I Made a Little Quilt That Is a Ghost for The Little Ghost Who Was a Quilt

The best thing, for me, about having a small niece, is that I can still make all the cute children's things that I want to make, because I still have someone to give them to!

Honestly, I might actually make more things for my niece than I did for my own kids, if you don't count things like clothes or homeschool materials or collaborative crafts, because when my own kids were this little kid's age, I was too busy parenting little kids to get enough crafty time to actually make them cute things! My younger kid was four years old by the time I made her first quilt, oops!

So when I saw The Little Ghost Who Was a Quilt in a local bookstore a few weeks ago, and I was immediately charmed by it, and then immediately after that I wanted to make a little ghost quilt--I did!

Happily, the book's endpapers feature the quilt design of the titular little ghost, making it super easy to see what similar fabrics would look like. And even more happily, I did not have to buy a single thing to make this quilt! To be fair, a couple of the fabrics that I used are remnants that I'd previously bought with no purpose in mind, but everything else was honest-to-goodness scraps and stash, from the fabric for the top to the cotton batting to the cotton sheet I used as the backing.

All of the pieces are 5" squares. I wanted my quilt to be 10 blocks by 12 blocks, so I needed 120 blocks total. I sort of tried to keep the colors even between purple, aqua, and white, but it's a little blue-heavy. There are just a few grey blocks scattered in, because it turns out that I don't actually own very much grey fabric. The little ghost quilt in the book also has tan blocks, but for some reason I don't have ANY tan fabric, and anyway, I wasn't really feeling the tan colorway... which is perhaps one reason for why I don't own any tan fabric, lol!

To make the quilt, you lay out your pieces and rearrange them until you like the way they look as a whole, then stack them by rows, piece each row, then piece the rows themselves together, being quite fussy about lining up the corners:

Then you take up your entire family room floor making your quilt sandwich!

This is why I can never say that my creations come from a pet-free home, ahem. I would NEVER want my creations to come from a pet-free home!

I pinned my quilt quite well to the batting/backing, trimmed it out roughly, then quilted it via stitch in the ditch, earning myself yet another day of having a wonky back in the process. Why must quilting be so ergonomically incorrect?!?

Here's how it looks all nicely quilted and ready to be properly trimmed:

I got through trimming the batting before my supervisor came to check up on me:

I trimmed the backing to 1" wider than the quilt on all sides, then folded it in half twice, clipped it in place using every plastic sewing clip I own, and stitched it down:

Proper quilters use a blind stitch or another invisible stitch, but I'm happy with a plain old zig-zag.

And there's my little ghost quilt!

The lighting was soooo perfect right when I finished, but in the hour it took me to run out and do early voting, it got completely overcast. But I had to take my photos anyway, because Halloween presents are more fun if you can get them in the mail in time for the recipient to receive them before, you know, Halloween!

...and that's a bunch of cat hairs there on the purple block, sigh. I did wash it and dry it, and then go over it with the lint roller, before I put it in the mail.

Because you don't have to follow a pattern, just make sure that the pieces look cute together as a whole, this is actually one of the quickest quilts I've ever sewn:

I'm always especially pleased when I can work any of my favorite meaningful fabrics into a piece. Below, the smocked blue fabric used to be part of the only skirt that my older kid ever willingly wore. The silky white fabric to its right is actually from my wedding dress!

My favorite part, though, is that I used variegated thread to quilt it, and it looks so nice from the back!

Isn't it crazy that you can make something so substantial, and so pretty and perfect, entirely from materials you already have on hand? Historically, that's exactly what quilting should be, including reusing those bits of old clothes, and I LOVE that there's a children's book that encourages children to notice and care for the simple, unassuming gift of a patchwork quilt:

I didn't have any ghosts on hand to put into it, though, so that part's going to have to figure itself out later. 

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How to Make Quilted Greeting Cards

I originally published this tutorial over at Crafting a Green World.

Quilted greeting cards are a great way to show off your cutest mini quilt blocks!

