Three of us here at Quilt Direct - Charlie, Rachel and Louise - all have boys. The three eldest are in the same year at college, whilst the younger two are close together at primary school. With the half-term holidays looming, all three of us took it in turns for a childcare day: Louise took them to the Otter Sanctuary and the beach, Rachel took them to the movies, and Charlie took them swimming (we think Charlie got the short straw!).
It's also a tradition at Quilt Direct for Katherine to include the children in the BERNINA Studio for an afternoon during the holidays. This time, she had a creative Halloween project in mind: making double-sided motifs and stringing them together to create a window garland for trick-or-treat night.
Choosing the Fabrics
Katherine, Louise and Charlie had a lot of fun deciding which fabrics to use - there were more than a few squeals of delight when they hit upon a particularly good find. Stars for the witch's hats, spotty metallic for the spiders, silver metallic for the ghosts, and various contrasting fabrics for the circles.
Making the Appliqué Sandwich
First, we prepared the appliqué components by cutting Steam and Seam 2 sheets to match the size of the fabric, then pressing them to create a tacky surface. We then placed warm and natural cotton batting between two pieces of fabric to make a sandwich, and steamed the whole piece together for 16 seconds. Katherine was clear that it's important to steam the sandwich rather than iron it at this stage - the steam is what actually sets the piece.
Cutting with the AccuQuilt GO!
The boys used a ruler to measure each die and calculated how many shapes they could fit into the prepared sandwiches - Katherine explained the mathematical approach, which they took to brilliantly. They used the AccuQuilt GO! Halloween Medley die and cut the motifs using the AccuQuilt GO! Big fabric cutter.
Assembling the Garland
Much fun was had assembling the garlands. Stringing the motifs together didn't work well at first - we needed a spacer between each one. Charlie was all for popcorn, but pasta quills won the vote. Armed with a large needle, fishing line and a bag of pasta, Louise strung them all together beautifully.
We all think they look amazing - and the children were incredibly proud of what they'd made. A brilliant half-term afternoon!
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