Halloween Lite

Some people really get into Halloween, but I have to say that I'm not one of them. I love autumn and the changing leaves and pulling on my sweaters after a long, hot summer, but I've never been that much into getting dressed up or decorating for it. I like a little bit but am not into the ghoulish side of things.

So I was a little surprised when I found myself looking at a 'Halloweenish' table topper on Pinterest by Buttermilk Basin - it's sort of Halloween, but I'm calling it Halloween Lite.

I'm on a kick to get my Holly Bazaar sewing done early, and hopefully a few things for the Madonna House Christmas Shop, so I've been trolling my Pinterest Table Runners board for ideas. Last year's square format were a big hit and seemingly flew off the shelves, so I started there.

This pattern is one of Bonnie Hunter's Leaders and Enders projects - Lozenges. Follow her tutorial - it has great hints on trimming and pressing so that all of the seams are nicely nested when you put the blocks together (though you have to pay attention - there were a few rip outs and repressses!). That said, it's a fun one to sew.

Her idea of laying a block out to remind yourself of the order that seams are pressed makes all the difference.

I didn't mark my small squares, I used a strip of painter's tape as my guide and it worked really well and sped things up nicely.

I've cut enough lozenges for four table toppers and now have two centre panels together in slightly different colour schemes - they still need a couple of borders. I made the green one above first and used only two black and cream prints for the little pinwheels, but for this gold version I used a much more scrappy selection of black and cream.

I like them both so maybe I'll do one more of each for the remaining two. I'm thinking that one of these might just stay with me rather than making them all to charity....M