I’m so excited to finally share my spooky fabric collection with Riley Blake Designs; Apothecary.

The idea of designing a Halloween collection was a bit of a tricky one for me. My husband is not much of a Halloween fan, and I’ve never really gravitated toward the more cartoony black-and-orange Halloween aesthetic, so for years we really didn’t have much in the way of Halloween decor.

Then we had kids, and that changed very quickly! Both kids love Halloween, but my five year old daughter in particular is fully committed to all things spooky and witchy. For the last couple years, one of her favorite bedtime song requests has been “The Ballad of the Witches’ Road.” She collects worms in the garden and calls them her babies (I think maybe they’re her familiars). At this point we’ve mostly stopped asking questions.

So when I started working on a Halloween collection, I knew I wanted something with witchy vibes; a little spooky, but more botanical than scary. I wanted rich autumnal colors that felt versatile enough to work beyond just Halloween projects.

The collection primarily centers around apothecary bottles, which became the focal point of the line, along with supporting prints featuring botanicals, mushrooms, bats, pumpkins, and celestial elements.

I really wanted the collection to feel earthy and layered, with colors that could work for autumn quilts in general and not just overtly Halloween-themed projects.

Quilt Patterns

One of my favorite parts of designing a fabric collection is seeing how it works with different quilt patterns, and this line wound up pairing so nicely with some of my favorites.

The Apothecary quilt pattern was actually written specifically for this collection, and Pick A Pumpkin felt like an immediate and obvious fit.

What I didn’t anticipate was how cool this collection would look in some of my more celestial-inspired patterns like Nebula and Celestial. The darker palette and celestial prints worked so well in those designs.