When I made quilted postcards, we all knew that I was just one small step away from making quilted greeting cards, right? I mean sure, there was a chance that I’d get bored with mini quilt blocks and move onto the bookshelf quilt that I promised my younger daughter, but you and I both know that when I start down a rabbit trail, I generally follow that trail to the absolute end.

It turns out that the end of the mini quilt block rabbit trail is a set of quilt-as-you-go rainbow quilted greeting cards!

These quilted greeting cards have a whopping two additional steps over my quilted postcards, so they’re still a terrifically quick and easy way to do some scrap-busting of your sewing stash. You should also already either have a mini quilt block in mind OR know how to do the quilt-as-you-go method.

Here’s everything that you’ll need to make quilted greeting cards:

• fabric for quilting as you go or mini quilt block. Fabrics that are approximately all the same weight work best for this project, but otherwise, feel free to play with whatever fun fabrics you’ve got on hand. Those white suns on my mini rainbow quilts are pieces of my old wedding dress!
• double-sided fusible interfacing. This will allow you to adhere your mini quilts to your greeting cards without stitching onto the card. You can do without it, but I think it makes the final product look the nicest.
• heavyweight cardstock. Regular cardstock doesn’t feel hefty enough in the finished product, considering how much weight the mini quilt adds to the front of the card. I actually really like this Strathmore watercolor paper for this project, and I think you could even go as heavy as bristol board or cardboard food packaging.
• measuring, cutting, folding, and sewing materials. I used a guillotine paper cutter, a spoon instead of a bone folder, and regular sewing supplies.

Step 1: Measure, cut, and fold the greeting cards.

To make a standard 5″x7″ greeting card, you’ll want your paper sized to 7″x10″. I actually folded my watercolor paper in half first, then cut it to size with my paper cutter. I’ve got some nice scraps leftover for making bookmarks and gift tags!

No matter whether you fold first or cut first, the most important part of making a homemade greeting card look really nice is getting a really nice fold. With paper as thick as this, you pretty much have to use some kind of tool to smooth down that fold. The concept of the bone folder grosses me out even though I know most of them are just plastic, so fortunately the back of a spoon works just as well!

Step 2: Sew a mini quilt block sized to your greeting card.

I had the idea for this quilt-as-you-go rainbow and sun block, so in these photos that’s what I’m sewing, using that ‘Merica fabric as my base. I generally snap up 100% quilting cotton whenever I’m out thrifting, even if I hate the print, just for projects like this. I’ll also take all your old 100% cotton blue jeans!

By the time I finished my rainbow, you can’t see ‘Merica at all!

Edge-stitch around your completed quilt block, even though fraying isn’t going to be a problem. Your block also doesn’t need to be quilted, strictly speaking, so quilt it or not as you like. I quilted some of mine and left others alone, and I still can’t figure out which I like better.

Your appliques are another place where you can play fast and loose. I just zigzagged my suns onto the quilt blocks and called it good!

Step 3: Attach the quilt block to the greeting card front.

Cut the interfacing to size, then make a sandwich with the greeting card face-up, the interfacing, and the quilt block face-up.

Iron the snot out of your sandwich! Or, rather, follow the interfacing manufacturer’s instructions for how to iron it, ahem.

I ironed the snot out of it, though…

Trim any bits of the quilt block that are sticking out past the greeting card. If any bits of greeting card are sticking out past the quilt block you’re going to be soooo tempted to trim that, too, but trust me: that way madness lies. You will NEVER get it even, so just set your mind firmly to not noticing any sticky-outy card bits.

In case you’re thinking that now I’m SURELY done with mini quilt blocks, I’ve had the idea that maybe I could figure out a way to only temporarily attach, say, a mini quilt block coaster or mug rug to the front of a greeting card, so that the recipient could pull it off and use it. That would be super cute, right?

Move-in day. I HAVE to have that bookshelf quilt finished by my kid’s college move-in day!

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Piecing the Bookshelf Quilt

Back in May, the summer seemed so long, so how is it actually so short?

