Some Early Autumn Fun

With all the crazy hot summer weather we've had in Northern California, I'm soooo looking forward to fall!  Acorns are starting to fall from the oak trees in the area, and some of the first Chinese pistache trees are turning red and gold.  So I got into the early autumn mood and stitched up some fun HALLOWEEN ORNAMENTS:

Well, they're a little larger than ornaments - 5" x 5" on 18 ct canvas - but they make cute little squares that I'm planning to hang around the house or maybe insert one in an accent pillow.  You could also stitch them in a long row, to create a festive banner, or stitch all four of them on one piece of canvas as a combined pillow top. 

As you can see in the photo above, I stitched two of the designs on orange canvas and two of them on the old-fashioned looking brown canvas; but you can stitch them up on any color canvas you want.  Zweigart no longer makes the lavender-colored canvas, but if you can find a piece of it, they would certainly be fun to stitch on that, as well.

I used Watercolours 231 - "Ethiopia" for my foundation variegated thread (it has a great mix of orange, purple and pink) with a handful of #5pearl cotton solid colors, plus some zingy metallics.
And the pattern includes a bead pack of gold and dark rainbow seed beads, that you can use interchangeably around the borders.  Oh, and for an optional thread, I used a bit of black Fuzzy Stuff for the black cat's tail!!  Here's a close- up look:

And honestly, they were all a blast to stitch - especially since I used four different colorful borders and ribbon edges to keep the stitching interesting.  Actually, they are ALL fun to stitch, and they offer so many opportunities for extra fun embellishments -- such as adding Halloween ceramic beads, charms, or buttons.... What a fun way to show off those cute little Halloween buttons so everyone can enjoy them!  (Or if you're a real Halloween enthusiast, you can stitch them on black canvas with glow-in-the-dark threads!!)

So if you're itchin' to get started on some Halloween stitchin', mosey on over to my website and check out my new HALLOWEEN ORNAMENTS pattern.  And I hope you all enjoy the long last weekend of Summer with good friends, good food, and good stitching!