Zombie Wooble

My grandson is hooked on Woobles. I'm crocheting another for him for his 11th birthday. It is a Zombie and Zombie baby from the Minecraft video game. A Zombie in this game is the most common mob and it is hostile. In Minecraft, a mob (short for "mobile entity") is any living, moving creature or non-player character in the game. Zombies spawn in dark areas and attack by slowly approaching the player and punching them. These monsters will aggressively hunt and attack you if you get too close. Defeating them often yields valuable loot or experience points. Granted, I do not understand how they spawn or how they treat their young if they are that hostile... Curious about how zombies spawn? Check out this article and scroll down to the spawning section.

My goal is to make a Daddy Zombie and a baby zombie. Whoops, perhaps they are a Mommy and baby Zombie...? When I looked this up, according to AI:

Zombies in Minecraft do not have a specific gender. While their appearance resembles the default male player character, ... the game's original creator designed almost all mobs in the game to be genderless.

Making the main body progresses really quickly for me. The following photo shows the top half of the zombie's body. He is crocheted from the top down - dark green top toward dark blue bottom. I can finish the main part, complete with eyes and stuffing in very little time. Adding the tiny appendages and the detail embroidery are what slows me down, even though the instruction are very clear and specific on placement.

I followed the instructions carefully to attach the big Zombie's plastic safety eyes and to embroider his mouth and nose. In retrospect I  should have stitched his nose and moth in a color other than the dark green, perhaps black, to have it show up better on the variegated green. But I was faithful to the directions and perhaps this color palette is more true to that of the characters in the game. When I researched the "correct" color palette for a Minecraft Zombie, all the images do show a rather subdued nose and mouth.

I moved on to make the baby zombie. His face has embroidered eyes rather than plastic ones and he has no nose or mouth. Simple as it was, I messed up the first time with the eyes and had to unstitch and embroider them farther up. I think it really does make a difference, otherwise I would not have bothered.

Here are my completed Zombie and Baby Zombie. These are my sixth (and seventh?) Woobles. After the photo are references and links to my previous five.

• 1/22/24 Strawberry the Axolotl Wooble
• 10/15/25 Creeper Wooble
• 2/6/26 VAN the Guardian Robot Wooble
• 3/20/26 Chilly the Frog Wooble
• 4/30/26  Scooter the Wooble Raccoon

July Flags and Pinwheels Completed

For the piecing and assembly of the Flags and Pinwheels banner for July from Shabby Fabrics see my previous post dated 6/11/26. This post is about the FMQ, labeling, binding, and completion of the July banner.

Flag Blocks
FMQ on  flag blocks was wavy lines on the stripes to simulate the flag waving in the breeze. The wave is in every other stripe, namely the cram colored ones and also in the teal borders at the top and bottom of the flag. I used the deep wave side of my Handi-Quilter Wave F ruler.  The 4" wavelength worked out perfectly for the 12" width of the flag; I used the shallow 0.75" height as being the right proportion for the width of the stripes on the flag. For other info I have complied on Handi-Quilter wave rulers and their reissue under other names, check out my blog post for 10/1/25.

The sawtooth star section has straight lines set ¼" in from the outer edge seams. This offset seemed to bring out the star more than a stitch in the ditch would have and I like that the center seems to puff up.

Pinwheels
FMQ on the blades of the pinwheel blocks was inspired by Week 2 of a dot -to-dot video class by Angela Walters. On the outer edges I free-formed some curvy lines and vortexes to represent the airflow streams around a spinning pinwheel.

Sashing and Outer Borders
The gingham sashing between the flag and pinwheel blocks is FMQd with a simple zigzag echoing the 45° slant of the gingham. The stitching is not very noticeable but that's OK. For the outer borders I have always like piano key borders. I decided to modify this border by varying the spacing of the lines. The closer lines seems more like "stripes" when they alternate with the wider gaps. I got bored with doing these ruler-guided lines (¼" and ¾" apart) after the first side though, so I mixed it up. There is no rule all four borders need to be the same. 

Something different was needed for the top and bottom borders. What better goes with stripes in July but stars? I used the smallest 1½" star from my my Amanda Murphy star template set make stars on the top and bottom borders. 

I started in the middle and worked outward toward the left with just the tops of the stars, back inward toward the right with just the star bottoms, switching in the middle to continue star tops toward the right, then all the way left toward the middle to finish the star bottoms. No breaking thread, right! Except, I ran out of bobbin thread during this "continuous" process. Aargh! Photos show star border near completion and after it is all completed. In retrospect I wish I had used a heavier thread so the stars stood our more. The side piano borders have double stitching out and back. That may be why the stars look a bit weak by comparison. Oh, well, lesson learned and something to keep in mind for the future.

