Halloween is always a fun and exciting time!  Costumes, decorations, and of course, the candy.  However, having room to store all that fun can sometimes be a challenge.  That’s why I love making fun applique wall hangings that bring the magic of Halloween right into my home and are easy to store.

This cute Halloween block is quick and simple and teaches ‘as you go techniques’ as well as an easy applique. It’s also easy to scale up or down depending on the space that you have to work with,  simply take the pattern and zoom in or out when you go to print it.   

This pattern is also very scrap or fat quarter friendly.  Audition some of your favorite fabrics to see what you like the best.  I used some grunge fabrics when I made mine since I liked the look of the distressed look.

You will need:

• Sewing Machine
• Black Thread
• Marking Tool (Pen, Pencil, Sharpie) for tracing the pattern
• ¼ yard of Light Weight Heat and Bond
• Fat Quarters or scraps in:
  1. Orange
  2. Yellow
  3. Purple (or your favorite accent color)

• 2 pieces of Black fabric cut to 15” square
• 1 Piece of Black cut to 5”x12”
• 1 Piece of Cotton Batting cut to 15” square (Very important to use cotton and not polyester for when you need to iron).
• Download and print your template

How to assemble:

1. Start by assembling the sandwich.  Lay your batting down first, then your 2 layers of black on top of each other, right sides together.  Sew around all 4 sides with a ¼ inch seam allowance while leaving a 4-6” gap on one side for flipping.
2. Flip the sandwich right side out, clip the corners to get a crisper corner while making sure not to clip your threads.
3. Create the hanging tube out of your 5x12” piece of black fabric.  Fold over the short edges twice to keep the fabric from fraying, these just need to be small folds, just enough to cover the raw edge.  Topstitch the sides to keep them in place.  Then with the fabric right sides together, forming a tube, sew down the length of the tube.  Flip right side out. 
4. Attach your tube to the back of your sandwich, with pins, centering it on the top (whichever side you choose just make sure that it is always on the top.  Then topstitch all around making sure that the tube is securely in place and that the hole you used for flipping is also closed.
5. Now take your Heat and Bond and use it to trace your pattern out.  The pattern has already been flipped so you don’t have to do this.  The lettering has not been flipped so make sure you flip that over and trace out your letters backward.  The solid lines are where you need to cut and the dotted lines are either sew lines or where you need to line your other pieces up onto.
6. Rough cut out your pattern pieces at attach them to the back of the corresponding fabrics using the instructions on your Heat and Bond.  Pumpkin on Orange, Stars, Eyes, Band for the hat on the Yellow, Hat and Letter on the Purple (or another accent color).
7.  Cut out your pieces and line them up one your quilt sandwich placing the pieces how you like them. This is where you can put your own creativity to use or use my picture as a sample of where to place your stars and lettering.
8. Now iron down your pieces where you want them to go, this is why it’s important to use the cotton batting and will also help your pieces from moving around.
9. Once your pieces are in place go around all of the pieces with a satin stitch.  I personally use .5mm length and a number 3 width on my machine.  Use your favorite settings or try on a practice piece to see what works best for your machine.
10. Once all the pieces are secured down go back with your satin stitch and make the lines on your pumpkin using the dashed lines as a suggestion of where to put your lines. 

YOUR DONE!!

Just add a dowl with a piece of string attached to it so you can hang up your new creation wherever you want.  If you put it outside, at the end of the season just wash it and store it for next year.  Congratulations on completing your project.