It's Halloween in February

While most crafty lady-blogs are currently awash with red and pink Valentine-y visuals, as always I am a bit behind (or ahead?) of the times. I've been thinking about how much I like quilts made from a designer's complete line of fabrics, like the one I made for my Mom (oops, no picture yet). And I got thinking about how much I like the Alexander Henry novelty fabrics, so I started pulling out my own collection of these. They tend to be mostly holiday designs, like these from the line called "the ghastlies."

I love these creepy people so much.

And then I realized I love them so much because the black and white cross-hatched artwork reminds me of my favorite illustrator Edward Gorey, so I had to reread "The Gashlycrumb Tinies."

I've been an Edward Gorey fan since first watching the opening credits of Mystery! on PBS in the early 80's. I have a copy of Amphigorey, a collection of 15 of his stories - and love every single one except that I think every single one should include the by-line "This Tale Will Not End Well."

More Alexander Henry fabric:

At lastly, though this is a Robert Kaufman fabric, it's my all-time favorite:

because (of course) it reminds me of a book [why do I make these constant literature/fabric design connections in my head - either I'm reading too much or I have to stop buying fabric].

Anyway, these look like Poe's Masque of the Red Death people to me. --cds