What would Midnight on Halloween be without a few bats?

This is Batty Bat.  It has the Halloween theme that my husband and kids love, and it has the cute-factor that I like.  

Here are the instructions for Bonus Block No. 1 - Midnight Moon Batty Bat by April Rosenthal.

The Batty Bat block is available in the 8" finished size only.  Feel free to substitute it for any of the various blocks to make your quilt “spookier”.  There will be a few more bonus blocks coming, and feel free to substitue the bonus block into the quilt, they would be fun to incorporate into a pieced backing. 

As for the block, it's easy to piece, though it does look a little odd as you're piecing it.  You'll need something to mark points on your fabric, and a ruler for trimming.  The block is then trimmed to size at the end.

After telling Lissa how much I loved what she and Tammy had shared about quilting, she asked me to answer the same questions.  So here goes.

Fabric prep?  My main thing is to make sure that the selvedges are lined up.  Typically I will refold the fabric, press it, and straighten the edges.

Cutting?  All at once, or a little at a time, and do I stack layers.  I am a bit of a rebel on cutting! I cut everything at once, and the more at one time, the better! I don't love cutting pieces, so I have come up with many shortcuts, including cutting stacks of as many as eight fabrics at a time.  To do that, I lay them out in precise stacks, and then I cut through multiple rows of stacked fabrics in one pass.  

What kind of rotary cutter do I use?  I have always used an Olfa 45 rotary cutter, and I've used the endurance blade for as long as I can remember.  Honestly, it was the first one I ever used, and I just haven't branched out.  I love that it's minimal, doesn't have bulky bells and whistles, and since it's pretty streamlined, I can see exactly where and what I'm cutting.

Rulers?  I really love my Omnigrid 6" x24" ruler, that's what I use most for cutting yardage. I also love my Omnigrid 3" x 18" ruler.  Since the cutting methods I just described are a bit risky, I love rulers with a little grip that isn't dimensional.

Midnight Magic 2 scraps.

Scraps - what do I save? I save scraps - usually!  I won't save stuff smaller than 1", and often I put scrap boxes on my website because I have too many scraps and not enough time.  I try not to throw anything away, I feel badly when I do, so I just can't do it.  (Which is why I keep winding up with too many scraps.)

When Moda's Tammy V shared the step-outs she'd done for piecing the block, I asked if I could share them here.  So here is how Batty Bat is made.

Begin cutting the strips.  (Don't you love how Tammy organizes her strips?)

Continue cutting.  I love two of the tips Tammy shared last week - how she likes to cut strips parallel to the selvedge, and how she uses a Sharpie to write the date on the rotary cutting blade when she changes it.  I've already put a Sharpie in with my spare rotary blades.

Lay out all of the pieces before starting to join the strips.  A couple of the strips are close enough in size that this is a good way to avoid having to un-sew anything.

Piece the strips.

Lay out the parts for the remaining corner.

After piecing the small flying geese unit, select the corresponding strip for the bat.

Align the piece to the flying geese unit as shown.

Join the pieces a shown.

Trim the extra part of the flying geese unit, and press.

Join the parts of the corner triangle as shown.  Fold the triangle and flying geese units in half, and pinch to create a little pleat/fold.  Align the two folds and pin to secure.  Join the triangle to the flying geese strip.

On the pieced-strip unit, mark the points specified in the pattern with a chalk marker or pencil.

Use a ruler to line up the points and trim.  

Join the triangle unit to the pieced-strip unit, and press.  Trim to 8½" x 8½".

One more time, here are the Instructions for Bonus Block No. 1 - Midnight Moon Batty Bat by April Rosenthal.

If you're sewing along with us and you're on Instagram and/or Facebook, be sure to share your blocks using the hashtag - #modamidnightmoonqal.

Tammy and Lissa will be back next Saturday with two blocks and more of their quilting knowledge.  I'm looking forward to it!

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If you missed any of the posts about the Midnight Moon Quilt-along:

• Midnight Moon - Week 4 - Bear's Tracks & Buzzard's Roost
• Midnight Moon - Week 3 - A chat with April Rosenthal / Hidden Star & Pinwheel Geese
• Midnight Moon - Week 2 - Fool's Puzzle & Capital T
• Midnight Moon - Week 1 - Album Blocks & Churn Dash
• Midnight Moon QAL - Introduction
• Midnight Moon QAL on Moda's Inspiration+Resources Center