Sleepy Hallow

Description

When I was a kid, my friends and I turned basements into haunted houses every October. My mom was always in on it — she loved to lead the fortune-telling bit, holding a sooty plate over a candle flame and having us mimic her circling motions, “reading” our fortunes. Hers stayed clean. Ours came away covered in soot we didn’t even know we’d smeared across our own faces until someone turned on the lights.

We bobbed for apples, chased donuts on strings with our hands behind our backs, and reached into curtained boxes to feel our way through “eyeballs” (grapes), “chicken tongues” (shredded sponges), and “brains” (cold boiled pasta) while someone, without fail, jumped out to make us scream. Pure, ridiculous, spooky fun. Funny enough, I still can’t sit through a horror movie — but a good haunted house? Never bothered me a bit. I’ve always known it’s all illusion.

Which is exactly what drew me to this pattern. Sleepy Hallow looks like a traditional quilt at first glance — until your eye starts following the diamonds and stars and realizes nothing lines up quite the way it should. It’s a quilt stitched in a hall of mirrors: variable stars, diamond-in-square blocks, and pieced columns built with foundation piecing and templates, all working together in a vivid palette of pumpkin orange, lime, and deep black to create movement that shifts the longer you look at it. Intermediate piecing, but the payoff is a showpiece with real visual trickery.

Finished Size: 65” x 65”

Skill Level: Intermediate

Introduction: Foundations, templates and traditional piecing are used to make this stylish and spooky quilt!

Fabric Requirements for Timeless Treasures’ Tonga Raven                                                           

* includes binding

Notions: Foundation or Freezer Paper