Halloween quilt finish

I started this quilt Sept 2023 right after the baby quilt for my cousin, trying to keep the momentum going from having actually made something. I didn't get it done by Halloween but did finish the top by mid December. After that, of course, it hung around in the closet like the rest of the quilt tops. I saw something similar floating around on Pinterest, thought I had a good idea of how it was done, and decided I could try it out. I had a layer cake of gray fabrics and a long-collected stash of Halloween prints. The inspiration quilt certainly had blocks larger than layer cake size, but the convenience of having the precuts in my stash outweighed any inclination to try to get it exactly the same.

I sprinkled some khaki corduroy into the gray solid mix for some fun texture in the x blocks, and picked out my most moody prints to feature in the alternating blocks. For a Halloween quilt, it's quite subdued! In contrast, the back is bright and wild. I was laying things out on the floor just continuing to add scraps and shapes together (in columns, can you tell?) until it was about the right size. 

To brighten things up a bit on front, I added a bright orange damask print binding. It's kind of "gothic mansion" in flavor and frames the whole thing very nicely. I hand stitched the binding down instead of my usual machined zigzag. 

I am very pleased to have the first of my stack of sandwiched quilts completed, and even in time for this year's spooky season.