Halloween Swap Items

Here are a few more items I have made for my partner for the Halloween Swap I am hosting. 

First...  This is tiny but I think they are so cute.  These are Hershey's Nugget candy covers I made out of felt.  This is a design from Embroidery Garden.  I think they can double as finger puppets.

Second...  This is a Halloween Zipper Pouch.  I've made this design before but this time I embroidered the name on the back. 

Third...  This is a bowl and fabric cover.  The bowl is a large melamine mixing bowl (like 12 inches in diameter).  I made a cover for it using some fun Halloween fabric. 

Here is a photo from the top.  Micaela our daughter thought it would work well as an old fashioned  Halloween shower cap too....lol.

So, these three items, plus the Halloween Pillow, the Owl Pin Cushion, and the 3 monster treat bags along with some spools of ribbon and candy went out to my partner who lives Northwest of Dallas yesterday.  I hope she likes everything!

Halloween Pillow

I have to brag.  My Halloween Sewing Swap group has been so much FUN.  We have a Facebook Group and 60 of the more than 70 ladies are constantly posting pictures and having great conversations.  No one really knew each other before the group and it has been so fun to read everyone's post, droll over Halloween Projects, exchange ideas, support each other and just plain bond.  We have already decided to do another swap for Autumn and I can't wait.  There are probably more than 100 pictures of Halloween projects so far.  I plan on making a slideshow or video of all of the projects and sharing them here after we are done.

 

In the meantime, here is another item I have made for my Halloween Sewing Partner.  The pillow is 10x10.   I sewed 4 strips of 2x2 patchwork and then attached it around the center panel.  I am pleased with how it turned out and to be honest I am going to hate to part with it.  Micaela has already made my promise I will make one with an M for her.

Hope you are having a great day!  Stay tuned for more Halloween projects in the coming days. 

Halloween Owl Pin Cushion

Welcome to everyone visiting from the Pin It Blog Hop.  Thank you to Kristen for cheerleading and Madam Samm at Sew We Quilt.  This is my fifth blog hop this year and I have enjoyed every single one so much.

I made this little owl pin cushion using several Halloween fabrics.  This is going to be one of the items I send my partner in the Halloween Sewing Swap I am hosting.  There are more than 70 ladies from all over the US and six other countries participating in the swap and I am so excited. 

                        

This is an in the hoop design from Reen at Embroidery Garden.  I used fusible fleece on the body to create a smooth look and stuffed it with polyfill and walnut litter.  Walnut litter can be purchased at the pet store and it's great for adding weight and sharpening needles and pins as you stick them in and pull them out of the cushion.

The fun thing about this owl design is that the wings open up and there is a pocket in the belly.  I fussy cut the witch to fit front and center as the pocket.  You can stick needles and special decorative pins in the wings and put things like a seam ripper and small scissors in the belly pocket.  In fact, if you put the small scissors in the center pocket, the rings on the handles should fit nicely over the eyes.  You also put two spools of thread in the two elastic loops that are sewn in the bottom seam to make the owl sit upright.

I hope my Halloween Sewing Partner likes this as much as I enjoyed making it for her.

Thanks for stopping by!  Be sure to visit the rest of the ladies in the blog hop today, tomorrow and last week.

September 10

Meadowbrook

Thimblemouse and Spouse

Sunshine Quilting

The Distracted Domestic

Gingini

Karinka

De Handwerktuin

How ART You?

Den syende himmel

Stitching & Stuff

Susie's World at Quilt Creations

Grammie Q's

Selina Quilts

Pig Tales and Quilts

Robin's Fabric Nest

Gr8dame's Place

September 11

Vroomans Quilts

More Stars In Comanche

Dancing Through Threads

Jackie's Art Quilts

What About Rheema?

Stekje

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs

Just Let Me Quilt

Patchouli Moon Studio

Bea Quilter

Quilting Lines

I Piece 2 Mary

Quiltingbydawn

Nati's Little Things

Marjorie's Busy Corner

Krislovesfabric

Bquiltin

September 12

Cherrys Prairie Primitives

In Stitches& Seams

Sew And Sow Farm

Domestic Deficit Disorder

A Geeky Crafty Life

Moosestash Quilting

Englating

Quilter in Motion

In The Boondocks

Hill Valley Quilter

Kaydie

Callender’s Creations   

Kreatywnie By Editha

Sew New To Sewing

Pieced Brain

Sheila's Quilt World

 

September 13

Quilting In South Carolina

Negligent Style

Debby Kratovil Quilts

Sew Many Yarns

News From Bear Hollow

Around The Homestead

Living with Purpose

Buzzing and Bumbling

Colorpoint Quilter

Scraps of Life

Daisy Days

Stitchduchess

Life @ RuffHaven

AnnieOak Designs

Grandmama's Stories

Suebee's World

Handmade by Mama

September 16

De Zondagssteek

Ravelley

The Tilted Quilt

A Stitch In Time

Asimplelife Quilts

Jane's Quilting

Quilt Doodle Doodles

Dancing Moon

Bloom Where I Am Planted   -- that's me!

