Oh Hallows Eve

Growing up my mom had these spooky paper decorations that she would put in the windows. I knew Halloween was right around the corner when mom would tape them to the inside of the windows. I can sometimes find them now at vintage shops. Well, my owl design is inspired by my childhood memories of these black and orange decorations. If you were a kiddo that grew up in the 60's and 70's you know exactly what I'm talking about. I took some liberties and added some green and purple too. The project I worked on today is a spooky owl perched on the moon on Halloween night. I decided to use wool for the applique and Primo Plaid Heather in gray from Marcus Fabrics for the background. This project could easily be done with cotton fabrics too using heat n bond. This design would be lovely on a tea towel or made into a table runner. Today I'm going to use this design to make a seasonal pillow for Halloween. Let me show you how I did it.....

Since I am using wool, I traced all my pieces onto freezer paper. Iron the freezer paper onto my wool and then cut the shapes out using my applique scissors from OLFA.

I used a 12 1/2" x 12 1/2" background square for my design. Here I have placed my owl design sheet onto my fabric and ruler to get an idea of placement on my square.

I looked at my owl design and decided the best place to start will be the owls body.

I always test my stitching on some scrap fabrics to make sure that it's the length and width that I want for my project. For my pillow I am using Lana Wool from Aurifil.

This is the stitch setting on my machine. I will be machine stitching my blanket stitch on my design. I love doing handwork, but my stitches aren't as beautiful as my wool working friends. Alas, I will machine stitch mine...

I begin stitching on the Owl's 

body.

I always test my stitching on some scrap fabrics to make sure that it's the length and width that I want for my project. For my pillow I am using Lana Wool from Aurifil.

This is the stitch setting on my machine. I will be machine stitching my blanket stitch on my design. I love doing handwork, but my stitches aren't as beautiful as my wool working friends. Alas, I will machine stitch mine...

I begin stitching on the Owl's body....

Then I stitch the moon, layering it over the body...

I move onto the Owl's feet and eyes....

Then the top of his head... see how I build my layers to make the design?

…. then the beak... or nose....

Lastly, I stitch the bats in place and add a few star buttons. I used micro mini buttons for his eyes.

To make the pillow back. I have sewn two 7 1/2" x 12 1/2" rectangles out of the same fabric I used for my design background. I left a 3" gap in my stitching so I can stuff my pillow later. You'll see, it's pretty awesome.

Next I trim my backing piece the same size as the applique front. (12 1/2" x 12 1/2") I then match them up together wrong sides together. Yes, I said , wrong sides together.

For my binding, I cut 2, 2 1/4" x WOF, then sewed them together end to end and ironed them in half lengthwise. The same way you would if you were making binding for a quilt.

Let's get back to our design front and backing. Remember I had you put them wrong sides together. Pin them together with the backside facing up.

Sew you binding on using a 1/4" seam. (Back side up)

Miter your corners.

Then fold your binding over to the front and stitch down using a decorative stitch. Remember to miter your corners. I find my wonder clips to be super handy to hold my corner and binding in place

I decided to use my Serpentine stitch.

Here's a closeup of my binding using a Serpentine stitch. I think it's a nice touch for my project.

If you didn't want to make a pillow, the 12 1/2" x 12 1/2" square makes a lovely mini quilt for a table runner. You could have used batting and quilted it then bound it for a table runner, mini quilt. My mini pumpkins from my garden sure look cute with this design.

To make a pillow, stuff the pillow through the opening you left in the back of the pillow. I used a blind whip stitch to close the opening.

~Oh Hallows Eve~

I hope you enjoyed todays project. My designs aren't just for tea towels! Just a few more days until Halloween, plenty of time to whip up this spooky pillow! I'm off to go buy some Halloween treats. We get tons of kiddos, even on a school night.

Happy quilting!

Cindy and Belvedere

Woopsie Doodles Witchy Poo

Woopsie Doodles Witchy Poo! It seems like a fun project for this Halloween. This year the spooky holiday will be very different from years past. I'm not sure if we'll have trick or treaters. Some cities are cancelling Halloween, one of my favorite holidays. I was thinking this would be a fun project to make to brighten someone's Halloween. Add a bag of a favorite Halloween candy and tuck it in a festive bag along with the mug rug and some hot apple cider mix and you have an instant Halloween celebration. Leave it hanging on your neighbors door, or sitting on their front porch for a sweet surprise! 

Several years ago my sister and I split a grab bag of Halloween scraps and I'm still having fun with it! I made this sweet mini quilt of Witchy Poo's shoes and striped leggings. So festive for Halloween! Let me show you how quick and easy this goes together...

I didn't want to cut out all of those 'stripes' for Witchy Poo's leggings, so instead I cut two 1 1/2" x WOF strips of the black fabric and green fabric. Then sewed them together lengthwise.

I then would cut that in half and sew it again... I repeated this process until I had a nice fabric piece of striped fabric long enough for my applique piece for Witchy Poo's leggings.

I traced Witchy Poo's legging onto my heat and bond and then ironed it onto the back of the black and green striped piece.

Then I cut them out... all ready to put them onto the mug rug center piece. 

I'm all ready to stitch around the fusible applique design. What I love about doing the leg section with the pieced strips is I only need to stitch on the sides of the legs instead of around each striped section. It's really a nice finish for this design.