Labels
My tradition is to make my labels from grosgrain ribbon which I embroidered on my 20+ year old Pfaff. I have a stash of grosgrain ribbon of course, but it is not in a color or width I wanted. I miss JoAnn's. After a commando raid to my local Michael's I learned they did not have grosgrain ribbon. Seems like all the general population seems to want is wired ribbon or satin ribbon.  The clerk in Michael's did not even know what grosgrain ribbon was. I wound up having to order it from Amazon. Though not as convenient as a car ride away, I eventually did  get my grosgrain ribbon delivered the next day from Amazon. The assortment I bought was QingHan Grosgrain Ribbon 5/8 Inches 40 Yards (20 Colors x 2yards). I am used to buying Offray as a familiar brand name, but the quality of these ribbons was fine. I should be really set for grosgrain ribbon for quite a while. 

I embroidered my labels for the back lower corners, choosing navy for the ribbon color, even though originally I was looking for ecru. I embroidered them in ivory and set them on the diagonal in each lower corner. They read DIC_JULY_2026 and FLAGS_AND_PINWHEELS.  July stands for the theme month of the banner, not the month I completed it.

Completed Banner

This is the front and back of the seventh banner I have completed in this monthly themed series. I am just beyond halfway there to having an entire year of months represented. To preview how the July banner will look I snapped a photo and hung it outside my sewing room in a designated spot that I switch out monthly. I will change it back to the June banner, since the Strawberries theme has about a week of display time still due.

Here are my completions thus far for this series from Shabby Fabrics.

• JAN    Snowmen and Snowflakes (2/10/26)
• MAR  Shamrocks and Irish Chains (4/6/26)
• APR   Bunnies and Carrots (3/6/26)
• MAY   Roses and Pansies (9/11/25)
• JUN    Strawberries (9/6/25)
• JUL    Flags and Pinwheels (this post 6/24/26)
• AUG    Bees and Sunflowers (9/21/25)
  

July Flags & Pinwheels

The theme for the patriotic Pieceful Patchwork banner for July from Shabby Fabrics is Flags and Pinwheels, two of each. The color scheme is made up of navy, gold, muted teal, soft reds, and cream. The cream has writing on it, which is a favorite feature of mine. As usual, I cut out the fabric and organized the pieces in my tray with Alphabitties and Clover Wonder Clips. I used black Alphabitties for the pinwheels and blue Alphabitties for the pinwheels. I made up the two pinwheels first before I took the photo, and so the black letters are empty. Note the two pinwheels have opposite polarity, minimizing scrap generation.

Next up were the two flags, each with one Sawtooth star in the flag's traditional field of stars. The instructed method to make the flying geese for the star points was different from my usual method. This four-at-a time method wastes less fabric but precludes me from adding to the pinwheels I usually make from cut off corner scraps using the flip up corner method with rectangles. The trim down after the four-at-a -time method is a bit tedious, but it does make a crisp precise flying geese rectangle. It does require a bit of head scratching on placing those "A" squares if the fabric is directional such as a stripe. It was fortunate that both the gold and navy fabric with mini-stars is direction independent.

The red and cream stripes of the flag build quickly. They are simple, uncomplicated strips of fabric joined, so I took this opportunity to try out my new purchase of a cordless iron. I'd recently bought a

Panasonic Red 360 Freestyle Cordless Iron NI-QL2000R. Here are the basic units of the flag adjacent to the iron in its charging cradle. I studied reviews of the iron before buying and realize that any complaints leaned toward using it to press a large weekly load of laundry, but using it for piecing in quilting is very handy. The complaints refuted:

• It does not get hot enough ...
  — this iron is 1700 watts and I found myself using it on the medium setting, not high
  — the steam was adequate; the smaller water reservoir made for less weight
• It does not stay hot long enough ...
  — not a problem for pressing parts and seams within quilt blocks, not an entire garment
•  It requires more space for the cradle ...
   — no more space than the footprint of a larger corded iron encompasses
• Replacing it in the heating cradle is awkward ...
  — not having a "heel" to rest it on was initially something I had to get used to
  — but muscle memory quickly took care of that issue as I learned the new motion 
• Having no flat heel end is weird ...
  — the tip on this smaller iron (both ends) is better for getting into tight spots
  — it was exceptionally more maneuverable when pressing open ¼" seams

Here are the two completed flag blocks. Once I add sashing and join them up with the two pinwheels, I will be off to sandwich, FMQ, label, and bind. There is still time in June for me to get this banner completed for July.

