Pumpkin Quilt Block Tutorial

Step 1:

Cut one 6" x 5.25" rectangle from orange material

Cut one 1.25" x 1.5" brown rectangle

Cut two 2.75" x 1.25" rectangles from background material

Cut four 1.5" squares

Step 2: With right sides together, sew a background square to each corner of the orange rectangle. Sew each diagonally from corner to corner, beginning and ending at the raw edges of the orange material. Set aside.

Step 3: With right sides together, line a background rectangle up with the brown rectangle. Sew down the short side where they are lined up. The seam allowance is one quarter of an inch, or the edge of your presser foot. Open it up, match the other rectangle to the brown rectangle and sew again. Step 4: Iron all seams open. So far your two pieces should look like this.

Step 5: With right sides together, line up the raw edges of the pumpkin body and trunk piece. The lengths will only match on two edges, since the pumpkin isn't square. Either of the two edges will work, just make sure the two lengths line up right.

Step 6: Sew down the length of the edge where the trunk and pumpkin pieces are lined up. Iron it open. Your pumpkin block is now complete. It should make a 6 inch square. You can now finish it how you want. I machine quilted mine with metalic thread and made a hot pad out of it. Now that you've made one you can experiment with other sizes. You can make short round pumpkins or tall skinny pumpkins. Make pillows, quilts, table runners, what ever you want. Sorry I made this one a weird size, since most quilt blocks end up being 6.5" to account for seam allowance. Oh well, you get the drift of how to make it.

Leaf Garland

Fall is by far one of my favorite times of year. Except for Christmas, autumn is the only time of year that I really decorate for. Here is a fast and simple idea. Buy a bag of fabric leaves in fall colors. I have seen these at Wal-mart, dollar stores, and craft stores. Usually they are about $1 for 100 leaves or so. I really love to decorate with these during fall. I put them on window ledges, attach magnets to the back and hang them on the fridge, etc. This time I sewed a continuous stream of leaves by attaching corners of the leaves at different angles. Just keep sewing until your garland is as long as you want it to be. I strung it across a wall to make a nice accent. I really don't like the leaves I used, but they were all I could find when I did it. I'd prefer solid colors of dark red and brown instead of firey orange and bright red. Oh well, you get the point.

Dryer Hose Pumpkins

Since fall is approaching and since every other item on here is baby related, I decided I should include this post. I can't remember where I saw this idea, but it was a long time ago. I finally got around to making them last fall. You'll need some craft wire, orange spray paint, 1" diameter driftwood for the stems, some silk flower leaves, and flexible dryer hose. If I remember correctly, 12 feet of hose made three pumpkins, but I might be wrong. I prefer the vinyl kind. I think the foil looking type tends to be more wrinkly.

The instructions: Stretch the dryer hose on one side so that it makes a tight circle. I'm not sure how else to explain it, but you should understand what I mean by looking at the picture and playing with the hose yourself. Cut it slightly longer than where it meets to make a tight circle. Fasten the ends together with some craft wire. You'll have to poke some holes for the wire to go through, then wrap the wire around the wires inside the hose. Then spray paint the circle orange. When the paint is dry use hot glue to attach your stem and leaves. The stem should fit snugly in the hole created, but I still glue it, then glue leaves around it. It's pretty simple and cheap.