WIP: Scarecrow and Grinch

This scarecrow wall hanging has been hanging around in my ongoing projects list for months now. I finally finished it this week. All I needed to do was sew up the small opening on his leg where I stuffed him and attach the three leaves, two crows, and pumpkin. It was intended to be a door decoration for fall. My sister gave me the panel years and years ago. You know the drill. You get 80%-90% done and it just sits there, ripening. Well now I have an intended purpose.  Since my six-month-old granddaughter's name is Autumn I plan to give it to her and maybe her parents will deploy it as decor for the door to the nursery. Everything is stitched on really tight by hand or attached by multiple passes of machine stitching to be safe.

With that in mind, I made a little stuffed toy to match. The fabric panels for these type of stuffed novelties come with instructions and a picture of the finished product.  I used a blue mini-print fabric for the back and made a small scarecrow from the instructions illustration that is just the right size for a little hand to hold and fully washable for after it has been stuffed in her mouth. The little guy is about 7 inches tall.

I checked the selvage to try to find the year this was printed but could not find it.  I did find that the panel is still available on ebay by googling VIP country scarecrow. Here is the panel and the small illustration in the upper right is what I used to make the matching toy.

Since this is Work In Progress Wednesday I report that I am continuing to work on the Grinch.  I got all the vertical short sashings joined to make rows. I also joined the rows with horizontal stack and whack sashings in between.  I still want to surround the assembled top with more stack and whack sashings around the perimeter and I will post another picture of a larger portion of the quilt when that stage is completed. Here is one of the blocks  bordered with what I refer to my "banana with a greasy black peel" fabric and then surrounded by the stack and whack sashings.

As crooked as it looks. I have still been successful in always seaming a bias edge with a straight of grain or cross grain edge. I have my fingers crossed that the quilt with end up pretty square. The outer sashings may be tricky since I know how "piano keyboard" type outer edges can be hard to control and keep even in length. I may need to cave and use a simple fabric edge before binding. Stay tuned!

Here are my stats for this week.

Completed projects:

1. Scarecrow wall hanging
2. Bonus scarecrow toy

Ongoing projects:  

1. Grinch quilt (see 2013/04)- sashings have been added
2. Color Play of the Day (see 2013/01) - awaiting binding
3. Sunny Spring Frost (see small insert 2013/02) - awaiting binding
4. Jack O'Lantern Trio (see 2013/02) - awaiting FMQ
5. Chicken quilt - awaiting FMQ
6. Overlapping square wall hanging - awaiting FMQ
7. Mask quilt (see 2011/10) - hidden away awaiting inspiration for arranging hexagons
8. Paper pieced block of the month (see quietplay's BOM)- downloaded/ready to print

New projects:  

1. Bonus scarecrow toy

Stats since last WIP:

     Completed  projects - 2

     New projects - 1

     Currently in progress - 8

Now I am off for inspiration at:

http://www.freshlypieced.com/