The Halloween quilt is still coming together, a few blocks at a time.
I've been selecting the fabric for three blocks, then cutting out the pieces (stacking them as I go).
This is how I've been "storing" the fabric for this project. 😁 It's worked out well. Makes it easy to see what I have available without getting the fabric wrinkled or having to dig through a pile.
I mark the squares destined to become hourglass units with one of these handy little rulers. You do have to draw two lines per square, this way, instead of drawing just one down the middle and sewing a quarter-inch from each side of it. Personally, I prefer this method.
Then I sit down and sew all three blocks-- put them on the wall-- and start the process over again. As it now stands, the final three star blocks are ready to put together. Even the hourglass units are prepared and trimmed down!
I don't think I've ever made hourglass units before this project, unless you count some "improv-pieced" ones I made with scraps, back when I pieced my first super-scrappy crumb quilt. I think I prefer making flying geese-- which were used for the other type of star in this Halloween quilt-- but these are okay, too.
I do like how these stars come together. The inspiration quilt used the same fabric for the star center and the little "inner corners" of the hourglass units, so that from a distance it looked like a larger central square, on point. I decided that I'd rather have some contrast, instead, so I used a fourth fabric in these star blocks.
For example, I used the polka-dot fabric in the block below instead of the orange apple print. I like the added visual interest of this method.
Next up is selecting a layout and cutting the spacer rectangles. I'll have to see what's left in large enough sizes to make those rectangles. If I don't have enough, I may need to add in some new fabric (solid black, if nothing else) or do some string-piecing. I would actually enjoy some string-piecing, but the busy-ness might not be great in this design. We'll see!
I've already supplemented the original fat quarter stack. Let's see... The fabrics I added are the candy corn print, the purple plaid, the lavender polka-dot, the orange-colored apple print, the black fabric with grey bats and yellow moons (bought on clearance at Wal-Mart so many, many years ago, long before I thought I'd ever be interested in making quilts), the orange-on-orange pumpkin print, and both the pink prints (swirls and polka-dots).
A few more photos of the design wall getting fuller and fuller...
And a few more went up on the wall after this photo was taken. There's no room for the last three blocks!
I don't think I'll get further than possibly a finished quilt-top by Halloween, but that's okay. Close enough for me. I'm glad I finally used that stack of fat quarters, and I'm glad I decided to add in some pink and purple to "sweeten" the quilt a bit.