Crazy pumpkin update

April 6 was the last time that I showed you measly progress on my crazy pumpkin. I swore then that I would step up my stitching so that I could complete my pumpkin along with the rest of my guild in June. Well, the bad news is that it is May and I only have one of six panels done. The good news is I HAVE A PANEL DONE! So let's take a look.

 

Here is the whole panel. It measures about 18.5" x 9", including some fabric for trimming. I did not use a single one of the pattern motifs. I think that was laziness--I just didn't feel like tracing them! You can see that I have been using EdMar Brazilian threads, and I think the sheen looks great with the rich fabrics. I won't use rayon on everything, but I'm glad I did here. Since this is a stash busting project, it just made sense. Now let's look more closely.

 

I think that this is my favorite block. The spider is simply made up of a large round bead and two small beads plus some couched threads, but he looks scary--and the bead changes from brown to red depending on how the light hits him, which is even scarier. The web is couched threads and straight stitches.

 

The moon and stars were a late night inspiration. I didn't want another outline, but neither did I want to spend a long time stitching a motif, so I appliquéd the felt moon and put some straight stitch stars in the sky. I like him.

 

My coffee cup was done the last time we looked at this project, but up close you can see the woven detached chain stitches. So easy and so cute! You can also tell that my cats have been sleeping on this project. I'm not sure how I will get all the hair out, but it is fruitless to try until it is sewn up.

 

At our last pumpkin class, we all tried to think of scary, fall motifs for our pumpkins. That is when I thought of the owl eyes. The eye balls are actually made out of the same beads as the spider with little gold bead irises. The seam stitch is button hole with lazy daisy stitches, beads, and detached buttonhole along the base. The daffodils are woven pickets--something I always wanted to try.

 

I've been drawing rabbits like this one since I was in grammar school. My grandfather was an artist. He gave me some tips on how to draw bunny legs and I have been doing the same thing ever since. The bunny is stem stitched with boucle. I LOVE the carrot seam done with straight stitches and drizzles. It was another late night inspiration. The other seam is scalloped buttonhole chain stitch. See Mary Corbet's excellent tutorial on this stitch!

 

So, one panel done, five more to go. At least there is only one more crazy panel. Three panels each have all over motifs and the sixth is patchwork block. I won't finish by June, but I will keep plugging away. I am getting excited about finishing so that I can plan a real crazy quilt!

 

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