Collage Quilt a Sugar Skull - Tutorial

It's Halloween time and making crafts. quilts, and even foodie treats  for the season is a love of mine.

(who am I kidding, we all know I really don't like to cook)

One thing I haven't made is a sugar skull and I've always wanted to.

Today I did it, I made a sugar skull and here is how I did it.

I call this technique collage applique, but someone told me it's called broderie perse.

I'm pretty sure this isn't what the early quilters had in mind for broderie perse....

Although it is a lot of flowers.

First step is to find a skull drawing.  I found one on the Internet and traced it with a permanent marker onto my light weight fabric.  

Update:  I have drawn a skull with the heart eyes and the jpg can be found HERE free.

I chose to use pink because I used lots of pink flowers.  This fabric is what Walmart calls quilting cotton.  It's super, duper thin.  The eyes are modified with hearts.  I just drew them on.

Next fuse Heat N Bond Lite  or your favorite paper backed fusible to the back of various fabric flowers and cut them out.

I used all kinds of floral fabrics from Tula Pink to Moda to Art Gallery.

Start arranging the flowers on the skull.  I peel off the paper as I go.

  (I have fused a few papers down before so trust me, peel the paper off as you go!)

He looks like he has a beard...lol

I like to use a few birds and butterflies in my designs.

This is what it looks like when the design is covered and the flowers are bonded to the fabric.

Turn the skull fabric over and cut out the design.  If there is a design you want to keep on the outside of the skull, cut it out first on the front, then cut the rest from the back.

Here is mine all cut out.

Baste the skull to your final background fabric with basting spray.  I use Spray n Bond Basting Adhesive but you can use your favorite.

Stitch around the skull with a zigzag, straight, or I used a blanket stitch.  Stitch in the eyes and the nose too.  Next make your quilt sandwich with batting and backing fabric and quilt as desired, but it must be tight quilting stitches over the skull to catch the edges as much as possible.

 Matchstick quilting or a free motion small meander stitch works really well.

I used Aurifil 50 wt  in black - 4241 for the background 

and 

my favorite "go to" Aurifil light grey - 2600 for the sugar skull.

This sugar skull is a 16" pillow cover, so I finished it with an envelope back.

If you have any questions about this process, just leave me a comment and I'll get back to you.

I'm so excited, I'm ready to make another one with a white background.

And maybe a quilt too!!!

Have a happy weekend!