Lo, Ray, & Me: Haunting Hexie Halloween Quilt

So.. It's the end of August....That means all the Halloween decorations have been up in stores for the last few weeks... I'm not one to complain (unless I'm looking for a seasonal summer item that can no longer be found because apparently it's already Halloween!)because I LOVE Halloween. I mean I LOVE IT!!!! I vacillate between proclaiming it (or Christmas) as my favorite holiday. But let me be clear, I DO NOT like to be scared. I won't watch scary movies. I don't like dark and disturbing things. What I like are the fun, silly, and cute monsters of Halloween. Those cute pumpkins and monsters were the inspiration for this quilt.

I had a big stash of Halloween fabrics, and I had a hexie template that I've never gotten around to using.... Hexie Halloween quilt!!! I love the look of hexie quilts, but I did NOT want to machine or hand applique on whole hexies. I decided that I was OK with my hexies being sewed together. (they're still whole hexies, but with a seam down the middle, if you don't like that look, you can applique whole hexies onto your quilt... Lot's of work!)

Check out this super cute Halloween fabric line from Riley Blake, I just love it.

This quilt is about 57 inches by 61 inches finished. I used 16 fat quarters of Halloween fabric. I haven't made a pattern for this.... But if enough people are interested, I may sit down and do it (patterns take time!!). If you're like me and you can figure things out from just getting the basic idea, then keep reading! Otherwise just scroll to the bottom and look at the cute pics!!

First things first, I cut out the hexies!! This was a feat! It took me some time, and lots of peanut m&ms to cut all these out....I ended up with 48 whole hexies (which means 96 halves sewn together), 16 half pieces, and 27 fourth pieces.

The easiest way for me to cut these out was to first cut out a strip of fabric the same length as my template, then to cut out the hexies (that eliminated some of the constant turning of fabric).

Then I began the sewing....

When sewing hexies you need to start with a half of a half of a hexie for your end piece. Got that. 1/4 of a hexie. Then you sew your 1/4 hexie onto your half hexie.. All these fractions!!!! Just look at the pictures and don't think about the math!

Line up your hexies (make sure they're going to lay the right way before you sew!)

And sew!

Press your seam to set

Then press the seam open

Ta-Da the hexies are coming together!

Get your next hexie half ready and get ready to sew

This is how the hexie will look before you sew

Oh and this is what happens when you 're not careful and you sew your hexies together incorrectly!!

Lots of unpicking for me!

But you won't do that because you're probably much more careful than I am!

Back to the hexies,

Make your first row

Match up your hexies so that you start to get full hexies and then sew the two rows together

Here is the top part of my quilt.

As you can see, I have half hexies that don't have a top/bottom. I thought about using white for these, but I wanted to use all my cute fabric instead of having a white outline. Although I think white would look SO cute for a baby quilt or other project!

I made another row of hexies for the bottom part of my quilt. The middle part of my quilt is a white strip with all my monsters on it.

Oh and while we are looking at this picture can we talk about how much of a PAIN it is to sew hexies together!! So many seams to match up!

This is how I match up my seams. Once they are sewn and pressed, I line them up as perfectly as possible and then put a pin in them.

I then open it up to make sure it's a perfect match and then I'm ready to sew!

The top and bottom hexies!

Looking at this photo makes me want to make a full hexie quilt! But then I remember all those seams I had to match up, but then I look at this photo.. It's a vicious cycle (I most likely WILL do another hexie quilt)

Now that that grueling ordeal was over I was able to focus on making my cute Halloweenies (monsters). I didn't use a pattern, these are just made up from my own ideas. I'm going to share the mummy since he is my favorite. First I dyed my off white fabric using tea. Boil water, add the tea bags and the fabric, let it soak for 30-45 minutes, air dry the fabric and use.

Meanwhile you can cut out your fabric.

My finished mummy needed to be 10 1/2 inches. But you can make yours any size you want (mummy pillow cover anyone???). I cut out black fabric 8 1/2 inches by 5 1/2 inche. Then I cut out strips from my tea dyed fabric that were 2 1/2 inches by 2 1/2 inches.

Normally I iron all my fabric, but I didn't bother with my mummy cloth. I liked how it looked all wrinkled. I started at the bottom and added strips (no set length) in between. I left a small opening where I planned I put some button eyes in.

Then I flipped him over and trimmed it all off

And then I forgot to take a picture of him before I finished my quilt... I'm good at that!

SO here he is all finished, he's just too cute!

I know I have talked about this before, but it is worth repeating. YOU CAN QUILT YOUR OWN QUILTS AT HOME!! If you're into that... I decided to take a few more detailed pics of the "getting your quilt ready" process.

Start with your backing. This is my flannel (sewn together to make it the right size)

See the seam, also that picture is making me feel dizzy and disoriented. Don't look at it for too long!

Next we flip the back over, right side on the ground, and we use our handy dandy painters tape to hold everything down.

More tape

Lay the batting down over the back

And put your quilt on top. I used basting spray to hold this all down! Then I trimmed off some extra batting. A little over hang is nice, but you don't need too much. Next up, I pinned, pinned, pinned the quilt.

The quilting can now begin.

For this quilt I chose to do straight lines that were not perfectly straight or perfectly spaced out. I'm sure there is a name for that.... But I'll just call it "doodle lines". It was so nice because I didn't have to measure anything. I like how some of the lines are close, and others are spaced further (that was on purpose). Low stress... This is the way to quilt! Although I did do some FMQ around my Halloweenies.

The final quilt. Look at the witch's hair! I forgot to lay it down flat before this photo... Oh well... What I really love about this quilt, aside from everything, is how much texture and movement there is. I like that the spider legs and witch's hair move around and that the mummy and Frankenstein aren't sewn down all the way (They're not going anywhere, but you can lift up the mummy's wrapping and Frankenstein hair). Plus I am a sucker for button eyes!