Happy Halloween` with a little Cross Stitch

I hope everyone is having a Happy Halloween!

Or Happy Day of the Dead if you prefer! Today I wanted ot share a cross stitch project I made for a friend after her kitty cat died. And what better day to show this project then today!

As soon as I saw this pattern I was excited to make it. And it opened up my world to the Daily Cross Stitch website. I love this website! The designs are very simple for the most part, but not always. There is a pattern for everything and you can get every pattern on the website for only $10! You should check it out!

And did you notice that I started too close to the edge of the aida fabric? that bummed me out, but I sewed two piece together and made it work!

I love the flowers and the eyes on this one!

Are you doing any Halloween cross stitch projects? I have so many that I want to do! I wish I was faster at cross stitch!

And I have to share our pumpkins! This is Little Miss Vampanda! My contribution to the family pumpkin patch!

And the rest of the bunch! With my husbands porch decorations! He’s really excited to get his smoke machine and black light out for the trick or treaters. Any maybe even put our ring doorbell to use for a little bit of scaring… Hmm!

Happy Halloween!

The Grumpy Cat Halloween Pillow

I grew up with cats, but now I’m allergic, so I’m totally a dog person. But as soon as I saw The Grumpy Cat pattern by Sew Fresh Quilts, I knew I had to make it!

The last thing I needed was another Halloween pillow, but I love, really love, Halloween pillows! Anything Halloween really… And since I have a ton of Halloween fabric, I need ot use it, right?? So I purchased the pattern from Sew Fresh Quilts Etsy store.

The Grumpy Cat a super easy make! It also comes in two sizes. I made the small one at about 8×10 inches.

Are you also curious about the pumpkin? Now this is a pattern that I didn’t purchase… I just winged it. It’s inspired by the Mini Pumpkins pattern from Sew Kind Of Wonderful using the Mini Quick Curve Ruler. I’d recommend buying the pattern so your pumpkins aren’t lopsided like mine are! But for my pillow it works. I love the little pumpkins though!

I just used a bright orange for the back. And I didn’t use an envelope style pillow. I put a zipper in it. My go to used to always be the envelope back, but I think it’s going to be the invisible zipper from now on!

I’m loving this invisible zipper! This one isn’t quite as invisible as others I’ve made, but pretty close. I use a couple of tutorials, one from Sew Katie Did and one from Stitched in Color, for the invisible zipper.

So there you have it! Another Halloween Pillow to add to my collection! I kinda want to make a quilt to. One grumpy cat at the bottom with a bunch of pumpkins… Maybe a witch’s hat? Who knows! I’m finishing my second Halloween quilt now, so I don’t know if I ever will, but I like the idea.

What are you stitching this Halloween?

Finish Along Quarter 4 2019 Goals!

It’s that time of the year again! To post the Finish Along Quarter 4 Goals! I didn’t finish anything from Quarter 3… I got closer on a few….

I did get these blocks pieced and the quilt is basted. It is just waiting to be quilted…

I also want to finish my Halloween quilt before Halloween! The top is done! So I’m really close. I just need to throw together the back, baste it and quilt it… Can I do that in the next couple of weeks? I’m going to try!

That’s my list! I’m keeping it short this fall because I really want to make a more handmade Christmas this year. What’s on yours? Be sure to join in!

 

 

Bats and Boos! Quilt Blocks-Now in Etsy Shop

Remember these pillows? They are made with my Bat Quilt Block and my Ghost Quilt Block.  I so love getting them out every year when Halloween rolls around!

But this year, I started getting emails about the link to them. I was super excited to find that Aurifil had featured my bat pillows on their FB page and their blog, with their Five for Friday- Halloween Pillows!! Featured along with some other very cool patterns is super exciting!

I really love the paper pieced Coffin Pillow by Jeni Baker!

