The Haunted Pattern

There's a Free pattern download in store for you, but first, the story behind the free haunted quilt pattern.

The Haunted Pattern

(imagine the eerie music at this point)

We Are All Human

(except for the ghost making a guest appearance later in the story)

Once upon a time, I believe it was May of 2013, I set my hand to design a new 3 yard quilt pattern. I wanted something simple enough for a beginner, and quick for an experienced quilter’s charity quilt and large enough for a comfy sofa quilt. In my usual manner, I selected some yummy fabrics, scanned them and sat down at my trusty computer to create a new 3 yard quilt. Here is the results, Four Square, 3 yard quilt.



After creating the "look" I wanted, I wrote the pattern and sent it home with a experienced pattern tester. Within days the pattern tester, Jeannie Crane, returned with an agitated look on her face and said, I got more than half of the top put together and then realized I had one row in upside down and had to "R.I.P." it out.  Grrr... Then the last border ran 4" short of fabric." No problem, I told her and sent her home with the extra fabric and consoling words. After all, we all have to "R.I.P." every once in a while. And I am only human so I make mistakes. This is the reason I have every pattern tested. I want to discover any mistakes and fix them before we print the pattern and our customers start sewing their quilt.

I returned to the quilt math, made a couple of changes, fixed the border error, selected three more yummy fabrics and sent the new pattern and fabric to Mary Ellen Futch, a very experienced Fabric Café pattern tester. I wanted to make sure we had expelled any mistakes! Here's the new yummy version of Four Square, 3 yard quilt.



Just a few days went by and Mary Ellen contacted me to say she was experiencing some confusing instructions and out and out errors in the pattern, nothing like we usually have. But she had worked through them, finished the quilt, sent me corrections and took a snapshot. She had to take two shots because the first one had a strange ghost flying across the front of the quilt (I'm not making this up). Here's the ghost photo.



Are you imagining eerie music yet?

We laughed and as an inside joke, began referring to the Four Square pattern as the haunted quilt. We knew in our hearts that it was just a simple malfunction of the camera that had never had a problem before and would never have it happen again. I entered all of Mary Ellen's clarifications, we proofed and reproofed, sent it off to the printers and introduced this pretty quilt at the Oaks, PA quilt show.

And then, on a dark and dreary night (really, it was thundering and lightening and raining here) a customer contacted me and said the dreaded words I hate to hear, "I think there is a mistake in one of your patterns." Yep, it was the Haunted Quilt!

Mary Ellen and I put our heads together (really we put our emails together because a couple of thousand miles separate us) and we believe we have exorcised the poltergeist. We've corrected everything (ok, this is getting weird as I typed the last words, my laptop battery got too low and the computer shut down with no warning!)

I’ve decided to offer a treat to the friendly ghost who just wants a littlerecognition. The treat I offer is a free Halloween download of Four SquarePattern to all our blogging fans. Shall I dare you to make it?

You can now download the free haunted pattern, better known as the Four Square Quilt.

We think it is correct now, but we are all human….except for the ghost!

Happy Halloween and Happy Quilting!

Donna

PS: Four months later and I'm happy to report that no further ghost sightings have occurred. The pattern has been made multiple times and no one has discovered a mistake. I guess the rascal just wanted national recognition! DJR, Feb. 2014