A Halloween Surprise

A Halloween Surprise

Here in the United States October 31 is Halloween.  A big holiday for dressing up and collecting treats for kids and some adults.  I’m not sure if the rest of the world has this tradition, but it’s a favorite here.

Four years ago I made my grandsons very basic pumpkin wall hangings.

SAMSUNG
SAMSUNG

Last year my granddaughter Lisa was too young although her parents took her out trick or treating around the neighborhood.  So this year I made Lisa her wall hanging.

I found some unknown orange fiber that was too bright, so I made some batts adding some white merino.  I wanted something  feminine and decided to add a button nose (wooden ball),  prefelt eyes, mouth, stem and bow for some dimension.

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After I wet it out, I felt it was too thin so I added some corriedale leftover batt that I did for the color challenge last year to the back.

Once it was felted and shaved, I thought it needed something else.  so, I began trying to stitch on eyelashes.  This turned out to be a nightmare.  I tried hand and machine stitching.  I did more ripping out and filling the swear jar.  I finally let it sit for a few days and found some thick cotton embroidery thread Cathy had brought me from Japan a few years ago.  Thanks Cathy!

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While the stitching isn’t the best, it worked.

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Here are some closeups.  The pumpkin was very hairy and bumpy (thanks unknown fiber) and had to be shaved a couple of times, but I doubt a 19 month old will care.

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Have you done anything special for Halloween?

 

20 thoughts on “A Halloween Surprise

  1. It’s a very feminine pumpkin and it was worth persevering with the eyelashes – she’ll love it!

    We didn’t celebrate Halloween when I was a child but it’s in the UK now. Some people don’t like it because there is often trouble caused by unruly teenagers who have taken on Halloween to commit what can only be described as ‘demanding money with menaces’ and the menaces can be horrible and frightening.

    1. edit: All Hallows Eve has always been of religious significance, but the idea of young children dressing up for ‘trick or treat’ didn’t get going in the UK until the 80’s.

    2. Thanks Lyn!

      We’ve had our Halloween nightmares over the years with kids being poisoned and now adult clowns are assaulting people. So many places are banning clowns. It’s definitely different than I was a child. I think I had more fun when my kids were young making their costumes. But as problems occurred there were more Halloween parties sponsored by the parks. Now you see more parents with the kids going door to door. And many only go to neighbors they know.

      I didn’t realize it had any religious connection. Thanks for the info. I assume you still have trick or treating and like us I’m sure it’s changed from the ’80s. 🙂

  2. I’m sure she’ll love it, Marilyn 🙂
    Hallowe’en was massive here when I was a kid, though we had Swedes (Rutibagas?), not Pumpkins. I was surprised when I’d read American books (probably Judy Blume) that you had Hallowe’en too, but more surprised at how you dress up in anything not just as witches and monsters like we would (do?). I think it’s Irish in origin?
    I did actually carve a pumpkin last night though, funnily enough!

    1. Thanks Zed! I hope she does and isn’t scared by it. This is her Dads favorite holiday and they’ve had decorations up for weeks already.

      Yes, anything goes here as far as costumes. We used to make ours, but most everyone now does the latest fad. It will be interesting to see what the kids are wearing this year.

      Since the kids are grown, I haven’t carved a pumpkin. Good for you! You can always make pumpkin pie and bake the seeds with a little butter and make pumpkin seeds. :-). Enjoy! Happy Halloween!

    1. Thanks Cathy! Actually, I’ve used the thread for a number of projects.

  3. Very cute Marilyn! These also look like a great idea for children’s Halloween placemats. Or Halloween hot pads. 🎃👻. I recently made a couple of felt pumpkins after watching Sara Ranzulli’s utube tutorial. I don’t think I can post a picture of them under this thread, but I will try in the forum.

    1. Sigh. I always seem to have difficulty posting pictures in the forum. I don’t have a website, so I want to post directly from my photo library. I can’t figure it out, sorry. I did it before a while back, but I can’t remember how I did it! 🙂 I know it took me a while though…

    2. Thanks Terri! Great idea for placemats or hot pads. I made a pumpkin a number of years ago, it turned out an odd shape, but then pumpkins are not all created equally either. 🙂

      As far as posting a pic, there are instructions on the forum on how to link photos from sites like Flickr. I’ve seen people use a Dropbox link as well. You can email it to me and I’ll post it for you if you like. I’d like to see them.

  4. It did turn out well in the end Marilyn, with eyelashes and all. Halloween has reached Sweden too, so I have plans on felting pumpkins with my girls this weekend. A good use for a large batt of orange that isn’t normally my favorite colour. 😉

  5. Thanks Zara! Have fun with the girls making the pumpkins. I hear you about the orange which is why I was working with unknown fiber. :-). I look forward to seeing your Halloween works.

  6. You pumpkin turned out great. The eye lashes are lovely. We don’t get anyone for Halloween here so we don’t decorate now the kids are grown. In a couple of years we can start decorating for the grandkids. the other thing here is we had to plan the costumes to go over winter coats. the high for Halloween is only 5c/41f.

  7. Thanks Ann! Usually we have nasty weather here as well, rain and cold. But they are predicting 70f for Monday so we had better stock up on treats! I wish my grandkids were close enough to decorate for. Enjoy!

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