Patches and Scat

Shhhh…… the leaves are turning.... I'm sweeping leaves off my deck that have fallen from my oak and maple trees. I think it's too early, but when I look on the calendar, no not really. September and back to school is in a week.... fall is almost here. Before I know it, I'll be pulling out the fall decorations. So to celebrate the upcoming fall I have a new design that can be found in my Etsy shop. An adorable goofy pumpkin named Patches and his friend Scat the black cat. I was able to complete this in an afternoon. My sample was put on tea towel from Dunroven House. But you can have fun with this design and turn it into a fall pillow, mug rug or a fun Trick or Treat bag. I know it seems to be early to work on a Halloween project, but it will be here before we know it. The big bags of candy are starting to show up in the store. I did pull out a plain pumpkin decoration and put it up on a shelf...

I made this design using my usual heat and bond applique method. Here I have all of the pieces all  cut out and ready to arrange and iron on to my tea towel.

Then I ironed them in place using a hot, dry iron.

Using a dark brown thread I machine stitched around everything.

Time for some hand stitching! I cut out the pumpkin's circle eyes and nose out of some black wool that I had on hand. Felt would work just as nicely. As you can see, I stitched X's for the pumpkin's mouth. Then I sewed a small button on top of the smaller felt circle to tack it in place.

Then I tacked the larger circle with a larger button for the other eye.

Don't you just love his googly miss matched eyes! Reminds me of a jack-o-lantern my younger son once carved when he was small. I just loved the miss matched awkward eyes! To make the nose I just tacked the small wool/felt circle in place with my pearl cotton. It's hard to see but I stitched an X across the circle after I tacked it with a small stitch.

~Patches and Scat~

I'm back from vacation, and we had a wonderful time. I did have phone service although there was no wi-fi so we weren't completely cut off from the world. My phone did decide to jump in the lake for a swim. Luckily hubby was able to retrieve it with a fishing net. My phone then spent a couple days in a tub of rice. It does work now so I am very grateful. I guess karma was telling me to get off the phone... We saw a lot of wildlife, eagles, deer, racoon and beavers. But the highlight was seeing a mama bear and her three cubs. The cubs were absolutely adorable as they scampered behind mama bear. I hope that we are able to visit this area again next year. We all returned home feeling tired but mentally refreshed, we all needed the break.

I hope that you enjoy the new design, Patches and Scat. It can be found in my Etsy Shop as an instant PDF download.

Happy quilting!

Cindy and Belvedere