Well Happy Halloween everyone!! Remember when I said I didn't think I was going to put out my Halloween decorations... oh.. that turned out quite differently... my sweet friend Barb, left me a comment that some people just switch out Fall decor for Halloween decor instead of re-doing the whole display... GENIUS!! Why have I NEVER thought of this before??? I have some pumpkins in my displays that have faces that were turned around, easy to switch that... and taking the Fall cross stitch pieces out and replacing them with my Halloween cross stitch pieces was easy peasy. Then I sprinkled the smalls here and there... added some glizty spiders and some witches hats and I re-did my displays in about 90 minutes!! And it turns out that LOTS of people do it this way... start with a Fall base in September, switch out stuff for October, and then return the Fall stuff and add some turkeys for November... perfect strategy!!! So here are the pics of my Halloween decor... let me inundate you with pictures...LOL!!
The big shelf unit... I didn't move a single pumpkin... just worked around them...
Doing it this way was so quick ... and it re- enforces that smalls are the way to go... easy to find a place to tuck them in...
Oh here is the tier tray... again just switched out Fall for Halloween...and isn't that stack of pumpkins adorable??? My dear friend Stephie got that for me for my birthday... she was cruising the aisles of Homegoods and said she immediately popped it into her cart as it had my name written all over it...and it even lights up... I LOVE IT!!! Thanks Stephie!!!
As for sewing I got all the blocks done for my Log Jam quilt, and I posted 3 design variations on IG (which you can see here ) and asked people what their favorite was... all the while telling them that their choices were not binding on me... pretty magnanimous aren't I? LOL ... anyway I went with the layout I showed before... Why? Two reasons...one, this one seemed the calmest of the layouts ... and two, there are waaaaaay less seams to match. Several people like the zigzag setting ... and it is quite striking... but it would require me to match a seam every 2" across every row... too much work for me... I want my sewing to be easy!!!
As I was sewing the rows together I kept wondering what these fabrics reminded me of... because they were talking to me ( and you have to be very very quiet to hear them...LOL)... and then it hit me , "Old Gold and Black"... the colors of my older son's alma mater, Purdue... Boiler Up!!!... and with a bit of that orange in there I remembered how the campus looked in the Fall, soooo I named it "West Lafayette in October" since Purdue is located in West Lafayette, IN... can't wait for Delinda of The T-Shirt Quilt Company to work her magic on this one....
I do like the pattern which is Log Jam which you can find here from Pieced Just Sew, and will make it again... maybe with scrappy low volumes for the lights and other scrappy stuff for the darks...
The weather here has been all over the place... some lovely gorgeous Fall days and some ugly rainy ones... I took advantage of the nice day on Wednesday to clean out some of my flower beds... and OMG did I suffer from it... I have arthritis in my left knee and I've gotten a couple of cortisone shots in it... and it hasn't been bothering me, until I spent about 90 minutes pulling up dead flowers... I'm no where near done but I had to stop as I could hardly hobble back into the house for my ice pack and a couple of ibuprofen... sheesh... getting old sucks!!! Hopefully since I've rested it for a couple of days I can get back out there again this week... not only do I have stuff to pull out but I have bulbs to be planted... daffodils and some more alliums... they were so pretty last spring and I got lots of compliments on them... it makes me happy when people stop and tell me how much they like what I do with the yard... twice when I was out there cleaning the beds on Wednesday someone stopped and thanked me for what I do... wow... that really touches my heart...
So the weather should be pretty good for the trick or treaters tonight... I got 2 GIANT bags of candy at Costco... in good weather we can get more than 100 kids.... I know that the majority of them don't live in the neighborhood because I know the area well, but it is a great place to trick or treat... the streets are mostly flat, there are sidewalks on both sides of the street, it is nicely lit and the houses are close together... you can cover a lot of ground in a short amount of time... it is fun to see the little ones dressed up and in recent years lots of adults that accompany the kids are dressing up too.
Hope you have fun with Halloween... I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts and see what everyone else has been up to... and I'll leave you with the BEST Halloween wreath of all time!!! I say that because it was the most labor intensive wreath I've ever made... and I LOVE IT!!
happy stitching and make sure you get to eat some of the good candy... I'm keeping the Almond Joys and Mounds for ME!!
carol fun
God I love your quilts.
ReplyDeleteAlways a fun, enjoyable post...thanks Carol!
ReplyDeleteLove your Halloween display - particularly the cross stitch designs. Could you possibly share the name of the designer? Thank you
ReplyDeleteLove the quilt and all of your displays. I, too, use the pool noodles for the hanging quilts. Great idea. And the wreath....awesome!
ReplyDeleteWell Carol, I need to practice what I preach. You did all that wonderful Halloween decorating in 90 minutes!! I am impressed! I really need to think about that next year. I am happy you put up your Halloween stitching. I love all of them and have done several myself. I even made my DH come into the computer room and look at that beautiful wreath. It is well worth all your effort!! Since we have a 3 hour time difference, I hope your Halloween was fun! Mine is still in full gear!
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