Welcome!
I am so excited! It's my revealing day for the
Enter if U Dare 2017 Blog Hop! Many thanks to Marian of Seams to Be Sew for once again organizing and hosting a fun-to-share blog hop. Be sure to visit Marian's website everyday at www.seamstobesew.com for a free pattern.
I have posted several Halloween projects already this month, but I have saved the best to share with you today. I call it my
Giggly Gaggle of Ghosts. I do hope it makes you shriek with laughter instead of terror; that is my intention.
It can be a wall hanging or a table topper. Because this is a small, whole-piece applique project, it goes together quickly.
To make a design like this, I start by unrolling a good portion of Christmas wrapping paper and draw my design on the back side. I usually have a small sketch I use for inspiration. Once I'm happy with the size and look of my design, I tape the paper "pattern" to a large window, then tape my fabric over that. I can then trace the design, including all the details, onto a large sheet of white fabric. The light shining through the window acts as a light box.
After the design is transferred to the white fabric, I cut out the design. It is then placed on top of my background fabric and sewn in place by machine. I use the raw-edge applique method to outline each ghost and all the details. Because I wanted the lines darker, I chose to hand-embroider all the details.
Each ghost has his or her own personality. I added bits of color here and there to break up the monotony of white. I used my embroidery machine to print Trick or Treat on the purple bag. The ghost's open mouths, as well as the pumpkin, cat, bird, moon and witch are all cut separately. I use fusible web for these smaller pieces and iron them in place. To finish, I raw-edge applique them in place.
While adding the binding, I sewed a folded 5" square to each top corner for inserting a dowel, so I can use it as a wall hanging. The overall size is approximately 34" x 35."
But that's not all!
Marian created a batch of adorable Halloween patterns and asked if if we would like to create something with a couple of them. I jumped at the chance!
No. 1: A mummy mug rug, perfect for your desk at work to keep your October snacks neat. I transferred the mummy design (finished size approximately 9" x 9") to fusible web, then ironed the pieces onto a black background. Using black thread, I used raw-edge applique to sew the design down and add the details around his nose, eyes and mouth. He looks like he's had a hard night, so I used my Brother embroidery machine to add "I want my Mummy."
No. 2: The next design of Marian's was a pieced 20" x 20" pumpkin block. I had so many ideas of what to make, but finally decided on a Halloween Advent Calendar.
To make the numbers come out right, I needed to make 3" pockets, so I cut a 1" border and added it to all sides of the pumpkin to make a finished size of 21" around.
For the pockets I used black fabric and cut 32 3-1/2" x 3-1/2" squares. From various Halloween scraps, I cut out 31 4-1/2" x 4-1/2" squares. I folded and pressed the 4-1/2" squares in half diagonally and positioned over the black square, lining up the raw edges. You can see from the pictures that there is an overhang.
Once the pockets were sewn together, I cut away the overhanging bits.
To each side of the pumpkin I sewed 7 pockets going down. To the top I sewed a strip of 9 pockets and to the bottom I sewed a strip of 8 pockets and ended the row with a black square.
Since I had my Brother embroidery machine set up, I embroidered the numbers 1 through 31 on the pockets and BOO in the last black square, but there are all sorts of way you can add the numbers, or it doesn't have to have numbers at all -- your choice. The fun part is hiding a prize in each pocket and counting down the days until it's Halloween!
I hope you have had half as much fun viewing these "treats" as I did making them. Make sure to visit the other bloggers to see what they have created for this fun blog.
Friday, October 20, 2017
And don't forget to enter your name for the giveaways!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Blog Giveaway Guidelines - Please read
- Giveaways offered by sponsors are assigned to the various bloggers for their featured day.
- You'll have to visit the blog or the featured blog to enter the giveaways.
- All winners will be announced on October 25, 2017.
- You must give a valid email address when you enter the giveaways,
any email returned to me, loses the ability to win automatically.
- Winners are expected to pay shipping costs for the product they won.
- You are given 3 days to answer the email, if you do not answer
within 3 days a new winner will be drawn. Check those spam/junk mail
folders, you may miss that winning email if you don't do so because
there are no exceptions to this rule.
- If you are notified that you are a winner, in most cases, you
will need to provide your name, address, city, state, zip code, country,
telephone number, and email address.
- In some cases, you will be asked to comment on the blog to enter
the giveaway... do the right thing and thank them for the time it took
to create the pattern, thank them for the pattern and...
- Thank the sponsor by buying their products for the giveaways.
This helps them continue to offer great prizes for these types of
events. You can also comment on their social media pages. Even if you
don't win, letting them know you love their products is a huge incentive
and they really do love hearing from you.
- No purchase whatsoever is necessary.
- You must be 18+ in order to win a gift.
- You are responsible for claiming and paying any tax owed on the
value of any gift that you win. Prizes valued at $500.00 should be
claimed.
- Odds of Winning a prize are based on a total number of rafflecopter entries during each week and in total for all giveaways.
- This giveaway is void where prohibited by law.
- Participating bloggers may enter any of the giveaways.
- The word giveaways in the rules and guidelines are also known as sweepstakes.
- Whether or not you read the above, the rules for giveaways are in
place to protect everyone. I do not want to hear you didn't read them,
they will be posted on my blog daily during each featured day. There is
no excuse for not reading them.