When the summer seemed long, the time that I would need to drop my baby off at college and help her make her dorm room bed, complete with a homemade quilt on top, seemed so far away. Too far away to worry about now. Time enough to start sewing later. June, maybe. July, at the latest.

And then somehow it turned out that it was actually August. Cue quite a shocking number of sewing fugue states!

Probably for the best that I didn't realize how long this quilt would take, ahem. The big kid's quilt is the same size but didn't take nearly as long, probably because the pieces were mostly zigzag appliqued and there was a lot of negative space. The pieces for this kid's quilt, though, were endless and looked like this:

I did them in batches, cutting a ton of strips to different widths, cutting and piecing them to different lengths, and then every now and then getting down on the floor and laying out a few blocks:

Fortunately, I always had my gentleman helper at hand:

So helpful!

Is he not exquisitely handsome in this light, though?

Even when he's sitting directly atop the block that I'm trying to lay out...

Each block took between 6 and 11 strips to create, depending on the widths that I tried to vary:

I also did some blocks that are stacks of books:

The kid and I didn't end up loving the way these stacked book blocks look, but that's just tough because by the time we decided that I'd already cut out a ton of strips for them. Oh, well... not every block in your quilt needs to be the cutest block you've ever seen!

After a while I got a little punchy and just started throwing pieces into quilt blocks. That rainbow book is a mini quilt block that I made during my mini quilt block obsession at the beginning of summer but never got around to incorporating into anything. So I sliced it up and put it here!

My partner took me on a weekend trip to Nashville for my birthday earlier this month, and I found an arts and crafts reuse store to visit. They had even more fabric scraps and unfinished quilt blocks, most already the perfect size to be books. Those mountains in the image below started off as somebody else's project who knows when!

I kind of lost my mind when I got down to the wire, and I kept losing count of how many quilt blocks I'd made and having to count them all over again every time I finished a new one. Eventually, my big kid took pity on me, counted them once and for all, and set me up with an easy way to keep track:

Two episodes of Chicago Med later, and I could lay out 48 10.5" x 10.5" bookshelf blocks on my favorite sunny spot on the floor:

Still to come:

• a proper arrangement of the blocks to look just the way the kid prefers
• piecing the blocks into bookshelf rows
• selecting, purchasing, washing, then cutting and sewing sashing fabric for the shelves and the perimeter
• sewing the entire quilt top together
• selecting, purchasing, washing, and laying out the backing fabric and batting
• quilting
• folding and sewing the back-to-front binding
• cutting off all the little threads
• washing and drying to make it clean and fluffy

See, I'm almost done!

P.S. Want to follow along with my craft projects, books I'm reading, road trips to random little towns, looming mid-life crisis, and other various adventures on the daily? Find me on my Craft Knife Facebook page!

How to Make Quilted Postcards

 I originally published this tutorial on Crafting a Green World.

Quilted postcards are a fun way to let someone know you’re thinking about them.

The scrap busting is a bonus!

It is apparently my Summer of Quilting Tiny Things, as I have quilted so many wee pretties so far! Completely ignoring the Foundation Paper Pieced quilt I promised my high school graduate for her college dorm bed, I’ve instead been busily sewing up little quilt-as-you-go bookmarks and zipper pouches and applique patches and these adorable postcards.

Quilted postcards have been my particular favorite lately, because they make such great gifts for so many occasions. I’ve made lots for the high school graduates in my life, but these would be a good gift for their parents, too. You can make themed and pre-stamped postcards for anyone planning a fun trip or heading off to sleepaway camp, and what better way to wrap up a visit to long-distance friends and family than with a lovely hostess gift of postcards that match their style?

You can turn most mini quilt blocks into a postcard, or alter almost any mini quilt block to be postcard-sized, as you prefer. Here’s how!

