a last minute Halloween pennant

Are you ready for Halloween?

I wasn't until a few days ago...

I had set up the front porch with pumpkins

and this cool pillow,

but nothing inside...

But with the addition of these pennants,

I feel ready!

I followed this tutorial from Diary of a Quilter

and sewed the pennants pretty fast,

using left over fabric from my Halloween pillow:

a mix of orange and Halloween prints (recent and quite old, I am a collector!)

and some black bias binding.

The brick fireplace seemed like the perfect corner to set up

a little Halloween vignette:

It seemed a little too early to start a fire,

so instead I light some candles.

I am more of battery candles for safety reason,

but I feel quite comfortable lighting really candles in the fireplace!

Of course a little scary literature, a hot drink in a caldron mug

and a warm blanket make for the perfect evening!

Unless you lose your spot to the dog!

Bosco is a big fan of my Tartan blanket.....

Happy Halloween!

apple embroidered pillow

I finished my apple embroidered pillow in time!

I was getting concerned that I was not going to make it!

Well I knew I would finish it,but in time to go to the park to take pictures,that was less certain!

with French cidre (from Normandie, not Bretagne... but yeah cider!),

apples and harvest cake.

The cross stitched pattern from Madame La Fee

was long but not too difficult,

with the proper glasses!

I must admit I was looking forward to have it complete!

I was able to find in my "collection" the perfect print:

a thimbleberries apple print from 2004!

I remember buying it when Miss C. was a tiny baby!

I used the print to frame the embroidery (a little too small for a pillow)

and for the back.

Then Mon Cheri and I went to the park to take pictures....

with pillow, blanket, cake and cider!

I think people look at us a little funny,

since there is a no picnic policy right now!

Luckily the pictures turned out really nice,

and we had a nice walk around the pound.

Cakes like to go on walks too!😜

Happy day!

the fall outdoor cocktail hour

What to do when you dream of travelling and you have to stay home?

You try to recreate the scene of the travel of course!

I recently saw this cool pic on IG of an "impromptu" fall picnic 

in the English Countryside:

(Photography: @hope_and_wander)

and it was simply lovely.

As I was sharing this with one of my girlfriends,

she dared me to recreate it our backyard!

I had to change the narrative from impromptu fall picnic during car ride

to fall cocktail in the "woods".

It required grabbing planters, pumpkins from the front porch,

and blankets from different rooms to the backyard

and set it all together....

The final ingredient was the cocktail,

 I found the perfect one: apple cider Manhattan from Inspired by charm

Originally I was concerned it was too sweet with the maple syrup,

but it was just right.

We have made it 4 or 5 times, a new favorite!

2 oz bourbon, 0.5 oz sweet vermouth, 1.5 oz apple cider, 0.5 oz maple syrup,

2 dashes of bitter (orange which I do not have) and a cherry, of course!

I quickly prepared a little appetizer,

to help absorb the alcohol...

some thinly sliced baguette with a little fresh goat cheese

and herbes de Provence, toasted in the oven...perfection!

Somebody decided that they smelled too goodto let them sit outside....

so Lou ate them all!🙈
At least we enjoyed the cocktail and the setting!
Happy day!

a large Halloween pillow

While I should have been working on my apple embroidery,

I decided to sew a large Halloween pillow:

a patchwork of many prints, I seem to collect fat quarters of Halloween fabric, 

and never do anything with them!

There are a few years worth of fabric in this pillow....

There are a mix of dogs, cats, pumpkins, witches....
I wanted to make something not too complicated,so I made it the same way I made a "I spy" quilt many years ago.

To modernize it a little, I supersized the hexagon,perfect for all the images,those kitties are so perfect for that!

I had to do a little math (or more exactly trial and error...)

to find the right size triangles,

but once I had the size down, it was quite fast and easy to cut them

on a strip of fabric, just angled the rule at 60 degrees.

Each hexagon gets 2 triangles in opposite corners, like so:

 I sewed them into a row of 5 hexagons,

then I sewed the rows into a "square".

I ironed it on some fusible fleece:

I simply quilted 1/8th from the seams, on both sides,

very discreetly!

My pillow insert is 26 x 26, so I cut the square at that size,

I cut the back a little longer to sew in a zipper.

After attaching the zipper, I stitched wrong side together,

and sewed the binding around

The binding adds some framing to the pillow.
And it looks perfect on my fall front porchwith all the pumpkins!

Happy sewing!