Everyone got enough supplies to make two skulls. Suki taught the class and she is so great. There are two big tables in the classroom and everyone sat around talking and laughing while they stitched. It was a lot of fun.

Mom was so excited with her skulls that she decided to make a pumpkin when we got home. It turned out really cute.

Mom suggested making lots of small ornaments and having a Halloween tree. Sounds like a great idea to me! Collage also has a store on SE Woodstock now and they also do $5 Fridays. You can check out their class schedule on the link above. This coming Friday is Scrabble Tile Pendants. Sounds too good to pass up. See you there!

I found the instructions for making it on “thecraftingchicks.” I’m not sure how I found their site but they have lots of fun craft ideas. I loved the spooky banner because it’s paper. I have lots of Halloween quilts, and decorations made from paper mache or wood but nothing made from paper.

You use the pages of an old book for the layer under the glittery letters. I really liked that. I cut all the letters myself out of chip board because I couldn’t find the size I wanted in the stores. I wouldn’t recommend that. It was surprisingly difficult and the tip of my finger is still numb! But I got what I wanted so there you go.

This is a small Halloween quilt I think I finished last year. Vivienne paper pieced it and put the top together and I quilted and bound it. Looks great in the living room. Thanks Viv!

Amazingly, the man who hit the car stopped and gave our neighbor all his information; license, registration, insurance info and phone number. We live down the hill from a very big curve that is banked wierd and we’ve had at least 10 accidents on this street since we’ve lived here. Most are hit and run. It renews my faith in the basic goodness of mankind that this man chose to stop.

So I’ve been dealing with insurance people and mechanics and everything is moving along well. It’s just taken time away from more enjoyable pursuits.

Thursday was knitting day and everyone came over to my house this time. I love having people over in October because the house is all decorated for Halloween. You KNOW how much I love Halloween. I’ve posted lots of pictures of Halloween decorations in previous years but here is a new one.

This haunted village was a kit from Martha Stewart. I got it a couple of years ago and finally finished it last fall. It’s up on the dresser in the guest room and I love how it looks with the light coming in from the side.

Whenever we meet for knitting, everyone brings food. In honor of Halloween, Jeanne brought these great cupcakes and cookies. Aren’t they awesome?!

Jeanne’s daughter made the cupcakes and they were delicious. The cookies are basic sugar cookies formed in a finger shape, and the fingernail is a sliced almond painted with food coloring. They so make me smile.

And finally, Lynda is taking a class at Holly Hill Quilt Shop called Wednesday Woolies. They make small projects out of wool. This past Wednesday, they made these two cute things and Lynda stayed up late that night finishing them so she could bring them to put on our table.

She says she’s going to stain the stands because they look too new, she just didn’t get to it yet.

I’ve been working on a couple of new things for Halloween but nothing is quite finished. The stitchery is almost done. Probably just an hour of work and I’ll be done with the last embroidered block. I’ve been sewing the nine patches that go in between the blocks and they should be finished tomorrow. Maybe I’ll get the top done by the 31st but it definitely won’t be quilted until next year.

I should have a couple of smaller projects to show next week. Coffins and skulls and a spooky banner. Wait and see!

The other Halloween thing I finished this year was actually made in the spring. This was a little experiment of mine and I can’t remember if I ever blogged about it. It just needed to have the edges finished and then be framed. I used Terry Grants method for finishing the edges and I love the results. You can find the tutorial here. The frame was one I had lying around the house. I cut a piece of thicker, white paper for the background and then discreetly tacked the piece onto the paper in each corner. Voila! Done.

It turned out I had everything I needed right here and could just whip up the front. I love it when that happens. Now I need to put the bag together, but it will have to wait a week or two until I can rotary cut again. I guess I could cut out the pieces with scissors. Hum, how to cut out an accurate rectangle without a rotary cutter and a ruler? Surely I can remember how!

I’ve finished the four smaller blocks that are on the sides:

And I’ve almost finished the big one in the center

I was hoping the get this done by Halloween this year but I don’t think that’s going to happen. I’m going to keep at it though so next year I won’t work myself silly the month before Halloween trying to finish it. My goal is to finish by the end of 2010. I think that’s reasonable!

This October I haven’t posted a single Fall or Halloween entry. So here it comes. This is the beautiful Japanese Maple right near our front door. It had been doing poorly the last couple of years and didn’t really change color. A friend helped me prune it this spring. We cut off the diseased limb and wow, it is doing so much better. Look at this fabulous color:

I put out lots of Halloween decorations but I always change it up a bit each year. Here is my pumpkin head collection.

The picture on the wall was my treat to myself when I taught in Sisters this summer. The artist is Barbara Berry and she lives in Central Oregon. This painting takes me into the woods. It makes me happy to look at it every morning.

(Click on the picture to see a bigger version of it.)

Happy Halloween everyone, from Lee and the rest of goblins at Polkadot Central!

Hope all your ghosts, ghouls, goblins and witches are ready!