Quilts (and free patterns) for Dia de los Muertos!

Dia de los Muertos (the Day of the Dead) is celebrated on October 31st, November 1st and 2nd. The tradition honors those who have passed, whose souls are thought to come back to be with their loved ones. The Day of the Dead is becoming very popular in the U.S. Its themes overlap with Halloween - including skeletons and skulls.

Please check out our eBay shop for great bargains on quilt patterns, jewelry and collectibles! 

For FREE PATTERNS for Dia de los Muertos, please see our *updated* Free Pattern Day (CLICK HERE): 

Here are some inspiring, original Dia de los Muertos quilts which we've enjoyed at quilt shows. 

Beauty Parlor de los Muertos, 76 x 59", by Nancy Arsenault

Beauty Parlor de los Muertos, which was exhibited at the 2014 AQS - Phoenix show, is another fabulous realistic afterlife quilt by Nancy Arsenault.  The skeletons are engaged in typical beauty parlor activities while under the hair dryer. The woman on the far right is reading a Quilters Newsletter magazine! Nancy says, "This salon scene was inspired by personal experience.  Does it look familiar to you too?"

This good-looking hairdresser is wearing a real white shirt, a tooled vest, and bola tie... in the shape of a skull, of course! Our favorite character is the fluffy white poodle shown below... he is all bones!

Nancy Arsenault is an award-winning Arizona quiltmaker who made the first of her series of Dia de los Muertos quilts in 2006. For more quilt inspiration, visit Pinterest and check out Nancy's AZquiltmaker board, Quilts I've Made.

Dia de los Muertos, 39 x 43", by Alice Morgan

In the tradition of Mexican folk art, this quilt is bright and colorful!  The blanket-stitched appliqued skulls are set at a jaunty angle and they have button eyes.  Alice used a broderie perse approach to embellish the blocks with big, colorful flowers. Alice Morgan says, "Don't these skulls make you smile?"

This is an adaptation of a commercial pattern but with lots of embellishments. Alice Morgan's was photographed at the 2012 River City Quilters Guild show in California; the original design by Jane Tenorio-Coscarelli is shown below.

Dia de los Muertos, approx 12 x 12", by Rebecca Navarro (Texas)

Rebecca Navarro says, “The Day of the Dead is a time to remember those who have died. The deceased are honored with food, beverages, and flowers."  Rebecca’s original design  was machine pieced, inked, and free-motion quilted. The quilt was embellished with scattered seed beads.

As you can see in the close-up photo above, the flower centers were decorated with tiny skulls. Rebecca Navarro's quilt was exhibited in the miniature quilts exhibit at the 2013 Houston International Quilt Festival.

Jose Guadalupe Posada's Door, 18 x 24", by Cathy Hawthorne (Arizona)

Jose Guadalupe Posada's Door was part of the Mavericks Art Quilters 2013 Door Challenge. The participating artists were challenged to design an 18" x 24" quilt showing the back door that an artist of their choice might have had on their house. This quilt honors the Mexican artist, José Guadalupe Posada (1851–1913) who was renowned for his drawings of calaveras (skulls).

As shown above, Cathy appliqued many fabric skulls on the quilt using broderie perse, and hung a small skeleton holding a mesh bag of skulls.

My Idea of Heaven, 41 x 53", by Janet Windsor

My Idea of Heaven is one of our favorite Day of the Dead quilts.  Janet Windsor explains: "I love the Dia de los Muertos holiday in Mexico.  I cannot imagine a happier place to end up than at my sewing machine. So I borrowed an illustrator friend’s skeleton and took photos of it sitting at a featherweight sewing machine. I did a drawing from those photos which I then fused, appliqued, and embellished with buttons, beads, ribbons, silk flowers, and milagros."  We  featured Janet Windsors' work in a post published in October, 2012.

Life Everlasting by Ann Horton

Ann Horton says, "In the tradition of The Day of the Dead celebrations, this quilt embraces life after death with happy assurance. [It was] inspired by my 89-year-old mother's faith and life."  The dancing skulls were created with digitized machine embroidery.  We first featured Life Everlasting in our post on the 2013 Houston International Quilt Festival.

Image credits: All images are copyrighted by their owners. The photo of My Idea of Heaven is shown with permission of Janet Windsor; for her gallery, see her website at Janet Windsor.com.  All other quilt show photos were taken by Quilt Inspiration.  For the free patterns and tutorials, please respect any restrictions the artists have placed on the use of their designs; complete information can be found at the websites provided in the links.  If any links are broken, we'd love to know; please email us at quiltinspiration {at} gmail {dot} com.