And even MORE Halloween on Slow Stitching Sunday...

Well I wasn't sure I could finish it ...but I DID!!!  And now I have even more Halloween to display...

My  Prairie Schooler Trick or Treat .... ta dah!!!    Again I used 32 count linen that I painted with Rit dyes.  The other week someone asked again how I painted this fabric and I'll recap that in a minute.  I'm very happy with this. I did brighten up the little trick or treaters  at the bottom...

I turned the little witch into Elphaba... and I know someone is going to ask what green I used and I don't have a clue. I had a little baggie with 3 different skeins of DMC greens and none of them have number bands so I just don't know which green it it. I made her broom gold (DMC 729) rather than black, I used a little bit of each of those un-numbered greens in the pumpkin head girl's dress and I stitched the candies in a bit of purple. Also I did the owl's eyes in DMC 729... I liked it better than the orange that was charted. 

If you make the first picture bigger you can see a bit of my "framing/finishing"... I took all my cues from Priscilla's blog which you can see here. Here's close up of the upper corner...

I used an 8" x 10" frame from Hobby Lobby ...half price... I took the glass out and put it aside... I took the foam insert that was in the frame and wrapped a piece of purple/black diagonal check fabric (got at Joanns) around it and just taped it on the back ...no one is every gonna see it. Then I took the cross stitch and mounted it on sticky board and attached it to the fabric "mat" with double sided foam tape and put the whole piece back into the frame. To jazz it up I added the bow in the corner... that was marked down at Micheals and it is wired ribbon... my hint of the day...if you can get ribbon with wired edged buy that spool... it is much easier to make fat poofy bows with. I tied it in the middle with some black and orange twine (Dollar spot at Target) and added that little broom (pack of 3 at Hobby Lobby)... I did make the handle on the broom black...used a Sharpie.  I think the addition of the bow adds a lot to the piece. My take away from Priscilla's blog is that she does embellish her framing with ribbons and cotton bolls and other items and it looks so good.

And since I finished this cross stitch piece I decided it needed a Halloween quilt to sit on... and the day before I finished the stitching I found this pattern...Halloween Haberdashery by the Polka Dot Chair ... and I loved it!! You can find the pattern here.

I made a mini with just 4 hats... and it was all out of my stash!  A FREE quilt!!!   I quilted it in the big wavy line grid in black Sulky thread...

The pattern maker used an Accu - cut die to do the hats  and she includes a template for the hat. I made a template out of cardboard. Now the way she makes the triangle into a square has you adding 2 pieces of fabric to each side and then folding them back and squaring up the block. I didn't want to deal with the bias that would result from that method so I made a template for that part of the block too. I cut it bigger so I could square it it and all my hats laid nice and flat. I may do  a bigger version of this next year.

As for how I paint the linen... and I paint it with a brush... I'm using artist paint brushed but if you are doing a big piece I don't see why you couldn't use the cheap foam brushes.  I start with dry white linen and place it on a piece of cardboard... old Amazon boxes are great. I use the Rit dyes in the bottles... shake them up...and then pour out a bit... I could actually measure but mostly I just eyeball it. I put it in a cup (using old Mason jars) and dilute it with water. I read somewhere it is suppose to be hot water but I do my painting outside on my patio and I just use bottled water.  I will say that the colors are pretty intense before you dilute them ... you can brush a bit of the mixed dye onto a paper towel to get an idea of the color... or I just paint a little on the edge of the linen. I've been cutting my linen beforehand to the size I need for the chart I'm going to stitch and it has at least 2" extra all the way around and that part will be cut off when I "frame" the piece.

With all the Halloween pieces I've done I go for the splotchy blotchy look.  The linen I used for these pieces was an old piece of Charles Craft and it if very stiff . I assume it has a lot of sizing on it. That keeps the dyes from going evenly through to the back so these were definitely one sided linen.   I painted another piece of linen... a Wichelt Edinburgh... and it did allow the dye  to go completely through the fabric...and it turned out I liked the back of the piece better than the front I painted...you can see it here...

I'm going to do all nine of the Blackbird Designs Loose Feathers  "For the Birds" series on this piece but this is as far as I've gotten.

I'm hoping to do some more painting this coming week. I have several pieces of linen cut and want to  do an olive green piece for LHN Autumn ABC's and some aqua/blue pieces for some Christmas Lizzie Kate ....and I saw a Barbara Ana chart I want to play  with too.

Now Rit doesn't have every color but if you go here to their website they've put together a library file for how to make other colors... 

I hope my explanation helps. This isn't hard to do ... I think the scariest part is just jumping in and trying it. It has opened up a whole bunch of new possibilities for linen for me.  I'm very fond of the mottled splotchy look on linen and painting lets me control where the color is and use more than one color on a piece.

Well the weather is taking a turn today...started out around 80 and will be under 60 before the day is over.  A front is moving in and it is beginning to rain. Tomorrow's high is predicted to be 59 and the rest of the week in the 70s... I like the 70's...LOL.. temperatures and the decade!!! I wish Fall would go on for as long as possible. I'm hoping for another mild winter like last year but we are due for a bad one...

Hope you are having a good Sunday... not too much on my agenda next week so maybe along with the linen painting I can stitch and sew... I started a Christmas quilt project... just thinking ahead.

I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts today and Super Mom - No Cape on Monday.

happy stitching-
carol fun