Festive Turkey Throws with a Versatile Pattern

Even if you've never sewn a quilt before, you'll find it easy to create these festive turkey throws with our pattern. All you need is some colorful fabric and some creativity to get started. They'll easily brighten a door or wall and put you in a Thanksgiving mood.

These instructions and the turkey pattern are for the horizontal quilt with three turkeys. You can also turn the turkeys to make a vertical design. To make the large (single turkey) quilt, enlarge the pattern pieces. You could even create turkey placemats.

Also, keep in mind that this basic approach can be applied to a design of your choice. Try it for snowmen in December or flowers in spring, and you'll always have decorations of your own design. The possibilities are as many as you can imagine.

You'll need:
1/3 yard cotton fabric for background
1/4 yard black fabric
1 yard of fabric in your choice of colors for border, backing, and binding
4 pieces (each in a different color) of 18-by-22-inch fabric for body
Fabric scraps for head, feet, hat, and waddle
13-by-31-inch piece of batting
13-by-31-inch piece of backing fabric
1/2 yard medium weight fusible web
1/2 yard tear-away fusible web stabilizer
Sewing thread in assorted colors
Hand quilting or invisible thread for machine quality

You'll need to cut out the following:
Three 9 1/2-inch squares from background fabric
Three 1-inch black strips the width of the fabric
Three #8 pattern pieces and six #2 pattern pieces
Three 2 1/2-inch border strips the width of the fabric
Three 1 1/2-inch binding strips
One each of three colors using pattern pieces #1, #3, #4, and #7 using backing fabric
Three 5-by-9-inch rectangles for heads
Six 8-by-2-inch rectangles for feet
Three 7-by-7-inch pieces for bodies
One 3/8 yard border fabric
Three 2 1/2-inch gobbler strips
Save scraps for hats

Assembly: Appliqué
(I recommend this method.)

Following manufacturer's instructions, apply fusible web to every piece of fabric. Trace pattern on back of each fused piece. Carefully cut out and remove paper backing, then layer in numerical order on background fabric.

When happy with arrangement, iron in place. Secure in place by hand using blanket stitch or machine appliqué using satin stitch around each piece. (If machine stitching, back each block with tear-away stabilizer.) I used different thread colors to accent each row of feathers. When finished, tear away stabilizers.

Add side borders. Layer backing face down with the batting or quilt top face up. Hand or machine quilt using 1 1/2-inch binding strips punched in half before sewing raw edges to quilt top. Turn under remaining and stitch in place. If making a wall hanging, add a rod pocket to the back.

Variations:

The large turkey quilt (pictured on the right) is created by enlarging the pattern pieces to the desired size.



Dolores Eglseder discovered her love for quilting at 70 years old, and claims she would rather buy fabric than eat.