Fun Ghoulish quilt!

I've been quiet as of late and not my usual talkative self, mainly due to a lack of a finished project to share. I didn't want to write about the same old same old, that being I'm still in the process of machine quilting Pine Grove and doing hand work on the other quilts on my list of UFO's to accomplish this year. Blah, blah blah and the beat goes on!

Since Halloween is quickly approaching, being one of my all time favourite holiday, I decided to follow Darlene's idea and make a table topper. I love Halloween fabric and yet couldn't think of a quilting pattern to use these delicious fabrics.

This is what I have been designing and working on with the help of EQ6 and a pencil and paper. It is a small quilt, 40 inch square, and quite easy to accomplish. What took me a while wasn't so much the piecing, but the designing of the machine quilting. You see, I had a plan and I needed to carefully work it out! lol

The main fabric is a Alexander Henry. I've always loved this fabric and could not think of a way to accent it. Witch's hats and broom, my favourite! Oh, and lets not forget the black cats!

This is one of the patterns I designed for 2 (two) of the corners, a spider web!

It took me a while to draw what I thought was a decent web. The first 2 (two) tries, the web just didn't look right. After an hour of drawing, it dawned on me that the curves were going the wrong way. Once I figured out how it should look, the web came alive in no time. Unfortunately, it is not a continuous design and therefore has a lot of stops and starts.

On the opposite corner, I quilted a spider!

It wasn't only the paper and pencil designs that took a while, but how I would plan this quilt. You see, I had a special effect in mind!

I wanted the table topper to come alive when the lights came out. So I had to strategical place designs that would magically appear in the dark.

Yes, I have hidden ghosts and other goulish treats within the machine quilting that will only come out when darkness has fallen. Muawwwwhahahaha!

What did I use to create these effects you might ask?

As you know by now, I like to test threads. I'm also always on the look out for a specialty thread. When I make a quilt, I sometimes like to add what I call "elements of surprise". My daughter loves it when her quilt glows in the dark.

I have been using Bug Glow Luminous Thread since it first came out on the market. It comes in white only and I think it is a 30wt, but don't quote me on that!

I've been generally pleased with this thread, that is until I found something that was much easier to work with. You see with this thread, tension was an issue for my machine. Given that it was the only thread available at the time, I made due.

Coats & Clark recently came out with a "Glow-In-The-Dark" machine embroidery thread, which comes in a variety of colours making it simpler to hide designs. It is 40wt and much easier to work with tension wise than the Glow Bug.

The web and spider were machine quilted using the purple colour. They do stand out however, the other items are well hidden in the quilt and will only come out in the darkness!

This table topper does not have a name as of yet, I welcome suggestions. It was made for a special friend in mind. I just love Halloween and what better way to say how much I appreciate her friendship than with a table topper that will haunt her even at night! lol

Have a great day everyone and thank you for stopping by!