A Cross Stitch Halloweeny Finish, in time for Halloween!

Hey everyone, here we are on the 31st of October, the spookiest night of the year. Hope all the Halloween preparations are done, for those who celebrate it. We will be having some friends up this evening to watch some cheesy horror movies and munch on junk food. What are your plans, spooky or otherwise? Let us know in the comments below.

Well seeing as it is Halloween I have an appropriate cross stitched ornament to show off. You might remember this from my previous post here. It's a super cute freebie from Durene Jones, and I decided I would make it into a cute hanging ornament to be the first of, hopefully, many Halloween decorations.

Durene Jones Halloween Freebie - Available here

The first step was to look through my fabrics and pick out something for the backing that would match the cross stitch. I have a selection of 4" and 5" square pieces for quilting, I bought on Ebay just for this purpose. These small pieces are perfect for cross stitched ornaments as there is a large selection of colours and patterns included for a very reasonable price. This way I don't have to store a ridiculous amount of fabric, but still have lots to choose from for small finishes. I also have the option of stitching a few together if I need a slightly larger piece for a bigger project.

A thorough search through my collection later, and I had a combination of pieces I thought would go great with my Halloween Cat. I was torn between purples and oranges but in the end orange won the day.

Halloween Cat Ornament Preparation

The next step was to make up the back panel using the three squares I had chosen. I calculated how large I would need each piece to be, including the seam allowance, so that it would be the right size. Off I went with rotary cutter and mat, cut the three pieces and stitched them together.

The back panel stitched from 3 pieces of fabric

All that was left was to choose a matching ribbon. I decided to go with purple rather than orange as it gave the piece a bit of contrast. Once it had all been assembled correctly it went through the sewing machine. As is typical with me I didn't leave a very large opening to turn it the right way and stuff it with the polyester filling but I managed it, with some difficulty. I closed with an invisible ladder stitch, and I now am the proud owner of my first Halloween cross stitch decoration.

The Finished Ornament. How Cute is that?!?

I am delighted with this and it is now hanging up above the TV. If you like this cute Halloween Cat make sure you head over to Mii's blog and check out how she finished this piece off as an awesome cube, you can find it here.

Hope everyone has a great Halloween night, enjoy and stay safe.