Note: Both flags are the same size. My mediocre photography skills introduce a skew that I have yet to learn how to remove. I should have been more careful when lining up my cellphone camera parallel with my design wall.

Christmas Celebration Gift Row

There are eight blocks to make in this fourth installment of the Shabby Fabrics Christmas Celebration Row Quilt series. Gifts are made out of these fabrics. The pale blue ornaments #23, the green snowmen #25, and the wonky red gingham #29 from the Emmitt and Ivy Sweetwater line for Moda are new to this fourth row. It is always a nice surprise to see the new additions each month.

Numbers 6&14, 4&22, 23&28, and 25&29 pairs to make four gifts, then the four pair trade positions, 14&6, 22&4, 28&23, and 29&25, for the other four gifts. I cut the eight fabrics four layers at a time, to assure cleaner cuts. I label my pieces with letters. The pattern does not assign the pieces letters, but this is a habit I use that helps me keep organized. I write the letter on the pattern and then clip it to the piece with my Alphabitties and WonderClips. A letter is easier to reference than the dimensions of a piece.

First I made up the four gifts from the 6&14 and 4&22 combinations starting with the upper portion of the bow on the top of the gift. These went really quick. The cut off corners were too small for me to try to make them into pinwheels as I often do. I was only constructing the block parts with no extra freebies from the scraps. Here are the tops of four gifts.

Then I made the bulk of the gift itself using the wider fabric pieces for the wrapping paper and the narrower pieces for the ribbon. I made a group of four at a time from two pair of complimentary fabrics 6&14, 14&6, 4&22, and 22&4.

 

I repeated the process for fabrics 23&28 and 25&29, making the other four gifts

Instead of all eight gifts adjacent in a row, they were divided up into two groups of three and a central group of two. In this case I used my Alphabitties for a different purpose— to denote the letter of the completed block as specified in the pattern.

Here is the whole row assembled. It is 9½" high and 50½" long. It is long enough that my design wall is not wide enough and the row needs to wrap around the corner on the left.

I made up this row within a day of it arriving in the mail. Now I have a whole long month to wait until the next row installment comes. But I like the pacing, and the project does not become overwhelming. Besides, now I have an imposed window to make progress on all those other UFOs I have been avoiding.

Links to the previous three rows in this series are: 5/29/26 stockings, 5/30/26 trees, 5/31/26 stars.

Christmas Celebration Star Row

The first row in the Christmas Celebration Row of the Month Club at Shabby Fabrics was stars. I'd made the second row of Stockings in my post for 5/29/26 and my third row of Trees in my previous post before sewing up the stars. Now I am looking back and making the Star row.

The stars are basically four flying geese blocks around a central square. I have a Bloc-Loc tool which works well to make flying geese. The tool requires cutting the fabric a slight ¼" larger than the norm. Although I have extra fabric provided in the kit, it was not of the dimension that allowed me the luxury of oversizing without some creative positioning. That's OK. I can use my old standard method. The flying geese of the star points still yielded me enough HSTs to make two pinwheels per star for a total of twelve pinwheels.

Each row of Christmas Celebration introduces a few new fabrics from the Emmitt and Ivy Sweetwater collection by Moda. The red/white ornament and the pale blue snowmen, marked by blue star in the following image, are new in this row of stars. None of the stripes from the stockings are repeated. I look forward for when other fabric options from the line appear. Perhaps they will be used in the upcoming rows:  4) Gifts, 5) Wreaths, and 6) Ornaments.

I am one half of the way through my row making (3 out of 6) and it is still fun. Yay! Next row installment has been shipped and I eagerly await its arrival in the mail any day now.

Christmas Celebration Tree Row

The third row in the Christmas Celebration Row of the Month club at Shabby Fabrics was trees. I'd made the second row of stockings first in my previous post. Upcoming rows are 4) Gifts, 5) Wreaths, and 6) Ornaments. After struggling with my stocking row, the trees went together fairly easily. I could assemble the four strips/level of each tree and wait to press until the adjacent neighbor was determined. Then I could alternate the seam direction for the white background. "Press to the dark side" was not always best. I do like that the trees have separating spacers between some of them to break up the rigidity of an all-in-a-row look.

