Throwback Thursday

Pumpkin Grins

After yesterday's reference to my Halloween quilt I dug out the laptop and waited ... and waited ... for it to warm up so that I could look at my old picture files.  Frankly, I'm so spoiled by my Surface that I rarely even turn on the Dell laptop anymore .... but I digress ...

Here it is ...

Pumpkin Grins

... along with me about a dozen or so years ago.

The reason I named it Pumpkin Grins is because of the back fabric which is grinning pumpkins.  I did not realize they glowed until one night at a quilt retreat when I entered my darkened bunk room and saw grins glowing from my bed!

The pattern is Mystery Sampler from M'Liss Rae Hawley's 1999 book Fat Quarter Quilts.  The quilts in this book use FQ packs of 6 fabrics with an added background fabric.  I had been gifted a FQ pack of Halloween fabrics and this seemed an ideal way to use them up.  What I like about this particular pattern is the variety of setting options.  I used one of the examples in the book as my starting point, but I can see I made a few changes to accommodate the blocks I was able to make with what I had on hand.

As the seasons change, I try to switch out the quilts on my MIL's bed so that she (perhaps) can get a sense of the progression of time.  She seems to get the most pleasure from the fall quilt I will bring out next week. That one has a variety of blocks I received in a group exchange and in the past she has enjoyed examining each one.  I fear this year she will be past noticing.

SEW, my thought process this week moved to making another Mystery Sampler.  This time I'm using some Christmas panels for the focus blocks and an assortment of red, green, and black fabrics mixed with a gray background that coordinates with the panels.

Holiday Frost

I've just been throwing blocks up on the wall as I complete them.  The final layout will be determined by what I am able to create with the fabrics on hand. (What looks yellow is really a limey green, BTW.)  There is another green that will go into double 4-patches, but I'm having trouble with the math on those ....

Hoping to get the blocks done this weekend, then I'll try to find time to come up with an attractive layout.