Hi Quilting Friends!
Welcome to the “Witchy Stitchy” blog hop, hosted by our friend Carol at Just Let Me Quilt. We’re excited about showing off our little Halloween project today, after a great week of hopping around to see the projects from the rest of the participating bloggers.
Halloween will be here before long! I wish that I could say that fall is in the air, but I don’t want to lie to you. It is still pretty dang hot, right here in Houston. Halloween weather is unpredictable. I remember years when my boys got all sweaty in their Bumblebee and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles costumes, and other years when they had to wear a jacket to stay warm enough to go out trick-or-treating! Good times!
If you’ve visited us before, you may have seen our Halloween quilts with the whimsical trick-or treating animals! Each quilt design features five animal applique blocks and a “wonky” pieced block:
I’ve made a few small projects with the applique blocks:
This year I decided to use one of the “wonky” blocks, along with some colorful Halloween prints to make a pair of place mats!
I love the “Wonky Star” pattern, so that’s what I used for this project. I pulled eight fun Halloween prints from the fabric stash for my star points, along with two large-scale prints for the block centers and a mottled black fabric with tiny orange dots to use in the backgrounds.
After piecing a pair of “Wonky Star” blocks, I added a narrow border of my background fabric around all four sides of each block. Next I added three strips on each side of the piece to make the place mats into rectangles. Finally, I added another fun border around all four sides to make the 12″ by 18″ place mats.
I quilted in the ditch around my stars and along the outer border. I added a row of “fancy” stitching on each side strip, using one of the pre-programmed stitch patterns on my Bernina. And then I did a little free-motion quilting, with loops and stars, in the background on each block. The binding is a solid black fabric.
I think that the friendly neighborhood photo bomber approves. (Or maybe he’s just hoping for something tasty from the table, later on.) We often make a big pot of home-made chili for dinner on Halloween, and serve it with fritos, chopped onion, and shredded cheese. Yum, yum! I usually don’t have much of an appetite, since I am forced to sample the candy (if it is chocolate) and make sure that it is safe to share with the neighborhood children, LOL! (The photo bomber gets a nice bowl of kibble with a bit of cheese on top.)
If you’d like to make your own “Wonky Stars” place mats, you can find the pattern on the Halloween Quilts page in Ms P’s Pattern Shop!
Thanks for visiting today! I hope that you’ve enjoyed seeing my new place mats! Don’t forget to hop on over to the rest of today’s participating bloggers to see what they’ve posted. You’ll find a list with links below.
Happy quilting,
Sharon
October 7
Janie G. – Hosted at Just Let Me Quilt
October 8
October 9
Kathleen – Hosted at Just Let Me Quilt
Quilts Fabric and Thread Tales
October 10
Bethni L. – Hosted at Just Let Me Quilt
October 11
Ms P Designs USA 
Thanks for the good idea for the placemats. The wonky star as the focus point is perfect.done in Halloween fabris. These are not over the top Halloween if one doesn’t care for that. Besides, I couldn’t believe other people serve chili like I do. We put the Fritos on the bottom of the bowl and sharp cheddar on top with lots more good beef than beans (I don’t care for beans at all). Is your photo bomber a Shelti? I had a red Merle BC but our dog school teacher raised Shelties. I grew to love them as much(almost) as mine. Beautiful+smart dogs. Thanks again.
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Your placemats turned out so beautiful and your photo bomber looks pretty sweet, too. I love the wonky look to them and the fabrics are perfect for them! The details you put into your applique designs are always amazing and make me smile. The vampire pig just cracks me up! Growing up in Las Vegas, I totally understand the sweating or freezing trick or treating thing. During the cold times, people can’t even see the costume because it’s buried under four layers of jackets. LOL Thank you a ton for being a part of the Witchy Stitchy blog hop! xo
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Great idea and your wonky stars are gorgeous.
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Your Wonky Stars place mats are fantastic!
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I like wonky stars and wonky everything. All your quilts are wonderful.
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I like your wonky stars. And your name. AND that you say you are FORCED to try out the candy. I like you 🙂
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All of your projects look great.
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Your wonky star placemats are pure a Halloween goodness. And as always your whimsical appliqués are such a delight!
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The wonky stars with the fussy-cut centers are spot on! Love those so much! You’ve got some great, fun projects highlighted here! Happy hopping!! 🙂
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I love wonky stars for Halloween. They are just perfect in Halloween fabrics. Your animal appliques are super fun too!
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Beautiful placemats!! I can’t blame the friendly neighborhood photo bomber, I would be hanging around too with promise of that kind of food 😀
-Soma
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Great placemats, I love wonky stars!
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Great place mats! I like anything with stars, wonky or not. Thanks!
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Love the placemats with the wonky stars!
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What a fun project. I love the cute (I mean scary) spider in the middle of the star.
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Those are great place mats.
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Your Halloween table will be looking good!
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I love the wonky stars Sharon! A bowl of chili and these cute placemats are enough to say trick or treat every day of the month:)!😊❤️
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Those place mats are very pretty–and I like your photo bomber!
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Great place mats!! I love wonky stars. Your choice of colors against the black background are spooktacular!!
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Wonky stars are a lot of fun to make. I think they look as good as unwonky stars. =) Your placemats were a good place to use them, too! I still like the Halloween quilts, too.
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Love your wonky stars in the placemats! They look great! Thanks for sharing 🙂 xx
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