Boo!

Having just received a nastygram from our HOA for putting up outdoor Halloween decorations a couple of days too early, The Man decided we should also deck out the living room with paraphernalia related to his favorite holiday. I know this isn't Avlea sanctioned stitching, but thought it was fun anyhow. This is the sort of thing I used to do before I decided to invest my stitching energy in things that are useful.

I believe these are both designs by Jody Rice (Satsuma Street) that I stitched when we first all went into lockdown. I hadn't stitched anything in decades, so these were a fun way to get back into stitching and they kept me from going stark raving mad about not being able to do "normal" things. The only change I made to the one with the cats was to add a gold buckle (metallic floss) to the mama kitty's hat. I even ordered the exact linen and all the flosses that were suggested by the designer. The one on the right suffers from not using one single color of floss that was specified, changing the color of the linen, and making several small design changes. I used neon polyester floss (which seems like it shouldn't even be legal), but I really liked the effect of it on the very old and odd purple-ish linen I had that was super stiff and crispy and didn't seem to want to go with anything. This proved to me that I could use ugly linen and weird floss and still have a good time. I also taught myself how to frame needlework, which is a lot harder than I imagined it would be. So that felt like a win.

Here'a another piece from my Jody Rice period. I had some crispy crazy orange linen on hand and flosses that were not even close to the ones used in the chart. But it was lockdown time, and there was no going out and getting stuff. So it got stitched like this.

This was specifically requested by The Man. It's called "The Queen that Was." I had dragged him into a needlework shop when things opened up again and he found the chart, gave me the LOOK, and declared that I should stitch her for him. In front of a buncha ladies that totally egged him on. Yes, he did that. You may not be able to see this on your monitor, but she has a gold crown and a gold tooth. I completely changed the colors so I could use up some overdyed flosses I had on hand. The Man chose the linen and the frame. I think of this design as appropriate for Halloween, but he likes to drag her about year round and perch her anywhere that reminds him to laugh. He seems to like her quite a bit. And I like to hear him laugh.

If anyone has any Halloween stitching projects, I'd love to see what you made.