Dance of the Candy Corn Fairies

Dance of the Candy Corn Fairies  58" X 75"

Dance of the Candy Corn Fairies. Remember, I make a Valentine and a Halloween quilt each year.
         Just because.
They are all different sizes and show what I was interested in that year. You can see them all (about 40) by inviting me to your guild for my lecture on Holiday Quilts and working in series. I'd love to meet you! I do travel to other states.

Kick up your heels and enjoy the pictures.

I know you can click on the images to see details but thought I might show you a few.

It all started with the cute center panel. I am attracted to panels but what do you do with them??

I love paper piecing, so I thought, candy corn. 

 If you are making candy corn, no reason they shouldn't be dancing...
I free-form cut out legs and arms and went to town appliqueing them on after the piecing was done.

I must tell you now, when I approach a bed sized quilt I plan ahead to the quilting. I piece the sections small enough to comfortably quilt before constructing the whole quilt after. Not difficult, saves my back, and looks terrific.

The stars, bats, witches, pumpkins etc were paper piecing patterns from Sew Precise software or magazines. What fun to piece them, then arrange them around the center.

I pieced the fairies around the panel, quilted that section, pieced the next border and quilted that.
The curved orange border was quilted, the edge finished and added last. All joining done by machine, and when it was added, the whole quilt was finished! No hand work basically.

This is too much for a tutorial, but I  teach the technique as a full day class.

I love to use my stash, and the Halloween stash is lots of fun to pick through. I like to piece in various fabrics and am partial to these cranky witches.

My applique is often without fusible, and I don't like to satin stitch around them, but lay down line after line of free motion to hold them on. I like the look.

The little candies are appliqued, held down by stitching done in the quilting process.

The inner border was a black and white that I hand dyed, and kept for years til this quilt came along and it was perfect for it. Don't rush to use your fabrics, but allow yourself to use them in the perfect situation. That's a note to myself, the fabric collector.