Quilt Reveal: October Holiday House

It's not October yet, but here October Holiday House is way ahead of the pack, ready for the new year.

I told you the story of when I bought the kit a couple of weeks ago.

 I started making the kit at the end of October 2021. I have been trying to make one small quilt a month. Using the kit which has marinated long enough was a good option.

I put this quilt away to get ready for the October birthday gathering, and kept it away for the week we met with the customers.

I brought it out to work on, but it had to be set aside again for the Portrait Representation Quilt. I did work on it a little bit that week, but this week I was able to give it full time attention to finish it.

The kit included everything you needed to make the top and the binding. I had a couple of fat quarters that had accidentally been sent to me in the mail instead of what I had ordered. I was allowed to keep them and they both came in handy for this quilt.

 

I cut out the October from one of them and did not have to make individual letters. I also used that fabric for the label. I really liked using tulle as a design element.

The pumpkins and the spider came from the other fat quarter. The kit came with buttons, but they have shanks on the back and I didn't want to use them that way. That fabric is also used for the backing.

It was a fun mini to make and helped warm up my free motion confidence to work on the Representation Portrait Quilt.

Chinese Coins Quilt Reveal

I finished the Chinese Coins quilt last week, but it has taken me some time to take quilt reveal photos. I wanted to try to make a nice vignette instead of showing just a flat quilt, and was trying to think of things to use. Since I am new to making vignette, I tried several different options.

When I went to Target, I saw a little scarecrow and pumpkins that I thought would be good for the display, but I didn't buy them because I decided I should be able to find things around the house that would work.  Then I went to the thrift store.  I have been looking for a doll bed.  I still haven't found one, but I found two chairs and this doll.

As you can see, I haven't quite mastered the art of the vignette.  The doll is a little bit early for Christmas, dressed in red and green. I now have enough chairs for a classroom, but still no bed.

The pattern is in Kathleen Tracy's book. It was a fun little quilt to make. I especially liked the fact that it did not have any half square triangles!

Finished!

When I let myself get tempted by the pattern Kim presented at Kim's Big Quilting Adventure, and gave myself permission to do Kim's Happy Jacks quilt, I gave myself severe mandates. "You must get it done, and you must get it done quickly. Kim's done three of these in a week, certainly you can get it done quickly as well." Well I'm nowhere near as quick as Kim, but I did keep my focus on this quilt, even to the point that other things on the to-do list were skipped, and now it is finished! Definitely one of my quickest finishes. The fabric choices were easy - the first fabric I find that works, is it. No agonizing over choices. The cutting was fine. The sewing was fine as well. Anything that wasn't, was trimmed off! The hardest part about the quilt was stopping. I wanted to make more pumpkins, and I wanted to make more faces. See, here is a photo of some scraps of fabric that fell onto the floor.