Wacky Jack

Wacky Jack

Finally after 8 years or so of quilting, I have gotten around to making a Hallowe'en item. About time! It seems that I spend soooo much time making baby quilts to give away to family, friends and friends of the family, as well as the odd quilted bag, place mats and full sized quilts, most of which I don't keep myself.  I decided it was time to keep one of my own quilt projects to hang up at the appropriate time.

I enjoyed making "Wacky Jack" so much that, once I was done stitching on the binding,  I immediately started cutting out more orange and yellow strips of fabric and planning Wacky Jack #2.  :)

The pumpkins are easy to make. You need a piece of  muslin (or any other thin light coloured fabric) about 26-28 inches square. The variety of orange strips get sewn onto that.


Choose the fabric strips that you want for the centre, then place the first 2 with right sides together in the centre of the muslin. Sew a 1/4 inch seam down one side and flip the top strip back, finger pressing it open. Add a strip to the top in the same manner and go all the way around adding strips (similar to making a log cabin block.)

When the square pumpkin is as big as you want it, add strips of black fabric to the 4 corners to get the pumpkin shape. Then sew on 4 more black stripes, one on each side.

The eyes, nose and mouth are appliquéd on at the end, as well as the stem.

The directions for these blocks were from the American Patchwork Quilting magazine Oct. 2013 issue, page 50 and 52.

Happy Hallowe'en!