Spider/Spider Web Fabric Postcards

I go in streaks where I want to make fabric postcards and now is one of those times. I chose my line drawing fabric postcard pattern included in my Bridgette pattern and 5 Halloween colored fabrics to begin this project. I selected the fabrics in Halloween colors and not necessarily Halloween themed fabrics. Five fabrics in a variety of widths work nicely and the varied widths give a random look. Any fabric combinations will work-I chose Halloween this time and make 4-6 cards at a time. I cut them out on the diagonal to give movement and to accent a cheekbone line. I have two sides of the face in my designs and I like to place them together and they look like mirror images. I used black batik for the raw edged applique and black thread with a fancy stitch to join the top, bottom and Peltex stiffener. I usually use Fast2Fuse stiffener by Pellon but I could not find it online and I substituted Peltex and it actually worked nicer because it was heavier (less floppy.) I found the spiders at Joann Fabrics-they are not buttons but are flat on the back to glue to the front of the card. I created a spider web from variegated thread in the lower corner. I embellished with glitter nail polish on the eyelids and a dot of white matte fabric paint on the eye for the eye reflection. I intend to give two of these as door prizes in my "I Value That Quilt!" lecture I am giving twice at the Wisconsin Quilt Expo in Madison, WI on Friday Sept. 11, 2015. My pattern is available for sale from my website at www.laurieceesay.com. Maybe I will see you at the expo since it is a blast!! Their website is www.wiquiltexpo.com

Toil and Trouble: "Bella Strega" Is My New Quilt Pattern

This is my newest portrait quilt pattern called Bella Strega which means Good Witch in Italian. I am a hairdresser and I had an Italian man in my chair at the salon recently and I ran my quilt names past him to see if they were authentic and they were!! I love witches and Halloween! I loosely based this pattern on my Bella quilt pattern in the face but added a witch's hat and different hair. I used a charm pack called Midnight Masquerade by Moda Fabrics as the starting point. The pattern has forty 5" squares and the charm pack had 42 squares. After opening up the charm pack I discovered there were duplicates which made me mad. :( I thought the whole point of charm packs were to have the scrappy look without repeated prints. I went to my stash and added a few extras to get the 40 charms needed for the background I used black batik for the raw edged fused applique. I machine quilted the project with a variegated thread. I embellished the quilt with loose glitter/glue on the eyelid; purple glitter nail polish on the mouth; a green rhinestone for a nose piecing and a few black bat sequins I picked up from Nancie's Notions while at the Wisconsin Quilt Expo in Madison WI last year. The size of the quilt is 22" wide x 35" long.

The pattern is available for purchase at my website www.laurieceesay.com through Paypal. I am selling them locally at Pine Street Quilts in Marinette, WI as well.

I made this quilt as an addition to my Halloween Witch quilt truck show. I am teaching on Halloween in Houston TX at the International Quilt Fest for the Saturday Sampler and my subject is about witch quilts and it is called Toil and Trouble!! Hope to see you there! On to the next witchy project!!

Witchie Poo 2013

This was a fun little quilt I wanted to make after purchasing the polka dot, mini stripe and the purple batik background fabrics. I used one of my patterns that has more of the woman's torso and gave her long orange hair and a witch's hat. I added the broom and some green skin and a witch is born!! I am in love with Halloween witches and women with green skin-this is my third green skinned portrait quilt-first my Victory Roll quilt, then a sample quilt for my Intro to Portrait Quilt pattern and now this one!!

I purchased a spool of Superior Nite Lite glow in the dark thread at the IQF Show in Chicago in June. The color choices were pastels and I used the pastel green thread for this project. It was kind of easy stitching all the applique down with only using one thread color and not changing the thread for each color of applique!! It really does glow in the dark but I could not figure out how to get a photo of it with the camera flash.

I embellished with some orange glitter nail polish for the hair and some iridescent polish for the eye shadow. I created some jewelry for my witch by gluing rhinestones to the quilt for a necklace and an earring.

I was in a hurry when I was drawing the pattern pieces onto the Wonder Under and forgot to reverse the pattern pieces. I thought about throwing it away but decided to make two witchy wall hangings-one the desired way and one in reverse which I gifted to my hairdresser friend Sherrie. She loved my other Pinup Witch quilt and I was not willing to part with her so I made Sherrie this quilt for an early birthday and housewarming gift. The day I gave it to her she had been having a bad week and I brightened her day-that's what it is all about!!

The quilts are small at 18" x  18" and I may consider creating a pattern but I am a little late for Halloween 2013.

Now if I could just figure out how to crop my pictures using my new computer-I'm so not tech savvy!!

Halloween Pin-up Witch

I decided to make a new Halloween wall hanging since this is my favorite holiday. I found the outside skull batik this fall and the majority of the other fabrics I had in my stash. I wanted to make a pin-up girl that was a sexy witch. I love using the combination of orange, lime green and purple for Halloween. I also try to use a stripe and a polka dot in all my quilts. I could not get the correct affect of the striped stockings so I used a Pigma pen and drew them on. I raw edged fused applique the witch, pumpkin and broom and embellished with fabric paint, fabric markers, glitter and glitter glue and a few rhinestones.