Country Garden Stitchery

This is one of my favorite fabrics I've come across in a long time. Reminds me of the Adam's family. The black cats are so cute and the different characters. I tried to place the characters so it seemed they were looking at you from different places, peeking eyes everywhere. I put a little embroidered black pumpkin at the top too, on pink. I really liked the small bits of pink in the fabric too. I decided to finish my Christmas embroidery patterns I stitched last year. I had some bright colors of fabric that matched the colors in the hand dyed floss. Not the usual Christmas colors, but I thought it worked just fine. A little different. The batik fabric really picked up the orange, pink, red and gold in the floss. It is starting to cool down a lot outside and it makes me want to surround myself in colorful fabrics and make things.

I decided to make a table runner for Halloween using my black pumpkin cross stitch pattern (available in my Etsy Store :). I made some quilt blocks out of coordinating fabrics to form the runner. I made a nine patch quilt block out of 2" blocks and a strip quilt block out of 1 1/2" strips. I trimmed them to the same size then cut the cross stitch design to the same size. Cut three other pieces of Halloween theme fabrics to go with the quilt blocks and the design. Sew them together using a 1/4" seam placing the design second from the left. Press the seams to one side and press from the front so the fabrics relaxed without puckers and folds. Cut two long pieces for the top and bottom measuring 2" wide and the same length as the main piece. Sew them on with a 1/4" seam. Cut another two pieces for the top and bottom 2 1/2" wide and the same length and sew them on using a 1/4" seam. Cut two pieces the 2 1/2" wide and the sa...