This fall I wanted to sew something fun, something that would use up a good chunk of my stash – both fabric and patterns. Over time I’ve collected a few Halloween block patterns, plus a few that could be Halloween-friendly with the right fabrics, so I decided to make a Halloween quilt block sampler, using designs from a whole bunch of different designers. I didn’t do a lot of planning ahead of time, just gathered a bunch of orange, black, pink and grey fabrics, and made decisions as I went along, using a mix of paper pieced and patchwork patterns that I already had on hand.

The  complete list of pattern designers is below, definitely click through to check out their work. Some of these blocks are part of larger patterns … and some of them are free!

Halloween Quilt Block Sampler

Halloween Block Pattern Sources

From 1 to 9 in the legend above, the blocks in the sampler (and their respective designers) are:

  1. Moth Eclipse by Woolly Petals
  2. Mushroom and Leaf blocks from Forest Fungi by Pen and Paper Patterns
  3. Halloween Black Cat by Joe June & Mae
  4. Sugar and Spice by Megan Collins
  5. Blink block from a quilt pattern by Tula Pink
  6. Gilded Cage by Massey Crafts
  7. Little Pumpkins quilt block and …
  8. Uppercase Blackletter (“BOO”) by yours truly, Patch and Dot
  9. Halloween Skull block by Bonjour Quilts

How to make a Halloween Quilt

Tips for sewing a quilt block sampler

I had so much fun sewing every single one of these blocks, and highly recommend this project as a way to sew your stash. A few tips:

  • Start with the biggest blocks and work towards the smallest. The bigger blocks will generate scraps that you can then use in the smaller blocks (this is especially true for paper pieced blocks.), and this will give your sampler a more tied together look.
  • Choose a theme, but then get creative! As you can see in my sampler, even blocks that aren’t strictly speaking Halloween themed can fill the bill with the right fabrics.
  • Use longer strips from your scrap stash to add borders to individual blocks when you have a mix of different sized blocks you need to fit together. Like I said, not much in my sampler was planned out in advance, and when it cam to the final layout, I kept improvising.

Do you have a favourite Halloween Quilt block or Quilt pattern? Or any questions about the sampler? Let me know in the comments below!