Busy Bee Free

Marpie's Sewing Projects

The Stitchin' Post

Sew Much 2 Luv

Rose Creations

Lixie Makes It

Sunshine Reflections

Needled Mom

Sew Incredibly Crazy

September 17

Life in the Scrapatch

Why-Knot-Kwilt

Amy Made That...by eamylove

Michelle's Romantic Tangle

Quiltscapes

Kwilty Pleasures

Words and Stitches

Val's Quilting Studio

Les Quilts

Sew Peace to Peace

Bumbleberry Stitches

Susie's Sunroom

Quilts From My Crayon Box

Quarter Incher

I Like to QuiltBlog

Just Quilt It

Sew We Quilt

Halloween Swap headed to Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Here is everything I mailed my second swap partner in Baton Rouge, LA. 

It was so fun to make everything.  I really hope she likes it all.  I had no hints on her style or preferences so I am crossing my fingers. 

The zipper bag and coaster were my two favorite items.  Here is a closeup of each.  The coaster was actually an applique design I modified to be a coaster with a backing.  The coaster is almost 5 inches in diameter.

The other favorite item was a zippered bag.  I was pleased with the way it turned out when I fussy cut only one witch in the design.  .  I love the bat charm on the zipper.  Again, I hope she likes it.

The Halloween Swap was hosted by Bonnie at Pink Stitches, I think she is hosting another swap soon and I am hoping to participate.  Hope you all have a great week.

More Swap Stuff

Here are a couple more things I made for my swap partner.

A Halloween Jack O'Lantern Hand towel for my swap partner's 3 year old son Jacob.  She said he wants to keep washing his hands to use it,  I guess that is a good thing since flu season is here.

The other item I made for my partner was a Halloween Witch Dish Towel.  I have been making these since last year, they are like a staple.  I have made one for most of my friends and family.

I have more things to post, thanks for stopping by and keep checking in.

Halloween Pennant Banner

Here is another one of the items I made for my swap partner Ruthie.

This Halloween Pennant Banner is more than 60 inches wide and was difficult to photograph.  The pennants measure 10 inches wide and are 11.5 inches long. 

This fabric is called Pumpkin Patch Jack o'lantern and it's by Alexander Henry.  I'll post some more stuff tomorrow.  Thanks for stopping by!

Elf is Back

Our Elf is back.  Midas Carlos (Micaela named him) is back in town early.  He spent all of December with us last year.  Micaela has been asking about him for weeks, so he's on special assignment from Santa.  The elves in the North Pole (me) made him a special outfit for the month of October.  It's a cape and belt with Halloween candy all over. 

We've been finding him in the weirdest paces.  Here he is in the breakfast nook, hanging out in the soup tureen.   I expect this is the last year Micaela will BELIEVE, so we are embellishing as much as we can.  So fun to be parents.  Thanks for stopping by!

Halloween Witch Zippered Pouch

I mentioned that I am participating in a Halloween Sewing Swap sponsored by Bonnie at Pink Stitches.  I've been dying to post pictures of my stuff but didn't want my partner to see them so had to hold off until she received her package.  Here is one of the items I made for her. 

The fabric is called Moon Dancer by Diane Knott and manufactured by Clothworks Textiles.  I bought the fabric two years ago.  The fabric has rows of witches, pumpkins, cats, and witch hats.  I fussy cut the witches and centered them on the front panel.  The inside lining has no exposed seams and I used an orange zipper and added a spider web charm to the pull.  This was so fun to make and my friend Ruthie loved it.  I plan to make more!  Thanks for stopping by!

Finished Halloween Quilt

Ta Da... My first quilt. I started this on Saturday and worked on it several nights this week. It's not giant, about 45" square. Kinda did this lazy girl style, meaning it's not exactly quilted or bound the traditional way but most importantly it's DONE.

Troy suggested I add some buttons-- imagine that! I plan to just drape it over a table when we have our halloween party. Feeling inspired to make more of these-- perhaps one for each of my favorite themes!  Hope you are staying cool in this summer heat.  Thanks for stopping by!

Halloween Party

We had our second annual Halloween Party on Sunday! We celebrated Micaela's 6 1/2 birthday since we never got around to celebrating with friends during April. Here are a few of my favorite pictures!

