How To Make A String Quilt Door Banner
for Halloween

In this blog I’ll share with you how to quickly make a “Happy Halloween” Quilted Door Banner. It is so much fun to prepare for this holiday and decorate your home! I bet you have enough fabric scraps that can be used for a Halloween-style door or garage banner.

This banner is made out of seven quilt blocks. I’m using a string quilt block pattern because I can just use my fabric scraps and create many unique blocks. When the quilt blocks are pieced together, they create the unmistakable string quilt look. I’ll share with you my favorite lay-outs.

The Halloween Door Banner is very simple to make, trust me!

These are the tools and supplies that I used to make a string quilt block.

• A Quarter Inch Presser Foot
• 90/14 Sewing Machine Needle
• Coordinating Cotton Threads
• Thread Snips
• Rotary Cutter
• 6-inch square ruler
• Heat Erasable Fabric Marking Pens
• Tailor’s Clapper – optional (Use to flatten seams)
• Wool Pressing Mat
• Rotating Cutting Mat
• Sewing Clips
• 6 x 24 quilting ruler
• (One) glow in the dark fabric marker
• Sewing Stiletto

Each block is 6-inches square, for seven blocks you’ll need:.

• About 28 fabric strips from your stash of varying lengths starting at 6.5-inches. If your fabric strips are 2-½ inches wide, then you’ll only use four of these strips per block.
• 1-½ yards of muslin fabric.
  • Cut seven 6.5-inch squares of fabric
  • Make the door banner backing fabric by cutting this fabric 14-inches wide by 45-inches deep.
• ½ yard of black fabric
  • Cut two strips of fabric 4-inches wide by 45-inches long. (These are the right and left borders.)
  • Cut two strips of fabric 6-inches wide by 2-inch deep. (These are the top and bottom border strips. Sew each border strip to the top block and bottom block of the door banner. This will make it easier to piece the left and right borders.)

Use your favorite way to prep for a new project or try my proven, stress-free method. See “Getting Ready To Quilt-The Ultimate Checklist”.

The first step is to make at least seven quilt blocks to assemble a banner that fits your door or garage. In my previous blog, I explained in detail how to make strip quilt blocks, explained what they are, added some history and my personal tips and tricks.

For this project you can maybe use orange and black fabrics, some with prints, some without. I’m sure you will have enough scraps to make this happen.

Place these seven blocks aside as you prepare to create the door banner.

When you have the seven string quilt blocks, making the banner, consists of the following four steps:

• Step 1: Piece the string quilt blocks pieced together.
• Step 2: Sew the borders to each side of the pieced blocks.
• Step 3: Sew the string quilt top to the muslin fabric backing
• Optional Fun Step 4: Handwrite “HAPPY HALLOWEEN” on the black fabric borders using a glow-in-the-dark fabric marker. And heat set the writing with a hot iron.

• Piece the string quilt blocks in a row in a design of your choosing. Or you can try my layout.

• Sew (one) 6-inch wide by 2-inch deep border fabric to the top block.
• Sew (one) 6-inch wide by 2-inch deep border fabric to the bottom block.
• Sew (one) 4-inch wide black border fabric to the left of the string quilt blocks.
• Sew (one) 4-inch wide black border fabric to the right of the string quilt blocks.

• If you have made a pillowcase then you are already familiar with how to sew the quilt top to the muslin fabric backing. Or try this easy method.
• Place the string quilt top on the muslin backing with the wrong side of the quilt top facing you
• Sew a ¼-inch around the perimeter but leave 4-inches unsewn.

• Reach into the 4-inch opening and turn the project right side out.
• Press the project flat and carefully align the 4-inch opening so that it blends in with the rest of the seam.
• Sew the 4-inch opening closed by hand or my sewing machine.

Let your artistic hand lettering skill shine with a hand printed Happy Halloween greeting on the black borders of your string quilt door banner.

Instead of hand writing, you could also use heat transfer vinyl to make the letters. Just cut your the letter shapes and iron them onto the black fabric. And no, you don’t need a fancy cutting machine. A marker, scissors, some heat transfer vinyl sheets and a hot iron, is all you need to do this.

Your Happy Halloween String Quilt Door Banner is finished. Hang it using double-sided tape, or for a fancier look, try Madam Sew Quilt Hangers and a sturdy stick.

Now that you’re a string quilt door banner expert why not make one for every holiday? Or make them as gifts? You can use string quilt blocks in your quilts and other projects. Or let one of these other Halloween-themed Madam Sew decoration projects inspire you.

• Hanging Bat Halloween Decoration
• Halloween Mini Quilt
• Cute Fabric Pumpkins

This bonus quilt layout features 16 six-inch string quilt blocks and a finished black border fabric that is 4 inches wide. The quilt top is 30-inches square – it’s a perfect size for a toddler quilt or wall hanging.

May your quilting always bring you joy!

Ernie Grant
Guest Blogger For Madam Sew

Ernestine “Ernie” Grant is an avid quilter with over 20 years experience and is the owner of the custom baby quilt business www.kalibabyquilts.com . As an African American living in Harlem, New York her view of quilting is shaped by her heritage and the elders who taught her–Quilting is not just thread, fabric and stitches. It is art, it is love, it is community.