The "The Little Ghost Who Was a Quilt" Quilt

My daughter, Pippa, came home with a family project assignment for Pre-K. Read a book and decorate a pumpkin based on one of the characters. It showed examples of pumpkins painted like Pete the Cat, spiders, and Marshall from Paw Patrol. The pumpkin and book will live at school for one week and the kids will read all the books in class.

My cousin sent me the book "The Little Ghost Who Was a Quilt" around the same time, and it was perfect timing! It's about a ghost who is made of a quilt instead of a sheet like his friends. She's different, but in the end, she learns that being different has its advantages!

We read the book, and it all came together in my head...WE HAVE TO MAKE A QUILT FOR THE PUMPKIN PROJECT.

Ok, tone it down. Don't be too excited. If you're too excited, she will not go for it. Be cool. Be cool.

I came right up to the line on coolness/uncoolness. I was thiiiiis close to getting shut down. But she went for it! 

Not only did she go for it, but she spent over TWO HOURS sewing with me! TWO HOURS. She is 4, y'all. She doesn't do anything for more than 20 minutes.

It was magical. 

And now we have this little quilt ghost that we fit to a pumpkin and now we can use it to decorate for Halloween every year!

We'll read the book again every year and look at our quilt and talk about how Pippa picked every single fabric square, and how she played with my pin cushion and imagined the pins were people and how the one big pin (you know, the big big ones like for corsages?) was a very important person.

So, if you're interested in trying this one out, let me show you how to make your own little ghost who is a quilt!

The Quilt Top

Pippa picked a bunch of fabrics from a scrap pile I've designated for her use. I would've been tempted to make it in creams and aquas and purples to match the ghost in the book, but I gave Pippa full artistic freedom, and fabric choice was her main role in this project. 

I cut her chosen fabrics into 2.5" squares. No particular number, she just picked, and I cut and we went from there. In the end, I ended up using 64 squares and adding borders.

So I web pieced an 8x8 block of the 2.5" squares. If you aren't familiar with web piecing, you can just stitch together rows of 8 and then stitch the rows together.

I placed it over the pumpkin at this point, and decided it needed several more inches, but I was running out of time, so I decided to add 4" borders. I cut (2) 4.5" x 16" rectangles and sewed to 2 opposite sides of the 8x8 block. Then I cut (2) 4.5" x width of fabric strips and sewed them to the other 2 sides and then trimmed down to size.

I tried it on the pumpkin again and it seemed to fit. You could adjust the number of squares used or the size of the borders to fit any pumpkin. My pumpkin was about 10" tall and narrow.

Quilt It

Sandwich the top with batting and backing. "Is this necessary for just covering a pumpkin?" you may ask. Only if you're true to the story! 

In "The Little Ghost Who Was a Quilt," it's actually a plot point that the quilt ghost is heavy and hot under all its layers. It can't float and spin in the air the way its sheet ghost friends can! 

So, yeah, if you're all in on this story thing, and I think you should be...you gotta make it a real quilt!

Quilt as desired. Bind as desired. I added 2 labels in the corner under the binding on the back side. One says "The Little Ghost Who Was A Quilt" and the other says "Made by Pippa & Mama 2024." Because like I said, we are going to use this every year now, so I wanted a nice label. I used my Brother P-Touch Embellish Ribbon & Tape Printer with a gold on white ribbon cartridge.

After the fact, I also added a label to the top in the corner that says "The Little Ghose Who Was a Quilt" specifically for people at school to more easily recognize what's going on here.

Give It Eyes

For the eyes, I thought about cutting holes, and Pippa did draw a face on the pumpkin, but I ended up using a bit of Wonder Under with black fabric ironed 2 ovals onto the quilt.

There happened to be a spot with 3 yellow squares that all ended up together near the middle and I thought it made a good area for the eyes. An accident, but a happy one! 

I may go back later and stitch around the eyes for extra durability, but for now, they're just fused on with the Wonder Under.

The Ghostly Shape

Here's the most important part. If you just drape it over your pumpkin, it'll look a little like a discarded napkin. It'll be too stiff to look ghostly. So you've gotta add a little shaping, but don't worry, it's quick and easy!

Take a long thread and stitch a large circle on the backing. Make large 1-2" stitches. I placed mine near the edge of the 8x8 block. When you've made it all the way around, pop it on top of the pumpkin and tug the thread to gather the quilt. When you have it the size and shape that you want, knot the thread right there to hold it. 

That's it! Your ghost quilt now has the general drape of a ghost and it will stay. Perfect!

Now get your photos with the kids and the book, and look forward to pulling it out every year. I love sewing things that become family traditions!

If you make one, I'd love to see it! Tag @sewworthymama on Instagram so I can check it out!