In Month Five, the Make It Merry assignment was to make four Block #8's and four Block #9's. I just got a notice that my Month Six installment is due to arrive in the mail this weekend, so I better started on Month Five so as not to get behind. I am reminded of a saying by Karen Brown of Get It Done Quilts that, "My main goal for myself this year is to stop feeling like I am behind." A large part of the truth in that sentiment is attitude. But also, part of it is staying aware of those " _____ of the Month" things I signed up for.
Friday, October 24, 2025
Make It Merry Month Five
Monday, October 20, 2025
Halloween Ornaments
I was tidying my sewing room and found eight ~4" squares with a Halloween theme in one of my many piles. They were leftovers from Raven and Pumpkin Placemats panels designed by Andrea Tachiera for Northcott Fabrics. I'd made the placemats five and six Halloween seasons ago as described in my blog posts for 10/24/20 and 10/23/19. Four squares on each of the two panels were intended for coasters, which I do not think are needed when there is a placemat. Anyway, I intended to repurpose those "coasters" as ornaments, and yet, they lingered on for years.
It is still Halloween, but even if it were not, I decided to stop shifting those squares around between piles and sew them up. My inspiration was a thought that kept trailing through my brain like an ear worm. The phrase "Give your self the gift of getting this done" is from a YouTube video of Just Get It Done Quilts by Karen Brown. Within the first 3½ minutes of the video Karen showed items she'd been pleased to complete that fit this "gift" category: a pin cushion kit, a decorated tray, a heating pad insert, a small kit she'd been given, and a notebook cover. Sewing something fun and quick is indeed a gift to yourself.
When I cut the images out of the panel, I stayed an ⅛" beyond the outer edge and used a ¼" seam to sew them face to face. Initially, I futzed around in my stash to find a suitable backing a material. I did find black and white checks, like one of the pumpkins, and a few other golds. (I could not help noticing, though, that I had created more piles to clean up.) Then I talked some sense into myself. Just make four ornaments; you do not need eight! I cut 4½" lengths of black grosgrain ribbon to use as hanging loops, centering each at the top between two face-to-face images.Saturday, October 18, 2025
Three More Frank Pillows
I'd made a pillow from this Lella Boutique Frank pattern and blogged about it in my posts for 9/24/25 and 10/1/25. It worked up quickly so I decided to make others. I pretty much used the same fabrics but experimented with the FMQ. I improved my time with the cutting out by noticing I could cut strips and sub cut those. Here are three more Franks waiting to be FMQ'd. The coloration is subtle but the center Frank is a slightly more yellow hue of green. I could get two Frank faces out of one fat quarter.
I have never read the story of Frankenstein but I did know that Frankenstein is the name of the scientist/creator and the green guy himself was called either creature or monster. What I did not know, until I read a plot summary, was that the creature started out somewhat kind, initially rescuing a young girl from drowning. Humans, horrified by his appearance, treated him poorly and only then did he turned vindictive. I like to think that my three Franks represent "creature" in his early friendly stage. I also learned that his green color arose from his portrayal in a movie because the green makeup used in the 1931 film was applied to made him look pale and cadaverous on black and white film. Unlike Kermit the Frog, Frankenstein was not born that way. Even so, the result is still "♫ It's not Easy Being Green ♫".
For my second Frank, I used a HQ Clamshell template. Initially I though it would be too formal but I like the way it turned out. I chose the 2" size twosome on the right and stitched them in from the bottom up.
We three Franks / of Halloween,Not ghosts or pumpkins / instead we are green.We're monsters forever / ceasing never,To create / a BOO-ti-ful scene.
Wednesday, October 15, 2025
Woobles Crocheted Creeper
While crocheting this project I did learn some interesting facts about Creepers and also some video game terminology. Per a Wikipedia Creeper explanation:
The character model that later became the creeper was first created on August 20, 2009, as a result of a coding error when creating the pig mob in the early pre-alpha stages of Minecraft's development. The game's creator, Markus Persson, accidentally mixed up the dimensions of the model, swapping the length and height. Instead of deleting the result, Persson instead stated "I'll keep it for a creepy creature", and later added a green texture based on the in-game leaves texture to the model, gave it aggressive AI, and turned it into a hostile mob.
I also learned that Minecraft is a sandbox video game. What is that? Per Wikipedia's sandbox explanation:
A sandbox game is a video game with a gameplay element that provides players a great degree of creativity to interact with, usually without any predetermined goal, or with a goal that the players set for themselves. Such games may mostly or totally lack any objective, and are sometimes referred to as non-games or software toys. ... The term "sandbox" derives from the nature of a sandbox that lets people create nearly anything they want within it.
I really did sew on all four legs. Here is proof. I used a pair of hinged mirrors from my quilting tools to show several views of the Creeper at once.
I just learned that the term mob in Minecraft does not necessarily mean a large violent group. Instead it stands for a "mobile non-player character". Specifically
Creepers are hostile mobs (mobile non-player characters) that spawn in dark places. Instead of attacking the player directly, they creep up on the player and explode, destroying blocks in the surrounding area and potentially hurting or killing the player if they are within the blast radius.
So in retrospect, one Creeper is enough as long as it is in blasting distance. Live and learn...
Sunday, October 5, 2025
Holiday Card Class
Yesterday, I took a class at the Cotton Patch in Lafayette. It was taught by my friend Tekoa. What fun; and to make it even better Cotton Patch set up a loaner Bernina 335 for my use. I did not have to lug my sewing machine there. I also tried very hard not to bring too much fabric either.
I made two cards during class: a pumpkin and a house. They both came out cute and, with Tekoa's paper piecing technique, there was no need to tear out the foundation. We used a type of non-woven Pellon-type interfacing, the non-fusible type, and left it in.
The first card I made was a pumpkin. It was made in two sections, so probably not the easiest choice for my first card, but I succeeded. I even fussy cut a little chicken in the lower corner, since he (she?) was one of my orange print scraps. Yes, I did have all that many different oranges in my stash. Per Tekoa's advice, I made sure there was enough contrast among them to make the effort of the piecing show up.
Friday, October 3, 2025
Steampunk Halloween
I bought this funky panel at the Pleasanton Craft Fair (post for 9/25/25) and decided to sew it up for this Halloween season before I forgot about it or lost it in my stash. The panel is titled Steampunk Halloween 3, which then begs the question, "Are there Steampunk panels 2 & 3?". Yes, there are, but they are more grid type panels and not items to cut out and stuff.
- Mr. Moon (~ 16" tall)
- Pumpkin (~ 14" tall)
- Monster with Clock (~ 11 " tall)
- Monster with Clock Pincushion (~ 7" tall)
- Monster with Pumpkin (~ 11" tall)
- Monster with Pumpkin Pincushion (~ 7" tall)
The images are scattered on the panel, not lined up neatly in rows. The straight of grain varies in its direction and, consequently, so does the direction of the bias. The moon is pretty consistent in terms of grain orientation, but the others are a toss-up. This random grain direction is actually advantageous when trying to tug the front and back to align with each other. I found a fair amount of pinning was a must. To match along all edges, the front and back will not lie flat with each other. Once they are stuffed though, this "bump" really does not matter. The pumpkin illustrates the largest mismatch.



















































