Whispering Hollows Halloween Quilt: Sewing the Bear Paw Irish Chain Pattern with Riley Blake Designs Batiks
If you're a little surprised to see a Halloween quilt popping up in June — I get it! But Halloween is honestly one of my favorite holidays of the year because it's just all about having fun. And when Riley Blake Designs reached out and gifted me their gorgeous Whispering Hollows batik collection to play with, I knew I had to dive in right away.
Whispering Hollows is a batik collection that's now available at your local quilt shops, and it is stunning. This was actually my very first time sewing with batiks, and I had so many questions going in — do I need to pre-wash? Will the fabric bleed? What does it even feel like to sew with? I'm going to answer all of that and more, so stick around. Let's get into the nitty-gritty details of this quilt, the fabrics, the quilting design, and everything in between.
The Quilt Pattern: Bear Paw Irish Chain
A Fat Quarter Friendly Modern Quilt Pattern
This is my very own Bear Paw Irish Chain quilt pattern, and it just so happens to be a fat quarter friendly quilt pattern — which made it a perfect match for showcasing individual prints from the Whispering Hollows collection. I love that this pattern lets each fabric shine on its own while still working together as a cohesive design.
For the background, I used the black Raven fabric from the collection. This print reads almost fully black, but when you look closely, you can spot the most amazing little details tucked into it — jack-o-lantern faces, broomsticks, spiderwebs with spiders, and if you really look hard (or check out the other color variations), tiny little pieces of candy and bats hiding in the design. It's such a fun, layered fabric that adds so much movement to the background without being loud about it.
One small note: the fabric reads so dark that it was occasionally tricky to identify the right side versus the wrong side. Honestly though, once it's in the quilt, it doesn't really matter — it all looks incredible.
Fabric Selections for the Irish Chain and Bear Paw Blocks
For the Irish chain portion of the Bear Paw Irish Chain quilt pattern, I chose two accent fabrics:
- Grey Whisper with pumpkins — a soft, grey-lilac off-white that reads almost like a whisper against the dark background
- Moonbeam — a very light to medium grey that gives the chain a subtle but beautiful shift in tone
Together, these two fabrics create that classic Irish chain look — just with a light airy, twist.
For the bear paw blocks, which are where the fat quarters really get to shine, I went with a mix of oranges, and blues to capture that classic Halloween color palette without going over the top. Here's the full lineup:
Oranges and Yellows:
- Melon Swirl — similar in style to the background fabric, adding that tonal swirl texture
- Pumpkin — printed with pumpkins, naturally
- Tiger — featuring spiderwebs and jack-o-lanterns
- Canyon — a warm tone with ghosts and candy bits
- Sunset Low — a broomstick print that almost looks like little matchsticks, which I love
Blues:
- Dark Skies — used for the broomstick print and the floral-style fabric that echoes the background
- Dreamcatcher — a spiderweb print in that dreamy blue tone
- Blue Jay — featuring pumpkins in the most beautiful cool blue
For the binding, I went with Grape Soda — a pumpkin print in a rich purple. I knew that small-scale print was going to look amazing around the edge of the quilt, and since purple doesn't appear anywhere else in the top besides that very faint lilac tint in the Moonbeam accent fabric, it gives the whole quilt a finished, polished pop.
For the backing, I used a Riley Blake Designs batik in Lapis Hands Dyes. It plays so beautifully off the blues in the quilt top while giving a nice depth and contrast to the very dark background fabric on the front. The nice thing about this batik is it's a basic with RBD, so it's available all the time.
Grab the Bear Paw Irish Chain Quilt Pattern Here
The Color Story: Moody Halloween Without Being On-The-Nose
One of the things I love most about going with a black background for this quilt is the total tonal shift it creates compared to the cover quilt for this pattern, which features a bright orange background with greens, blues, white, and black accents. That version has such a fun, bold, almost '90s Nickelodeon energy to it.
This version? It's moody. It's atmospheric. It's Halloween without screaming Halloween.
The oranges and blues still give you that seasonal feel, and the slight tonal shift between the two accent fabrics in the Irish chain adds just enough visual interest to keep the eye moving. But because the background reads so dark and the prints are somewhat subtle, this quilt could honestly be displayed a little before Halloween, a little after, or honestly all year long if you love a dramatic black background quilt with punchy color — and I do.
Sewing with Batiks for the First Time: Everything You Need to Know
Do You Need to Pre-Wash Riley Blake Designs Batiks?
This was my biggest question going in, and I did my homework. I reached out to friends who have sewn with Riley Blake batiks extensively, including designers who have actually designed batik collections for Riley Blake, and the consensus was unanimous: you do not need to pre-wash these batiks.
The concern I hear most often is bleeding — batiks are known for having deeply saturated dyes, and the fear is that those rich colors will bleed onto lighter fabrics in the quilt. But everyone I spoke to said they've had zero issues with bleeding using Riley Blake batiks.
And honestly? The moment I started handling the fabric, I understood why. The Whispering Hollows batiks felt almost pre-washed right off of the bolt. They were incredibly soft, with a lovely drape, and nothing about them felt stiff or like they were holding excess dye. It was such a pleasant surprise — I was bracing for something more stiff and instead found a fabric that was a genuine pleasure to work with from the very first cut.
It's got me curious about the manufacturing process, actually. I'd love to dig deeper into how Riley Blake processes their batiks, because there's clearly something happening at the production level that results in such a beautifully finished, soft-feeling fabric right from the bolt. (If you know, send me a message — I love going down that rabbit hole!)
How Does Batik Feel to Sew With?
In short: wonderful. The fabric handled cleanly, pressed beautifully, and the weight was consistent across the collection, which made sewing the blocks so much easier. If you've been hesitant to try batiks in your modern quilt patterns, I'd genuinely encourage you to give them a go. Whispering Hollows would be a fantastic entry point.
Grab the Bear Paw Irish Chain Quilt Pattern Here
Longarm Quilting: Rose Skulls Pantograph by Melissa Kelly
Choosing the Right Quilting Design
For the quilting on this one, I knew black thread was the move. On darker fabrics, it's almost always my go-to — it lets the quilting texture speak without competing with the fabric. I briefly considered going neon (yes, really), but I couldn't envision it working with the classic colors in this quilt. It felt like it would create a jarring moment rather than enhance the overall design. Black thread it was, and I have zero regrets.
For the pantograph, I went with Rose Skulls by Melissa Kelly of Shabby Quilts. Melissa is an incredibly prolific pantograph designer and a talented free motion longarm quilter, and I think that background is exactly why her pantograph designs translate so beautifully to the digital pantographs. She understands how quilting lines flow across a quilt, how motifs need to connect and breathe, and how to balance detailed focal elements with the kind of backfill stitching that keeps everything cohesive.
The Rose Skulls design felt like the perfect fit for this quilt — it has that Halloween-adjacent edge without being literal about it. I did consider a few other halloween pantos but something about this quilt called for the Rose Skulls. It felt intentional. Slightly spooky, added texture, very moody — exactly the energy I was going for.
Grab the Bear Paw Irish Chain Quilt Pattern Here
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Grab the Bear Paw Irish Chain Quilt Pattern Here
