Halloween Is the Time for Bitty Blocks

QUILTMAKER’S BITTY BLOCKS ARE BACK IN A HALLOWEEN QUILT!

Excitement grew when our Quilting Company editorial team first saw Denise Starck’s Bitty Boo quilt design for the September/October 2018 issue of Quiltmaker. It was almost immediate; everyone joining in to say they wanted to make the quilt.

Before we knew it, we had a quilting group project underway. We decided everyone would create their own design spin-off, but it had to include one or more of the Bitty Block designs Denise used in her quilt. Lori Baker, our Acquisitions Editor, reached out to our partner companies for fabrics from their Halloween collections to use for our projects.

Then, we had a Halloween party with witches’ hats and treats (in March) to distribute the fabric. Just to add a bit more fun to our quilting group project, the “tricks” came out as we chose a paper bag concealing each of the fabric collections. We quickly opened our bags to see the fabric, with sounds of awe and giggles, we shared our fabrics with the others (and some of us bartered to get the fabric we really wanted).

After going our separate ways to work on projects in secret, we came together again at another Halloween party (in June) for the BIG REVEAL.

Our staff quilters have had so much fun with our Bitty Boo group project. Check in over the next 5 weeks to see our 11 project ideas. You can make them using blocks from the Bitty Boo pattern! And, if you want to make Denise’s wonderful wall hanging with the Patrick Lose fabric collection, a kit is available!

The Inspiration of Bitty Boo

You’ve probably seen the designs Denise Starck has created for many of The Quilting Company publications. She has been an Art Director for Quiltmaker for a while, and 2 years ago also took on the publications’ creative design aspects for McCall’s Quilting and McCall’s Quick Quilts.

Denise was the creative director for Quiltmaker’s 100 Blocks publications and involved with the introduction of 12 Bitty Blocks in 2015, an online program introducing the 4” blocks.

Denise told me that the staff went crazy over Bitty Blocks back then too, with several of them making all the blocks. She witnessed this quilting craze and intentionally did not make any of the blocks she helped design. But… when we asked her to create a Halloween quilt for the September/October 2018 issue of Quiltmaker it didn’t take her long to think “Bitty Blocks” for her design.

Denise used 3 block designs from the original Bitty Blocks: house, star and pinwheel. She designed the bat, cat, hat and pumpkin blocks specifically for this special Halloween sampler row quilt. She selected fabrics from Patrick Lose Studios’ Basically Patrick collections because the prints are so easy to use in a quilt design and scale nicely for smaller quilt blocks. Just perfect for Bitty Boo!

How does Denise create the block designs for new Bitty Blocks?

Here’s one of her techniques. The bat block was the most challenging because she had to fit detail into a 4” space. So she searched online for an image of a bat that would help her articulate the shapes of each of the elements (head, wings, body). She sized the image to 4” and straightened lines to create patch guidelines. After making the bat’s block pattern, she was able to use it to create the blocks for her quilt, rotating placement to give their movement to the quilt.

You can just imagine how awesome it is to work with Denise. But don’t forget to check out my other awesome workmates and their Bitty Boo inspirations over the next few weeks! What a creative group of people to be around—and our Halloween group project was the greatest fun!

Happy Quilting!

Tricia

This blog is sponsored by Patrick Lose Fabrics.

Patrick Lose is celebrating his 25th anniversary in the quilting industry designing the fabrics, patterns and machine embroidery designs you love. Please visit www.PatrickLose.com and tell your local, independent quilt shop that you’d like them to carry all of the latest from Patrick Lose Fabrics.