I made up into pinwheels from all those triangles cut off at each level of each tree. Those six trees yielded twelve pinwheels. They are pressed but not yet trimmed to be truly square and accurate

The fabrics were again from the Emmitt and Ivy collection by Sweetwater for Moda. Only the red snowman print was a repeat from the stockings. The wonky gingham, the green snowmen, the green/white ornaments, the red evergreen sprigs, and the white evergreen springs were all new.

This so far has been a fun row-by-row monthly kit with cheery fabrics. I am enjoying assembling it. I am one third of the way there. Hmm... those pinwheels...  It remains to be seen what I will do with them.

Christmas Celebration Stocking Row

I signed up for a Christmas Celebration Row of the Month club at Shabby Fabrics. Each of six months has the pattern and fabrics for one themed row: 1) Stars, 2) Stockings, 3) Trees, 4) Gifts, 5) Wreaths, and 6) Ornaments. I always swear that I will not get behind when I sign up for these monthly projects and usually I do succeed. This time I had received the first three months and had not started. At a mini two-day retreat at a friend's home, I decided it was the perfect project to attack since there would be no interruptions... except of course eating, talking, and mutual project ogling. Even so, on the first day I did assemble one row. I started with Row 2, the stockings, first. Why? Maybe because Row 1 was stars which can be somewhat mundane and the Row 2 stockings just seemed a bit different and had fewer diagonal cuts.

The original design for the stocking row had the stockings alternate in which direction they faced. To me, instead of stockings, I could not unsee the letters J U U U U ᒐ. Stockings hung on a mantle all face the same direction normally, so I wanted to change the layout to mimic that tradition. 

The original design had five blocks of heel-to-heel pairs each with a width of 10½". When joined with four seams, the total width of the row is 50½". Where blue are the stocking pairs and black "|"s represent each ½" consumed in the seam:

 

10½" |  10½"| 10½"| 10½"| 10½" 

5 x 10½" - 4 x ½"per seam = 50½ "

I did some cutting and pasting of the image in PowerPoint to see how stockings all in one direction would appear. I decided I preferred that look. When I decided to face all my stockings the same way, the change involved a bit of recalculating the spacers. Ten 5"stockings joined in the same direction with nine ¼" seams sum to 45½" (10 x 5"- 4 x ½" per seam) falling short of the required row dimension of 50½" so I needed to figure out where to add the vertical divider spacers and how wide to make them to make up that 5" shortage. Until I made that decision, I proceeded with making individual stocking blocks rather than stocking pair blocks.

The original design had four places where the stocking would be toe-to-toe. With all my stockings facing the same way, I would have heel-to-toe situations, nine places if I added no spacers. Those tiny triangles to round the toes sure made pressing the seam allowances a challenge. The amount of bulk at that joint took a lot of steam and hard pounding to lie flat.

The seam pressing in general took some thought. Along the banded area in the calf of the stocking was not an issue, but at the cuff and foot areas, I had to really put on my thinking cap. I alternated directions at the cuff and at the sole and was not consistent among the blocks. Where a stocking was in the line-up determined the optimal pressing direction.

Rather than adding to either side to make up the 5" I lacked, I wanted to distribute the spacers so the stockings were in two or three groupings. The possible combinations for ten were 3-2-2-3 or 2-3-3-2 or 2-3-2-3 or 3-4-3. I chose the 3-4-3, grouping so there would be no central vertical bar. Where blue are the 5"wide stockings, red are the vertical spacers, and the black "|"s represent each ½" seam allowance, the grouping of 3 - 4 - 3 would look like: 

1½" | 5" | 5" | 5" | 2" | 5" | 5" | 5" | 5" | 2" | 5" | 5" | 5" | 1½"

10 x 5"   +  7" -  13 x ½" seam =  50½"

Following is my completed row with the two 1½" spacers on the ends and two 2" spacers distributed in the central area. Believe me, there was some creative seam allowance pressing to minimize the presence of lumps at a few of those seams.

The fabrics are the from the Emmitt and Ivy line by Sweetwater for Moda. They are mini-prints whose scale is just perfect for these blocks that measure approximately 5" x 10".  The print scale is not too teeny-tiny; the theme images of snowmen and sprigs of leaves show clearly, yet are not so big they get chopped up into oblivion. 

I look forward to catching up and making my row of Stars (#1) and my row of Trees (#3). I just got email notification that my row of Presents (#4) has already shipped.