Unit 4
Halloween WALLHANGING
By Terry Crawford
October 10, 2001
Fabric Chart
1 2 3 4 5 6
The orange fabrics will be referred to as Orange 5 and Orange 6.
Unit 4
Unit 4 is simple! Here are the cutting requirements:
|
1 - 3" x 3" square THEN,
OR 2 - 8.5" squares, if you are NOT going to
appliqué a moon |
|
1 - 3" x 3" square |
|
OPTIONAL: 1/4 circle for a night-time
moon, |
First Things First!
There is just one HST (Refer to the HST Tutorial for help in making these, if needed) combination in this unit: Blue/Green.
HST:
Use one blue 3" square and one green 3" square to make this set of HST. This gives you two of this combination of HST.
ACCURACY CHECK: You should have 2 HST of blue/green. You only need one, however, so the other one can go into your scrap pile (perhaps to be used as a cornerstone in this MQ?).
SECOND!
Next, sew the blue/green HST to one end of the blue, 2.5" x 6.5" rectangle. The HST forms the stem of the pumpkin.
You should have one long strip that looks like the illustration below.
THIRD!!! MORE DECISIONS!
Next, sew the 8.5" blue square to one side of the long strip you just made. The side you sew on is the side that does NOT have the moon on it, if you choose to do the moon. If you're looking at the wallhanging, I'm putting my moon in the right corner. This should now look similar to this:
At this point, if you aren't going to appliqué a moon, then simply sew the remaining 8.5" blue square to the other side. This Unit 4 would look like this and you can skip the rest of this page (but make sure to read the BIG HINT at the bottom before doing any more sewing!):
If you are going to appliqué the moon, then continue on to the fourth step below. :)
FOURTH!
Time to appliqué the moon!
Before it can be sewn on, however, it must be drawn and cut out. There are many, many ways this can be done, but I like fast and easy, with a nice, smooth edge, so below are some simple instructions.
Read this first! Before starting this, plan on how you're going to do it. Here are a few questions to ask yourself:
How am I going to get my moon fabric to "stick" to the background blue piece? Or am I just going to pin it on and then appliqué it? If I choose to "stick" it, what will I use? Freezer paper? Fusible webbing of some sort? Another piece of the yellow moon fabric? A piece of muslin?
How am I going to appliqué this? By hand? Needle-turn? Button-hole? Machine?
I never appliqué projects in the same way. I always choose the method I think is going to look the best, with the least amount of effort on my part. ;) So, with that in mind, I'm going to use another piece of the yellow moon fabric to back mine. Why? Because when I turn it, it not only gives me a smooth edge, but it also gives me a smooth edge with the same fabric on the underneath side, so that if it does "peek" out, you can't tell. I'm also not going to trim the back out, because I'll be machine-quilting and not hand-quilting. If I were hand-quilting, I'd trim the back part off up to about 1/4" to the edge. Plus, I may put a tad bit of batting inside mine to give my moon more dimension. More about that later, though. I hate to pin, so I'll baste my moon on with basting spray, then I'll do my appliqué using an invisible stitch (although I sure do love button-hole!). Now, I told you all of that because most of the instructions given below for this part are geared toward this. I assume that if you're an experienced appliquér, you're going to do this "your way", and I don't blame you! If you aren't an experienced appliquér, then these instructions are a great introduction for you! Easy smeazy.
SHOOTING FOR THE MOON!
Using the yellow 2 moon fabric, cut out two 8" x 8" squares. If you only have one yellow fabric, then use it.
Put the squares rights sides together. Line them up so that the edges are all even.
Using a ruler, on the top edge, from the left side, measure in about 1" and mark it.
Using the same ruler, from the right side, on the lower edge, measure and mark 1". Refer to the illustration below to see how this should look.
Now, to make the circle for the moon, we use those two marks! I could give you all sorts of nifty directions about striking an arc with a compass and all that math stuff, but I know that the majority of the world hates math (my first degree is in mathematics and I taught it for 18 years!), so we're going to do this the "no math" way. Grab a dinner plate (or something else that's round). Lay the plate over the largest corner of the moon fabric so that the edge of the plate touches both of the marks you made on the fabric. In fact, to get a picture of what this looks like (besides looking silly!), you could pretend that the dinner plate is the moon! Use a marker to trace around the outside of the plate from one mark on the fabric to the other. It isn't rocket science, so you don't have to precisely cover each of the marks... just get as close as you can. Note: You can adjust the size of the moon to your own preference. Refer to the illustrations to see how this should look (and yes, my everyday dinner plates are purple!).
Next, make sure that your two pieces of moon fabric are still right sides facing together AND aligned evenly. If so, take it to the sewing machine, and stitch on the drawn arc line. I usually use a smaller stitch. Press this flat, to set the seam. Refer to this illustration:
Carefully trim outside of the sewn seam somewhere between 1/4" and 1/8". Make sure you trim it on the outside part and not inside your big moon! After trimming, go back and clip the curved edge, but be careful not to clip through your stitch line. Refer to the illustrations below.
Turn the moon inside out, so that the raw seam is now on the inside. Tinker with this until you get the sewn edge flat and smooth, then press it. (If you're hand-quilting, this is where you'd trim the back side of the moon fabric away to alleviate the multiple layers of fabric.) Refer to the following illustration:
Position your moon in the corner of the blue 8.75" x 8.75" so that the raw edges of the moon are even with the outside edge of the blue fabric. Pin it in place, baste it, spray baste it, or whatever you want to do, but make it stay. :) Refer to the illustration shown:
Appliqué the outer edge of the moon (the part that is the finished, smooth part) down.
If you want your moon to have a bit of dimension, this is where you'd add a little batting on the inside part.
Using an acrylic ruler, trim the block down to 8.5" and give it one final good press (being careful not to melt the batting if you used polyester batting to give it dimension!).
Sew your moon block to the other stem piece, as shown below:
Now, that wasn't so hard, was it? The directions look complicated, because there are so many, but I wanted to make sure that "newbie" appliquérs felt comfy and have enough information.
Make sure you read the BIG HINT below before you do any more sewing!!!
FEELING BATTY?
Is a moon not enough? How about adding a bat in front of the moon? Click on the file (to the right) of whichever image that you'd like for a bat pattern to appliqué over the top of the moon. One of the bats is a big bat, one is a small bat.
Try overlapping the bat, partly on the moon, partly off? Have fun playing with it!
Here's mine, ready to appliqué!