The girls made a pumpkins out of old fence posts. When we replaced our gate recently, my husband thought I was crazy when I asked him to save the wood for craft projects. After much convincing, he saved a few pieces. These little pumpkins are made from the posts. Hubby cut the post into blocks, sanded them down, added a light coat of pumpkin orange paint and a little stump made out of a dowl. The girls cut faces out of felt and glued them on, it was cute and very inexpensive! Ahh, our sweets table. This is what happens when you forget to take a picture at the begining of the party before everyone arrives. Some of the letter candy dishes had already been refilled a couple of times by the time I remembered the camera. Nothing too elaborate here. I used fabric for the tablecloth, covered the drink bottles with Halloween scrapbook paper, did store bought cookies, cupcakes and a little 3 inch cake for Micaela. Most of all, I love our new letter candy dishes (I wish I could by several alphabet sets so I could spell out many words for every occassion).

The Pinata-- a total Mexican tradition! I found this cute pumpkin pinata at the party store and thought it would be fun to add an M monogram. I cut out the M with the Storybook cartridge on the Cricut, I think it turned out cute!

All in all it was a great party-- me and hubby were very tired but our little girl was happy and that is all that counts. Thanks for stopping by!

Heather Witch

'Tis the season for witch stuff! I made this for a teacher friend for Halloween. She loves to decorate for holidays so I hope she likes this.

Halloween Witch Dish Towel #2

Here's another witch towel I embroidered. The first one is posted here. These are so fun and easy to do, I have enjoyed making every single one!
Linking to Made by You Mondays at Skip to My Lou.

Mother & Daughter Halloween Party

During my single days I used to host a Halloween Party for girlfriends. After I got married and had a baby it was difficult to continue the tradition. After much thought and consideration (plus some encouragement from my friend Virginia) we decided to bring the tradition back with a twist by making make it a Mother Daughter Party. Here are some of the highlights!

The backyard was somewhat decorated already. The morning of the party we added tables and chairs to the back yard. Here's what it looked like before everyone arrived


Here's what it looked like as everyone was arriving. Needless to say the weather was picture perfect and everyone enjoyed the back yard. I found out 35 people very comfortable fit in our back yard.
Here's a picture of a grandma witch and aunt witch.

Here's a picture of more cute mothers and daughters.

Some of my girlfriends brought treats to share... My friend Jennifer made these super cute monster squares, the cake part was pumpkin and chocolate chips, they were really yummy.

These are some of the treats on the kitchen bar. I forgot to take a picture of the food table!

Here is the picture of the super gorgeous cake my friend & co host Virginia purchased. It was giant, we could have fed another 35 people. She ordered it from The Cake Stand in historical downtown McKinney, it was incredibley delicious.

Here's a cute picture of a few of the girls having a good time on the swing set!

All in all the party was a huge success, could those little girls look any happier? We definitely will have another party next year! Thanks for stopping by. I hope you have a wonderful Halloween!

Phase II Fall Decorating

Once mid October comes around, I start putting out the Halloween decoratings. I am especially fond of cute witches. With a Mother & Daughter Halloween Party around the corner here's some snapshots...

Move over birdies, the bird bath is going to be a pedestal for a pumpkin.

Garden Witch keeping Croton company...

I hung my garden flags on the fence...

Another Croton in the front porch.

I love fun wood signs...

I'll keep adding pictures, thanks for stopping by.

Halloween Apron

Here's a Halloween Apron I made for a teacher, Mrs. Stober. Her favorite color is purple and she loves Halloween. You can see a close up of the embroiderly and what the full apron looks like. I have more of these if anyone is interested.

Pretty Halloween Cookies

My friend Rhonda (mentioned here) hosted a Halloween Party for her little girl. She had a incredible food spread, everything was delicious and lovely. My favorite thing was her cookies. Don't these look picture perfect? Mine never look that good!

Thank you Rhonda for inviting us. Happy Halloween everybody!

Halloween Books

Just want to mention my usual Natasha Wing holiday book. Here's the one for Halloween. The Night before Halloween. It's super cute, just like all the others.

Another Halloween Book

Ok, so I am obviously into seasonal books. We missed ordering this one from the school so I got it from Amazon. Room on the Broom is the most adorable one so far. We loved the Mary E book last week but the story in this one is adorable. I practically have the whole thing memorized because I have read it to Micaela over and over and over. She absolutely loves it (and so do I).

We rate this one 5 stars, get it-- you will love it too!

Our Newest Halloween Book

October means it's time for Halloween Books. Here's a new one I just purchased by Mary Engelbreit. I have loved "Mary E" for ever! Many years ago when I was a recent college graduate I had the opportunity to work in her store in the Dallas Galleria. It was alot of fun working amongst her stuff. Now that Micaela is a little older I am going to start adding some of her books to our library.

Queen of Halloween is adorable. Mary's illustrations are wonderful and Micaela loved the paper doll in the back. We highly recommend it!

Pumpkin Treat Holder

My friend and sideline Mary Gardina made this adorable pumpkin treat holder. Isn't it adorable!