~Woopsie Doodles Witchy Poo~

I hope that you have fun with this pattern. I sure did. I made up a few of them. I also want to thank everyone who popped in and stitched bats with me. I'm planning on having more sew alongs! It was fun!  It's a beautiful day here in Minnesota and the leaves are beautiful. I think Belvedere and I will go for a walk to the park. Then I'm going to spend the afternoon sewing!

Happy quilting!

Cindy and Belvedere

Going Batty!

Boo!!! Trick or Treat.... Smell my Feet.... Give me something good to eat.....

When I was a kid, we used to chant this as we went from house to house. I remember us all running around the neighborhood in our costumes. One year I was a robot... I made my costume out of a refrigerator box wrapped in tin foil. I had a small slit cut to see out of and a 'deposit candy here' opening with a pillowcase hooked to the inside of the box to catch the candy. This was one of those costumes that in theory was awesome, but the practicality of it.... not so brilliant. I could barely navigate front steps. It was hilarious! I thought it looked like a robot, but I'm sure I just looked like a huge box wrapped in tin foil hobbling down the street. It turned out to be unseasonably warm that year... so I baked inside of my toasty box... I could have been a microwave!

Are you decorating for the spooky holiday yet? The leaves are turning, I've bought mums and pumpkins to decorate my front door with. I've been thinking about pulling out the fall/Halloween bins out to decorate. I'm looking forward to getting out my festive quilted bat mats. They are a lot of fun to decorate with. I love displaying them here and there around the house. I'm even thinking of making some more.



Wrap a Bat Mat around a bottle of wine for an adorable
hostess gift...



Stuff a Bat Mat in a mug with candy for your friends!

Make a bunch of Bat Mats and sew them onto some orange and white
bakers twine for a batty garland to welcome the little zombies that
visit this Halloween.

I have also been thinking it would be fun to have a virtual sew in on a Friday night. Maybe host it on Facebook live  or Zoom and all sew Going Batty Mug Mats together. What do you think? Leave a comment below if you are interested. Its something I have been thinking about and I think it could be a lot of fun! Maybe host a little giveaway during the evening too. I look forward to hearing from you!

Happy Quilting,

Cindy and Belvedere

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

Ohhh Hallows Eve

Growing up my mom had these spooky paper decorations that she would put in the windows. I knew Halloween was right around the corner when mom would tape them to the inside of the windows. I can sometimes find them now at vintage shops. Well, my owl design is inspired by my childhood memories of these black and orange decorations. If you were a kiddo that grew up in the 60's and 70's you know exactly what I'm talking about. I took some liberties and added some green and purple too. The project I worked on today is a spooky owl perched on the moon on Halloween night. I decided to use wool for the applique and Primo Plaid Heather in gray from Marcus Fabrics for the background. This project could easily be done with cotton fabrics too using heat n bond. This design would be lovely on a tea towel or made into a table runner. Today I'm going to use this design to make a seasonal pillow for Halloween. Let me show you how I did it.....

Since I am using wool, I traced all my pieces onto freezer paper. Iron the freezer paper onto my wool and then cut the shapes out using my applique scissors from OLFA.

I used a 12 1/2" x 12 1/2" background square for my design. Here I have placed my owl design sheet onto my fabric and ruler to get an idea of placement on my square.

I looked at my owl design and decided the best place to start will be the owls body.

I always test my stitching on some scrap fabrics to make sure that it's the length and width that I want for my project. For my pillow I am using Lana Wool from Aurifil.

This is the stitch setting on my machine. I will be machine stitching my blanket stitch on my design. I love doing handwork, but my stitches aren't as beautiful as my wool working friends. Alas, I will machine stitch mine...

I begin stitching on the Owl's body....

Then I stitch the moon, layering it over the body...

I move onto the Owl's feet and eyes....

Then the top of his head... see how I build my layers to make the design?

…. then the beak... or nose....

Lastly, I stitch the bats in place and add a few star buttons. I used micro mini buttons for his eyes.

To make the pillow back. I have sewn two 7 1/2" x 12 1/2" rectangles out of the same fabric I used for my design background. I left a 3" gap in my stitching so I can stuff my pillow later. You'll see, it's pretty awesome.

Next I trim my backing piece the same size as the applique front. (12 1/2" x 12 1/2") I then match them up together wrong sides together. Yes, I said , wrong sides together.

For my binding, I cut 2, 2 1/4" x WOF, then sewed them together end to end and ironed them in half lengthwise. The same way you would if you were making binding for a quilt.

Let's get back to our design front and backing. Remember I had you put them wrong sides together. Pin them together with the backside facing up.

Sew you binding on using a 1/4" seam. (Back side up)

Miter your corners.

Then fold your binding over to the front and stitch down using a decorative stitch. Remember to miter your corners. I find my wonder clips to be super handy to hold my corner and binding in place

I decided to use my Serpentine stitch.

Here's a closeup of my binding using a Serpentine stitch. I think it's a nice touch for my project.

If you didn't want to make a pillow, the 12 1/2" x 12 1/2" square makes a lovely mini quilt for a table runner. You could have used batting and quilted it then bound it for a table runner, mini quilt. My mini pumpkins from my garden sure look cute with this design.

To make a pillow, stuff the pillow through the opening you left in the back of the pillow. I used a blind whip stitch to close the opening.

~Oh Hallows Eve~

I hope you enjoyed todays project. My designs aren't just for tea towels! Just a few more days until Halloween, plenty of time to whip up this spooky pillow! I'm off to go buy some Halloween treats. We get tons of kiddos, even on a school night.

Happy quilting!

Cindy and Belvedere