Quilted Halloween Banner

Hi everyone, it’s Ellie from Craft Sew Create! I realize Halloween is over, but I really wanted to share this quilted Halloween banner with you. Maybe you can just get a nice jump start on next year’s decorations :).

I just love the vintage “smiling” Halloween decorations. I have collected a few items over the years so I wanted to add a smiling pumpkin and cat to my quilted Halloween banner! Minick and Simpson’s Halloween Night fabric was the perfect medium to give this banner a vintage feel.

One Halloween Night by Minick and Simpson Charm Pack

5 yards black ric rac or other ribbon

10″ black felt or other batting

1/4 yard solid black fabric

4 tiny buttons for eyes

LAYOUT

First, lay out your fabrics and decide which fabrics you want to use for your banner. You need to save out the following: One solid orange for the pumpkin, one solid black for the cat, one solid green for the pumpkin stem, and one solid cream for the face pieces. After that you can use the fabrics any way you want. I tried to use fewer of the larger patterned pieces so the letters can show up better. I put those on the back. You will need one charm square for the front and one for the back with a felt or batting piece in between.

CUTTING

I used black felt as my batting for the quilt squares as it will show on the edges. You can use regular batting or any color felt you’d like. With a rotary, cut the felt into 16, 5″ squares.

LETTERING

For the lettering you can use any font you choose! The lettering I used was Berlin Sans FB Demi from MS Word. I used all caps and the font size was 400. Print out your letters spelling HAPPY HALLOWEEN (you only need to print one of each letter). I printed in a lt.grey so I wouldn’t use too much ink.

Cut the letters out from the black fabric. You will also need to cut the letters from a fusible applique medium. I used Steam-A-Seam 2 Lite. You can use your favorite.

Next you cut out your pumpkin and cat. Use the template included in this PDF for those. Cut one set from fabric and one from your fusible applique medium.

QUILT

This is fun part! Take each of your little charm “sandwiches” and quilt them. I tried basting with pins and with a basting stitch, but I found that a basting spray worked the best for me. I used four different quilting patterns.

The first I just did a 1/4″ straight stitch using my pressure foot as a guide.

Next I did a spider web! Straight Stitch diagonally from each side and down the center vertically and horizontally.

Then put your embroidery foot on (don’t forget to lower your feed dogs) and let the fun begin!

Starting from the center stitch around and around leaving about a 1/2″ space. Just keep going until you go off the edge.

Next I kept the embroidery foot on did simple stippling.

And last I did a grid pattern. The lines are 5/8″ apart both horizontally and diagonally.

IRON

Now you can iron-on your letters to your quilt squares. Peel the backing off of each letter and iron them onto each quilt square sandwich.

Iron the pumpkin and cat face pieces onto the heads. Be sure to leave the backing on the top part of the stem so it doesn’t iron onto your ironing board.

Before you iron the heads onto the squares, do the embroidery work on the faces.

EMBROIDER
Now you can embroider the faces on your pumpkin and cat.

I used a simple blanket stitch around the eyes.

Use a straight stitch around the nose, mouth and for the teeth. (I did the stem after I applied him to the quilt block.)

Sew the tiny buttons onto the eyes.

I used light colored quilt squares for the pumpkin & cat. I stipple quilted them.

Iron the pumpkin and cat onto the squares.

Use a straight stitch and embroider the pumpkin stem. I used a machine blanket stitch around the cat and the pumpkin.

FINISH

The last step is to attach ric rac or ribbon to the back for hanging. Cut two, 2 1/2 yd. lengths. Leave about a 1/2 inch space between each square and pin to back. You can use a simple tacking stitch to attach, or any kind of iron-on hemming fusible web to attach the ric rac to the back.