Halloween Hotties

I generally procrastinate about doing anything until I really really have to!  It's not that I'm lazy, it's that I spend hours and hours deliberating about how I'm going to create something, and then, before I know it, it's time to get my A into G.  And that is really when the creative juices get flowing!

Which is where I found myself this week.  Sorta procrastinating, but feeling creatively witchy.

It's only 20 days to Halloween and I still haven't got anything done that I wanted to do this year.  So, I'm putting a bunch of mug rugs together with a spooky flavour and I'll use these on the table outside with some orange candles and a plastic pumpkin or two.

In South Africa, we don't really do the Trick or Treat thing.  This has only become popular over the last couple of years, but where I live we don't have many children knocking on the door.  So, instead, we will have a party where our friends will be asked to dress up.

Here's a pic of what I looked like dressed up as a witch a couple of years ago!  Even Mozart, my darling 19 year old boy (who is now in kitty heaven), obliged to being a witches cat for the day.

The end of October is soooooo hot in South Africa that, instead of pumpkin soup, I will make a gazpacho.

Back to the mug rug thing...


Mug rugs are all the rave at the moment and they are ideal to use up bits of fabric tucked away in your stash.  There is some debate on the right size a mug rug should be.  I've made them to fit the hoop on my embroidery machine, so these ones end up at 6"x8".  I figure any bigger, the cookies and cakes will get bigger too and I'll just get fatter!

I embroidered a couple of Halloweeny Things some years ago and decided they needed resurrecting (ha ha, that's funny)I converted them into in the hoop embroidered and appliqued mug rugs which you can get the designs for here.

The only thing not done in the hoop is the final binding.  I still like a finished edge, so I made up some constrasting binding with my snazzy automatic I-don't-have-stress Simplicity Bias Binding Maker and stitched it on with my sewing machine.

There are four designs in the set.  Each one is made differently to the other so that they are quite unique and no one will argue about which belongs to whom!  I can't decide which is my favorite.

So if you would like to see the In The Hoop Halloweeny Things Mug Rugs, please click here and then, once you've made them, send me a pic to share please!

Hope you have a great week stitching!
Love from Sunny South Africa,
Trisch