Materials

To make quilted postcards, you will need:

• cardstock, cut to size. Postcards must be rectangular, not square. They can be anywhere from 3.5″ to 4.25″ along their short sides, and 5″ to 6″ along their long sides. Any cardstock of approximately 65 lbs will work, or you can upcycle cardstock or thin cardboard food packaging. Be VERY careful with the latter, though, because your postcard can only be .016″ thick, maximum, and that’s with the fabric and interfacing and stitching!
• fabric scraps. My favorite thing about mini quilts is using up my teeniest bits of fabric scraps. Frankly, I’m going to have to get started on my kid’s Foundation Paper Pieced quilt soon just because otherwise I’m about to run out of teeny fabric scraps for mini quilt-making!
• fusible interfacing. I know that normally all I do is gripe about fusible interfacing and how it’s just an extra thing to buy and an extra bit of polyester in the landfill, but you DO need it for this project. Lightweight interfacing, or any scraps of any weight (as long as you don’t go over the maximum postcard thickness!), will be fine.
• measuring, cutting, and sewing supplies. My universal needle worked well for this project from start to finish. If you’ve got a super-new needle in your machine, though, you could switch it out for an old one when you actually start stitching over the cardboard.

Step 1: Pick your postcard size and cut the cardstock and interfacing to match.

I actually started off with 4″x6″ pieces of cardstock leftover from a previous project, so I trimmed about .25″ from the long sides because I was paranoid about any stitching or extra fabrics making my postcards slightly too long. Postage is expensive enough without paying for an oversized piece!

Whatever size you choose for your postcard, cut interfacing to the same size. I used my cardstock postcard I’d just measured and cut as the template for this.

Step 2: Sew mini quilt blocks to match the postcard measurements.

There are so many great ways to do this!

The photo above is of a quilt-as-you-go mini quilt block, which you can stitch directly onto the non-glue side of the interfacing that you cut.

For all the other quilt blocks I’m writing about, we’ll save the interfacing for the next step.

The photo above is a postage stamp quilt. To make this one, cut 1.5″ squares from your scraps, then piece them with a .25″ seam. If you want to make your postage stamp quilt SUPER tiny, cut 1″ squares but keep the .25″ seam allowance, and your finished quilt block will have eensy little .5″ pieces.

The postcard above is a log cabin mini quilt block. Piece it exactly the way you would a log cabin quilt block, again with fabric scraps that are 1″ to 1.5″ wide. I added extra pieces along the side to fill out the length.

The quilt block above is a triangle hexie. After finishing the hexie, I filled out the corners by piecing it with more log cabin strips, then trimming the block to size. I can use those scraps in another quilt-as-you-go mini quilt project!

Step 3: Add interfacing and stitch the quilt block to the postcard.

Unless you made the quilt-as-you-go quilt block and therefore already have the interfacing attached to the quilt block, fuse the interfacing to the back of the block now. This will add stiffness to the block to make it easier to sew, and it gives the postcard a little more support, as well. But you could probably skip the interfacing, too–if you try that, let me know how it worked!

After the interfacing is attached, do any quilting that you want to the block. Technically it doesn’t really need it, but it IS pretty!

Place your postcard and the cardstock wrong sides together, and clip in place–I finally splurged on a set of plastic clips a year or so ago, and I LOVE them. The fact that they’re plastic is a huge bummer, for sure, but I just have to commit to taking care of them so they never end up in a landfill on my watch.

If you wanted to change out to a junk needle in your sewing machine, do it now. Set your stitch length to around a 2 and your stitch width to at least a 3.

Sew around the perimeter of the postcard. I don’t try to catch the edge in the stitching or anything–I just keep the stitching near the edge.

Finally, trim any excess fabric from around the cardstock.

To use this postcard, add a stamp to the top right corner of the cardstock, then the address on the right side. Write your message on the left side, and pop it into the mail! You’re about to be USPS famous!

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Tutorial: Quilt as You Go Scrappy Mini Quilt Blocks

 I originally posted this tutorial over at Crafting a Green World.

From bookmarks to coasters to these little guys, my quilt as you go obsession continues!

