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.....
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| 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. |
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| 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. |
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| I looked at my owl design and decided the best place to start will be the owls body. |
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| 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. |
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| 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... |
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| I begin stitching on the Owl's body.... |
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| Then I stitch the moon, layering it over the body... |
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| I move onto the Owl's feet and eyes.... |
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| Then the top of his head... see how I build my layers to make the design? |
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| …. then the beak... or nose.... |
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| Lastly, I stitch the bats in place and add a few star buttons. I used micro mini buttons for his eyes. |
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| 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. |
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| 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. |
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| 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. |
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| 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. |
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Sew you binding on using a 1/4" seam. (Back side up)
Miter your corners.
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| 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 |
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| I decided to use my Serpentine stitch. |
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| Here's a closeup of my binding using a Serpentine stitch. I think it's a nice touch for my project. |
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| 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. |
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| 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. |
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
