Tuesday, October 14, 2014

More Ghastlie mail

This time I get to show you what I sent to my partner Laura. Unfortunately Laura doesn't have a blog so I couldn't stalk her to learn about her tastes and likes so I just had to guess. 
Kwilty Pleasures
I considered quite a number of different ideas before settling on making her a mini quilt to display in her home. Here is what I packed into the box.
The goodies that I included with the mini quilt include some season themed stickers, a couple of cute note pads (one can never have too many of those), some fun Halloween clothespins that can be used to hold up the quilt, glow-in-the-dark bat mask, a appropriately eerie colored nail polish and a Boo Crew by Moda mini charm pack.
For the mini quilt, I momentarily considered making a Nested Churn Dash as so many others have across quilting blog land but as usual with me, I didn't want to follow the crowd but instead wanted to head off in my own direction.  And I'm so happy that I did. While hunting through block books for ideas I came across one that fit the bill perfectly and so I went to town.

Down in the fog enveloped streets of the old South, you'd come across a long dirt road lined with severely overgrown Cypress trees that eventually lead you to the ancestral Ghastlie mansion, where you'd find every living and not-so-living member of the clan in residence.

A number of the Ghastlie family gang became part of this piece including these miserable looking sisters Mildred and Minerva. I do believe that the last sister Magda was off having an argument with family matriarch Mathilda.
Here you can catch a glimpse of Mathilda and Prudence and the gaggle of witches surely spinning up plans for some ghastlie deed.
Ghastlie children certainly aren't happy children as evidenced here.  Two of these young Ghastlies are Cordelia and Cassius, the twins of Sebastian and Darla, and I guess I wouldn't be too happy either with a cat as a parent.
I wonder where Gunnar Ghastlie is pointing us to go? To the cemetery with him perhaps?
Look who takes center stage in this little mini quilt....none other than Sebastian himself.  Until this Ghastlie portrait fabric came out, I had no idea that he is actually the son of Mathilda and Gaspar.  While looking through my choices, I knew immediately that he would be so appropriate as the featured Ghastlie, with his "I'm not amused" expression. 

For the quilting, my own little ghastlie nature took over and I put Sebastian in a cage of sorts, quilting square spirals around and around and around until I got to the end. I figure if he ever got out of his cage, he'd get lost in this maze of quilting. 
I only marked the first square lines and then eyeballed the rest, stopping where I felt like it at that moment.  It ended up looking great with just the right amount of organic-ness, being not too perfectly evenly spaced.
Do you think Sebastian isn't too pleased with me for trapping him in like this? Too bad kitty! You're stuck now.
Here is the finished mini quilt.  With a 6 inch center, it completed at 24 inches square.  I originally planned on making this nested 3 blocks out but that would have made it 36 inches and to me that isn't a mini quilt as much as it is a baby quilt.

I'm calling this my Overgrown Cypress quilt. The block name was so appropriate and the construction lent itself easily to being exploded.
I already have plans to remake this quilt, exploding it out even further and writing a tutorial so you can make one too. Stay tuned.

I hope Laura likes all of her Ghastlie goodies.  I really enjoyed creating this for her.  Thanks again to Kathy for playing the perfect host.  I'll take part in another Ghastlie swap anytime.

7 of you added your own colorful comments:

Jeanie said...

I love your little quilt! And I had no idea about the Ghastlie lineage. I have a lot of Ghastlie fabric but have not wanted to slice into it....I must do that! I'll bet your swap partner was delighted with your ghoulish gifts!

Sharon B said...

I love the Gastlie's! This is a darling mini quilt! I didn't get the last edition of the Gastlie's as my LQS did not stock it this year:(. Oh well, I have a swap quilt from last years fabric to finish up!

Kathy @ Kwilty Pleasures said...

I wish I was your swap partner..luv how you out the names to the Ghastlies in your kwilt. Wonderful Can you send me one more photo for my blog posts with just thr kwilt. The one I got is half hpcut off. Thnx.

Needled Mom said...

That looks fabulous. I loved seeing all of the cute little Ghastlies. What a fun swap you had.

Kathy H said...

I love your quilt. I have been saving a bit of Ghastlies fabric and was looking for a small quilt to make. Yours is just great.

Angela Bullard said...

I'm so jealous of everyone that gets to participate in the wonderful swaps popping up on Instagram. I'm hoping next year I can join in!!

Laura MJ said...

Michelle I love it! I just tore into my box! No blog, but fairly active in Instagram. Thank you!!!