It's time to sew for Halloween!

How frightfully fun is that?!

It's the time of year where we can just let our imagination and creativity run wild with some fun creations.  Some come out seriously beautiful and others come out quirky and whimsical and sometimes just plain silly.

Back in the day...I didn't much use my imagination.  I looked for books and patterns to use.  And I pretty much had to like the whole thing at the prices of patterns and books.  Now I use at least some imagination...for instance, this spooky pumpkin patch comes from several sources.  The woven background is from a book, the pumpkin is from an applique pattern, the twisted pumpkin vine and quilt label came from my imagination, the crows came from a rubber stamp.

So I'm looking at books and patterns completely different now than I did "back in the day".  I see bits and pieces of ideas rather than the whole of what is presented.  And, as you can see, those bits and pieces come from everywhere!

It's Halloween Mug Rug Swap time on Flickr!

My favorite swap time.

We are assigned secret partners who give us an indication of what types of things they like and dislike and we then create from there.  I've been pretty lucky with partners for one of the rules is that the mug rug has to be fashioned to their likes.  This is the one rule that I don't get along very well with because if I want to receive in a swap something that I'd make for myself, well then, why don't I just make it myself?  In a swap I want to receive something that my partner wants to make and I want it to tell me something about that person and their creative soul.  (Well don't I just feel better about airing that in public)  In any case, we then get to post sneak peeks as we create...

Carol says "no sneak peeks!" that that's just for the doll quilt swap.  Ok, so maybe we could call them progress peeks.  Either way, if you go check out the Scrappy Mug Rug Swap you'll see that Carol has been out-voted in favor of sneak peeks.  Sorry Carol.  They're just too fun not to do them.  My partner's mug rug is finished now and waiting to be mailed.

We can include bits of goodies if we so desire...like candy, fabric pieces, stickers, whatever we find that we might like to send.  Only the mug rug is mandatory but extra little goodies are just fun to include.  It seems to have become my signature thing to include a fabric postcard.  And...

It's Halloween fabric postcard swap time on Flickr too!

Check out this Fabric Postcard Swap.  Although it's too late to join in for Halloween and Fall, you could be getting ready for Christmas...I would think there will be another round for the holidays.   

So I have two postcards ready to send.  I can't say who gets which yet.  And, I just might make one or two more before it's time to send them...just to keep my partner wondering what she'll get...since the postcard swap is not a secret partner swap at this point.

For myself, I'm enjoying my Halloween quilt that I made last year.

Those gorgeous pumpkins were made for me by a wonderful friend.

Have a frightfully good fun time preparing for the onslaught of ghouls that are sure to come soon!

Annie