These quilt as you go mini quilt blocks are a terrific way to use up fabric scraps, and the finished quilt blocks are endlessly useful in all sorts of ways. I like to use them to sew zippered pouches, stitched coasters, and quilted postcards, in particular, but I have my eye on a few more projects they’d look beautiful in.

So get out that basket of fabric scraps, because here’s how to some mini quilt blocks the quilt as you go way!

Materials

You will need:

• interfacing. I don’t usually like to buy proper interfacing, instead subbing in whatever scrap fabrics I’ve already got squirreled away. Eco-fi recycled polyester felt, for instance, makes an excellent backing for my quilt as you go bookmarks, and scrap batting works really well in my quilted coasters. But because I don’t always know how I’m going to use these particular quilt as you go blocks when I make them, I do like to stitch them to fusible interfacing. Some of my favorite projects work better with fusible interfacing, so this way, these blocks are all ready to go!
• fabric scraps. Even the teeny-tiny ones work for this project! My seams for this particular quilting project are generally .25″, so any scrap that’s at least .5″ along one side can be successfully incorporated.
• seam roller. You can always finger-press your seams, but I really like this handy little tool for pressing my seams sans heat.
• measuring, cutting, and sewing tools. I mostly use a small pair of sharp fabric scissors, but I do use a quilting ruler, cutting mat, and rotary cutter to measure the interfacing and trim the finished block.

Step 1: Measure and cut interfacing to the size of the quilt block.

The interfacing is what will determine the size of your quilt block, so cut it to your preferred finished size. I’ve got a specific project in mind for these mini quilt blocks, so I cut my interfacing to 5″x7″.

Step 2: Stitch the first piece.

Your ultimate goal will be to quilt these pieces as you go without leaving any raw edges visible on the front of the quilt block. To that end, I like to start somewhere near the center of these mini quilt blocks, and piece around that center point at least for a little while.

Because I want to preserve the ability to fuse this quilt block to my future project, I’m also keeping the fusible side of the interfacing on the wrong side, and stitching my quilt block to the non-fusible side.

With right sides together, stitch down one side of your first scrap piece. Aim for a piece that goes off the edge of the interfacing, as pictured above.

Fold the piece over so the right side is up, then use the seam roller to press it. If you’re not using a fusible interfacing as a base, feel free to iron, but I don’t want to fuse this piece to my cutting mat!

Step 2: Continue to add pieces, quilting as you go.

Place the second piece you want to sew right side down, lined up with one of the edges of the previous piece. Again, the ideal placement of this piece will extend off the edge of the interfacing.

Stitch down that straight seam, then fold over and press the seam flat.

As you continue to fill up this space, remember not to leave any raw edges. This becomes trickier after a while, and so I keep a few larger scraps in reserve for those times that I need to stitch a piece that goes from end to end across my block.

Notice from these photos that you don’t always have to line up your new piece at the edge of an existing piece. Since I’m doing this project mainly for scrap-busting, I also don’t trim away that extra fabric underneath the seam, even if I’ve stitched my new piece far back from the edge and I have quite a lot of it. That excess fabric can stay right there inside the quilt block forever, thank you very much!

That method does add bulk, though, so keep that in mind for your own project.

Step 3: Trim the quilt block to size.

This whole time, I’ve been encouraging you to run your fabric scraps off the edge of the interfacing to make sure they go all the way and you don’t leave any raw edges. But when you’ve completely finished filling up your quilt block, turn it over and trim the block to be even with the interfacing.

These mini quilt blocks are so quick and easy to make, and I love how they tend to naturally complement each other, since I incorporate many of the same scraps into multiple blocks.

And they’re perfect for so many projects! If you make your template 2″x6″, you can easily sew bookmarks. If your quilt block is 4″x4″ or 5″x5″, you can turn these into coasters.

And if your quilt block is 5″x7″, you can make the postcards I’ll show you how complete next week!

P.S. Want to follow along with my craft projects, books I'm reading, dog-walking mishaps, confrontations with gross men, and other various adventures on the daily? Find me on my Craft Knife Facebook page!