September Log Cabin and Schoolhouse

The theme for the  Pieceful Patchwork banner for September from Shabby Fabrics is a home and school focus. There are two Log Cabin blocks and two Schoolhouse blocks. The color scheme is made up of deep reds and autumnal oranges for the log cabin blocks. The central cream of the log cabin block has typeface on it, which is a favorite feature of mine. The school house blocks are navy, teal, and deep brown, with a calico like floral pattern in some that makes me think of Little House on the Prairie. As usual, I cut out the fabrics and organized the pieces in my tray with Alphabitties. I used blue Alphabitties for the warm tones of the log cabin and black Alphabitties for cool tones of the schoolhouses.

I made two log cabin blocks at a time. They seemed straightforward enough that the risk of me messing up twice was small. I am usually more cautious. September’s kit seemed simpler than other months.

I then moved on to the schoolhouse components. I also made both of these blocks at the same time. The roof and part of the front wall are shown in the next photo.

Next are two side walls with two gold windows and two completed front walls with a teal door each. When I assembled the schoolhouse parts, I also made a pinwheel from the corners cut off at the roof.

All blocks are ready to be assembled with green sashing, brown inner border, and red plaid outer border.

I have sandwiched the top with bamboo batting and cream colored backing. I usually procrastinate on this step, so I am proud I did not delay for September’s banner. My binding and hanging sleeve are ready to go. So now I am prepped for free motion quilting. This is when I need to stare at it for at least a day or two to decide the motifs to stitch. No. This delay is not undesirable procrastination. It is my normal, justified thinking time.

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