Somewhere around the first of October, our sewing rooms change hands. The Halloween Shop is Chic Quilter's record of who moves in: skeletons who never quite finish the binding, ghosts working the late shift at the machine, a jack-o'-lantern who has claimed the whole table, and a coven piecing a quilt top faster than any guild we know. It is the quilter's Halloween, drawn with the same rotary cutters, rulers and fabric heaps that fill your sewing room all year.
Skeletons who are still not done
The skeletons in this collection are, frankly, us. Son of a Stitch stands in a red bandana and apron holding up a patchwork block like a proud grandmother. Practically Close Enough is a lanky skeleton in an apron saying the two words every quilter has said to a point that did not meet. Still Not Done sinks into a purple armchair with a quilt across its knees, a fair portrait of us late on a Tuesday. Dead Serious About Quilting seats three of them around a table with a sewing machine, and Fabric to the Bone shows a ribcage neatly stacked with folded bolts. We have all felt that.
Pumpkins at the machine, ghosts on the night shift
In This May Take a Minute a jack-o'-lantern sits at a sewing machine while two small ghosts hover, plainly offering advice. Better Than Candy fills a pumpkin to the brim with spools, scissors and notions, and Pieced to Perfection-ish builds a jack-o'-lantern's face out of patchwork triangles, one eye a little wonky, as is right. The ghosts are just as busy. Night Shift shows a whole room of them sewing under a pendant lamp with the finished quilt on the wall, My Quilting Boos lines up five patchwork ghosts in a row, Just the Essentials hands each little ghost a notion, and Nailed It gives one glasses, a craft bag and orange sneakers on the way to guild.
The coven has a cutting mat
Witch, Please. I'm Quilting puts a witch at her machine with a patchwork top spilling off the table. Coven Meeting gathers the witches around a table to piece a quilt together, and Just Mixing Things Up has one stirring a cauldron with a ruler while fabric bubbles over the side. Fabric Run sends a witch flying on a quilting ruler instead of a broom, Stitching the Moon pieces a crescent moon out of scraps with a tiny witch flying past, and Sew Witchy is a patchwork witch hat wearing a tape measure for a hatband. The familiars came too. Nevermore Fabric? perches ravens on an antique machine, Multitasking gives a spider eight arms for sewing and one for coffee, and Helping is a black cat sprawled across the cutting mat, right where you needed to cut.
For the guild's costume night
This collection belongs to the quilter who hosts the October guild meeting with candy corn beside the pincushion, the retreat friend who packs a witch hat next to her rotary cutter, and anyone handing out treats on the 31st between seams. Wear the skeleton to the quilt shop and count how many people say same. And if a small ghost turns up in your sewing room around midnight, hand it a bobbin. The night shift is short-staffed.
Written by Jacqueline. Thanks for reading.
