Monsters!

We were incredibly lucky and grateful to survive the hurricane as we did with no real damage (and with a house twice as full as usual), but it will be days before life in the city gets back to normal.  Also, there is still the possibility that we might lose power because of a fallen tree precariously propped up by a telephone pole and a power line pole -- which service will be affected???

So I'd better show off these guys:

These guys are from Sue Garman's Monster Quilt pattern.  I picked up the patterns for five of the monsters several years ago, but as usual they languished in my patterns box.  This fall I was determined to make two of them, for the Beadboys for Halloween.

The original pattern called for traditional applique, but there was no way that was happening. Instead I used fusible web, which meant the tops came together in less than two hours.  I then layered them on top of batting and backing and sewed around each piece, to both secure the edges and quilt the layers.  It worked out well, except for the fact that I had the brilliant idea of free-motion-quilting black scribbles for the pupils.  The several layers of fabric and glue almost wrecked my poor little machine.  My third shortcut was to zigzag the edges to finish, a process that was a lot quicker and more pleasant than traditional binding (although it did make the edges a little wavy).

Normally I'd sew little plastic rings to the back upper corners to hang the quilt.  But these quilts are for the Beadboys, which means they will endure a fair amount of rough handling; binder clips seemed like a better idea.  And faster to apply, so I guess that's my fourth shortcut.

It seems like a shame to let the rest of the patterns continue to languish in my box, so let me know if anyone is interested in them.