Going way back to last Xmas now, I made this as a gift for a friend. Nightmare before Christmas panel lap quilt with Jack Skellington Halloween fabric on the back. Gotta love the fake, printed borders! :D

Oh Helloween!

Another XXXmas gift I made is this lap quilt for a dear friend whose favorite band is the German power metal pioneers, Helloween.

Again, I used a fabric band flag as the center panel. I had to scour the internet pretty hard to find this one; it's not only vintage, it's also bigger than the standard band flag size so it made a decent sized quilt :)

The technique was identical to the one I used to make the Moonsorrow quilt, as seen in this previous post. Just find a similar themed fabric for the backing, throw on coordinating borders, free motion quilt it with invisible monofil thread, add binding and BAM! A gift that simultaneously makes you warm and cool!  \m/  >_< \m/

Needle de los Muertos

A while back I found some great Dia de los Muertos fabric online, and HAD to get some even though I didn't have any immediate plans for it. (I'm sure that's never happened to any of you....right??)
Recently I've been doing more embroidery and hand sewing projects, and got sick of digging around for the right size needle. Then it hit me: these Muertos loteria "cards" are a good size to fit on the cover of a needle book!
I whipped out a few by using the escape hatch technique (similar to how I made the band patch xmas ornaments), using some batting scraps and sacred heart fabric for the lining. Then I fused the loteria cards over the turning slit, and sewed the felt pages in down the center. Voila! I think they turned out pretty cool :)
There are a few in my etsy if you need one.

I'm dreaming....of a BLACK CHRISTMAS!!!

So last year after Christmas, I happened to find this black pre-lit tree on sale super cheap, and couldn't pass it up. I haven't had a tree of my own since I moved away from home 20+ years ago, so I've had lots of fun all year coming up with ideas for the 1st annual BLACK CHRISTMAS!

My first idea was to take a few heavy metal patches I have been collecting, and turn them into quilted ornaments! (I figure I'm kind of past the age where I can get away with wearing them on a grungy denim vest....) They turned out pretty cool! I am working on a tutorial for these, so stay tuned.

Then around Halloween, I happened to see a big plastic chain decoration, and realized it would make a great "metal" garland for the tree! Can't wait for next fall to roll around and see what other cool items can be found.

Finally, this weekend I put it all together while listening to a playlist I made of metal covers of Christmas songs! It's fairly poppy with Twisted Sister etc, but super fun. Here's a link in case you want to check it out (may contain a bit of NSFW language ;)

This is something I'll keep adding to every year. Next I need to make a black tree skirt!

Oh my Goth!

This is a potholder I made a while back for a friend who loves zombies, monsters and other ghoulish things. I  got the awesome pink hearse fabric at equilter.com, but it's out of print now. (there are a few cuts for sale on etsy.)

I just quilted a rectangle with a black backing, and cut it out in the shape of a coffin. Then I machine stitched a narrow black binding with a hanging loop. My friend loved it!