guild meeting.

Michelle talked us through the design and organic production process and shared many Cloud9 fabrics and quilts.

At the end Michelle set the Guild a Cloud9 Fabrics Challenge:

Using 4 x Cloud9 Fabric fat quarters (supplied by Cloud9 Fabrics) make a baby quilt (approx 36" x 42") to give to charity.  Additional fabrics must be from the Cloud9 Fabrics range or any brand of solid.  All quilts to be handed over at the next meeting of the NYC Metro Mod Quilt Guild in October.

Here's my 4 fat quarters from Ed Emberley's Picture Pie collection: Alphabet, Foxes, and Scribble:

I've just purchased this Circle Savvy Ruler by Creative Grids, it cuts circles, semi-circles and quarter circles from 3" to 15.5" and every 0.5" in between and this seemed like a great opportunity to give it a try.  I won't tell you how to use it, there's a great video here on YouTube if you're interested.

NOTE - I'm an Amazon affiliate and will receive a small commission (at no additional cost to you) on any purchase you make following this link.

I added some more Cloud9 Scribble fabric in grey and orange and also Michael Miller soft white cotton couture solid along with a crib size Hobb's Heirloom double sided fusible batting to complete the quilt.

I started out making a quilt sandwich using the MM soft white for the quilt top and the orange scribble for the backing.  I haven't used this brand of fusible batting before and I wasn't too happy with how it looked before I started quilting.  Those troughs in the quilt surface really had me worried.

Even more worried when the fabric lifted clean away from the batting as I started to quilt - I ironed over it again to refuse it.

Update at 19 August 2014:

I've used the Hobbs fusible batting now in two more quilts and not had a problem with the fabric lifting away from the batting during quilting - I'm assuming from this that some fabrics fuse more easily than others depending on the surface finish.

I cut out circles from the fat quarters using the Circle Savvy Ruler and created this design on top of the MM soft white solid.

I appliqued each circle in place right through the quilt sandwich using Aurifil 40/2 #1133 - Bright Orange.  I was disappointed to discover that this batting needs to be quilted every 4" - a bit close for my liking - so I decided to quilt in wavy lines vertically down the quilt, leaving the circles unquilted and hoping to mask the issues with the batting using Aurifil 50/2 #2024 - White.

The wavy lines worked just as I hoped, masking any fabric bubbles caused by the fusible basting and there were no further issues with the batting.  Given the wavy quilting the quilt was begging to be washed and left crinkly - not my style at all, but I think this time it works really well as the unquilted circle areas stay flat and are more pronounced.

So here's the photoshoot:

See how the applique looks on the back of the quilt

and a closer view

I love the Circle Savvy Ruler, it was a great buy that I'm sure will get lots of use of many years - the jury's out still on that Heirloom double sided fusible batting, nice not to use pins but doesn't give me the pristine, flat look I prefer when I use Quilter's Dream Request and I want to be able to quilt further apart than 4" if I choose to.  Just to add in case you've not yet tried it, I've also used the Quilter's Dream Cotton Fusion and that worked great, total adhesion, flat finish and you can quilt with up to an 8" gap.  The trouble is it's only fusible on one side - perfect when creating my wholecloth QAYG quilts but not much use for a normal quilt sandwich as you still need to pin or spray baste the quilt top or bottom.

Here's a summary of my thoughts on the fusible battings:

Quilter's Dream Fusion

Pros:
Available in 100% cotton and also 100% polyester
Quilt at up to 8" apart for cotton and 10" for poly
Fully adhered to fabric after ironing
Lies perfectly flat against fabric creating a great quilting surface
Great for QAYG Wholecloth

Cons:
Fusible only on one side

Hobb's Heirloom Fusible

Pros:
Double sided fusion
Repositionable
Requires no pins or spray baste
Can fuse quilt top and quilt back separately or at the same time

Cons:
80% Cotton/20% Polyester (a con for me as I don't like using polyester in my quilting)
Quilting surface isn't flat
Repositionable - so fabric doesn't fully adhere and can loosen and lift during quilting
Quilt at up to 4" apart


Have you used fusible batting?  If  you have do share your own stories in the comments, it's great to hear other's experiences and pick up tips - Chris :D

And finally, just so we don't forget why we're here - a last look at my Foxy Circle Quilt.

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Disclaimer: Some fabrics used were supplied by Cloud9 Fabrics at no charge to mbCD otherwise this post is for informational purposes only, no payment or commission is received on click-throughs and opinions are my own.