Welcome, my Pretties, to the
Gremlins, Goblins & Ghouls - Oh My!
Blog Hop
the brain child of
Joan at MooseStashQuilting.com
Today is my day to show you what I have been brewing in my craft room. Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, and I love to decorate the house with fun and ghastly items. But, alas, I have young grandchildren who are easily spooked, so I can't get too creepy.
This year I discovered the art of making a Notan. Talk about fun! Notan is a Japanese design concept involving the play and placement of light and dark elements, or positive and negative. The process is very simple but the result is striking.
For my project I chose to make a table runner (because October is way too hot in Southern California for a quilt). To make this project even easier, I decided to make my runner out of felt.
To begin, I bought 2 yards of black felt and cut a rectangle of 17" x 60". For each Notan I bought a 9" x 12" felt rectangle, each one a different color.
I chose 5 simple Halloween designs -- bat, pumpkin, ghost, cauldron, and candelabra.
I cut each piece of colored felt in half lengthwise. (You only need one half of the felt rectangle for this project.)
Next I folded an 8 1/2" x 11" piece of paper in half lengthwise and drew a simple shape. Once cut out, this served a my pattern.
Pin your felt in place and cut out your design as precisely as you can. To get to the inside areas, it is okay to cut a clean line across the shape. Your Notan is complete!
I placed my designs approximately 4" apart and sewed them in place, using thread colors that matched the colored felt. Anywhere I had made cuts were easily "healed" by sewing the edges. (I didn't, but you could sew across the cuts.)
Since my table is dark, I placed this on the floor so you could see the design's overall effect. What do you think?
I hope you enjoyed seeing my Notan creation. I think this would be a good project to do with kids. It is quick, easy, and economical (and it might keep the little monsters quiet for a minute). jk
Once I get started on making things for Halloween, it's hard for me to stop. I'm only showing you some of my creations. You don't want to be here all day.
To be Frank, I love Halloween.
I also made this cute little guy. I haven't decided whether to make him into a Halloween bag, a pillow, or just leave him as is, a little open bag. I could store all kinds of evil, wicked, mean, and nasty things inside -- like my own stash of chocolate. What do you think?
But wait! There's more!
You won't want to miss the bewitching creations being unearthed at the sites below! Pour yourself another cup of hemlock, and go check them out. They're just dying to show you what they've made.
Pinker n' Punkin Quilting & Stitching
Just Because Quilts (you are here)
BeaQuilter
Pieceful Thoughts
MooseStashQuilting
Joan has the rest of the schedule HERE and for a real creepy treat, you can view all the projects on Pinterest HERE.
Thank you, Joan, for hosting this haunting Blog Hop! As always, it's been wicked fun!
Happy Haunting!