What wasn’t exciting is finding out that the patterns were no longer on my Craftsy site, which is now Bluprint. I’m sure a lot of you know that Bluprint bought out/took over Craftsy and a lot of not so good changes took place. They closed down a lot of shops. And in turn, a lot of other shops closed because of the changes. I somehow received a letter that my shop had made the cut and it would be staying. I understood that to mean it was staying as is. I can’t find the email now to reread exactly what they said. ANYWAY… I have been meaning to go back and take it down, because I wasn’t happy with the changes either. But as you can tell, life has gotten in the way of my blog and my etsy shop, etc… (Working full time really cuts into the creative time around here!) Well, it turns out that Bluprint removed all the patterns that I had for sale in the shop and never notified me that they had done this! I had noticed that I wasn’t getting many sales, but, um, I had no idea they were gone! The only pattern that remains is my Inside Out Pineapple block.

So the good news is that the patterns are moving to my Etsy Shop!

Now comes the debate about one or two Etsy shops! Do I mix quilt patterns in with Birthday Party Supplies? Or separate them into two shops? So many decisions! Due to timing on this one, they are currently being sold with party supplies… I hope you don’t mind!

The Bat Block started way back in 2014 with my Halloween Quilt!

Then it evolved into patchwork pillows! Notice all those PRINT fabrics I used!

And then came the Ghost pattern in a pillow! Check it out and see how I made it glow in the dark!

I hope you enjoy the patterns! And be sure tag them #thebatblock and #theghostblock and tag me too! @imfeelincrafty I can’t wait to see what you make! Happy Halloween!

ABC- O and Q Quilt Blocks

 

This years Modern Quilt Guild Quiltcon Charity Quilt Challenge is all about Text.

‘Quilts incorporating text have been popular in the modern quilt movement right from the start,” says the MQG. And this year all the participating guilds get to interpret that challenge in a black, white and grey pallette. The SMQG giving committee had a call for design ideas and they landed on one that includes a bunch of letters. You can see more about that here.

I came home and knew I wanted to make a Q. Instead of using a circle, I had the bright idea of using a hexagon. But then I wasn’t sure how to make the little line for the Q. As I’m thinking this out in my head, it started to look familiar… Like maybe someone else had already done this… Like maybe Jaybird Quilts in her alphabet block book, Alphabet Soup… Yep. That’s where I had seen this! I’ve been wanting to buy this book, but haven’t had a need for quilted letters. Mine are a bit different from hers, but totally inspired by hers!

And the hexagon used as an O! No patterns were used. I just started with a hexagon. and went from there! 

I really do like these blocks and can’t wait to see what the giving committee comes up with!

Another Handmade Backpack

OK, I’m a pretty bad blogger these days. it’s been a while since I showed anything… I missed back to school, when most people are blogging about back packs! And I made this back pack a while ago… But despite all that, here I am!

The first backpack I made was really cool! I loved the alien backpack! It was designed by the kiddo and so is this one! I don’t know where the design came from, but I have to say it was quite a bit easier to put together than the alien!

I didn’t use a pattern, but there are some great backpack patterns and tutorials out there! There’s one by Crazy Little Projects that is pretty similar to the one I made. I also love Sew Sweetness Bags and she has two backpack patterns, the Cumberland and Edelweiss patterns. And I like the pattern that So Sew Easy has on their blog. It’s small, but you can enlarge it for a larger kiddo or yourself. I haven’t made any of these patterns, but they can help you make your own, if you don’t want to wing it like I did!

On the inside I used a laminated cotton fabric. A bright laminated cotton fabric! I made this while I was at a retreat and I didn’t take a non-stick foot, and it did not treat me nicely! But I pushed on anyway!

I love to add key fobs…

The design on the outside is what the kiddo designed. It was much easier than the alien, but it was still tricky! Keeping those lines straight wasn’t as simple I thought it would be and especially without the right foot.

The other thing I think all backpacks should have is the side pockets. I always include elastic, so when it’s not being used, it scrunches up close ot the backpack and doesn’t flop around.

In the back I padded the straps and angled them out a bit.

And the kiddo liked it! That’s the best part of the whole thing!