Fall Fever

     I am not sure why I have resisted making quilts that are seasonal. I know I don't like cutesy. Well, that is over. Fall is coming and it is the only time of the year I enjoy using orange and brown, my least favorite colors. Except for fall.
    Last year, I made some pumpkins from a Bonnie Hunter pattern and made a small wallhanging. And it sat all year unquilted. Originally I was going to big stitch hand quilt it, but I decided it was too busy already. So it sat.
    Inspired by the candy corn that suddenly appeared in the store, I pulled it out and FMQ it on one of my Singer 301s (the mocha one). I just have the gray border to finish and bind it. It is nice to work FMQ on a domestic machine from time to time.

    And then, someone gave me a couple bags of fabric and pieces. There were a bunch of not quite 5" squares sewn together by hand. Really weird hand stitching. The fall colors hooked me even though I normally never look at fabric like this. Here is a photo of a block I did not rip out because the color was wrong.

    I spent one evening sitting outside picking out those seams. After pressing the squares, I chain pieced the blocks in a long chain. I ended up adding 5" squares I had in my box of squares (trimming each one) in chains and pressing them.

    I sliced the blocks down the middle making rectangles. I chain pieced the short sides and then sliced them into 4 patches. I adapted this technique from Missouri Star on Katie's Quilt.

    Once I had 4 patches, I sewed them together and decided to use a cool print for the center and group the 4 patches around it.

    Now I was on a tear, finished sewing this, grabbed the extra pumpkins from last year to make a skinny hanging, and then more 4 patches with black wonky stars for a small table decoration. I plan on buying and adding black rickrack to the bigger one around the center fun fabric. Then I will bind in a black print with a yellow orange flange. Lots of neat seasonal quilt work from someone who was reluctant to do this. I have never been a decorating type or cutesy. However, I bought fall fabric every fall.
    I think Quiltdiva Julie gave me a kick in the pants with her arrangement of holiday pieces on a mantel. Then it fomented in my brain and grabbed some repurposed squares. You just never know.