FO: Blanket & Halloween Wallhanging

I was really lucky to receive the cream yarn I needed to finish a blanket for the WoollyHugs project very quickly. As I was also waiting on yarn for most of my other projects I cracked on with the little blanket. I did a couple fo rounds of cream and then did a pretty border. This was based on one from the Attic24 blog (click here for Lucy's tutorial) but I used more stitches per chain 5 space. Basically into each chain 5 space I did (US terms!) sc, hdc, dc, tr, dc, hdc, sc. I also didn't do the slip stitch.

Here's the finished blanket:

Close up of edging: 

On Saturday morning my husband took the kids to gymnastics and gave me chance to get on with sewing. I've been getting a little stressed about how many projects I have on the go and really wanted to get on and finish something. It seemed obvious to finish the one that had the earliest "deadline" so I started working on the Halloween wallhanging. I say "deadline" because it doesn't really matter if it's not done until next year, after all, I started it before last Halloween!

Anyway after a bit of frustration finding suitable beads/buttons etc. and discovering the binding I had wasn't quite long enough (honestly it would have been about half an inch short!), I finally managed to get it finished. In the end I decided to stitch it right sides together and turn it through rather than bind it.

I just love the owl peeking on one of the hanging loops

Here's a close up of each of the pictures:

Frankenstein

Witch

Cat

Ghost

Fat Quarter Quickie

You remember my Halloween quilt top shown below, well, after sewing it together it was time to decide whether to put a border on and if so, what to choose. My original plan was to use the spare backing fabric for the border but then I realised it wasn't going to look right, the pattern was too much and too big. This is actually great news for me because it means I got to go fabric shopping.

I nipped over to The Skep. I really like this shop, it has a nice balance of fabric and yarn along with a few bits like magazines and buttons. So I had a plan to go and buy a meter of black fabric (wanted extra for my other Halloween project). I was going to be good. Only a meter of fabric....

Well, I came out with the black fabric I wanted, plus a long 1/4 of glow in the dark fabric to use on the corners of the border and a pack of 10 FQ's just because I liked them. Luckily my husband was sitting in the car with the children by this point so couldn't do the "more fabric" eye rolling. 

So, here's the finished Halloween quilt top

I'm really pleased with it. It's now awaiting quilting as I've been waiting for glow in the dark thread :-) which arrived this morning. Unfortunately my husband is working late so I doubt I'll have chance to play around with it until the weekend.

Close up of the glow in the dark skull fabric

The extra black fabric was used to do a wallhanging (which I think is from a Nancy Halvorsen pattern iirc), apologies for the terrible pictures

There's still a fair way to go on this so I doubt I'll have both the quilt and wallhanging done by Halloween.

As for those 10 FQ's I couldn't help but do something with them right away. I had a browse online for a pattern but struggled to find anything suitable. Everytime I found a pattern I loved it needed lots more FQ's so I decided to make my own. I cut my FQ's into 10 pieces, then swapped fabrics around so that there was 1 section in each colour and sewed them back together! Admittedly some of the combinations aren't what I'd have done if I'd had a bit more time but I'm pleased with the result. First attempt at laying it out I just put the blocks down as I'd made them in a 3x3 setting then moved them around to balance the colours out a bit. This was the result

but I wasn't convinced about it. I then decided maybe it would look better if I rotated some of the blocks and much preferred that look. I decided to stitch he blocks in each row together and then, since there were only two more lines of stitching to join the rows together, finished the quilt top the day after starting it. Here it is

But 3x3 is only 9 I hear you say! Yes there is a spare block, which I am planning to use on the back of the quilt. I'm thinking of using white fabric for the rest of the back and putting the spare block in to tie it in with the front.

I'm hoping to write up the pattern/tutorial for the quilt top soon so check back if you're interested!