Ghastlies Reversible Place Mats

I had a little time this weekend to work on a project and so I went for these. They are incredibly easy to make and useful. So, they are a good project when you are short on time. I had been wanting to use this adorable fabric, The Ghastlies by Alexander Henrey. It came out last year, but you can still find it online in a few shops.

I made these reversible so that I could use these all year (per Adam's recommendation. He doesn't like to have a lot of stuff in a box that you only get out once a year. A good point.)

The Stuff
1 yard fabric for front or 4 fat quarters
1 yard fabric for back or 4 fat quarters
2 yards Peltex #70 by Pellon
any embelishments you like (I used Ric Rac, 1 pkg for each mat, 4 total)

The How-To:
Cut fabric for the front and back of mats 19"x14" (or 1" squared larger than you want the finished product to be).
Cut #70 into 4 pieces 18"x13"

Make sure you wash the fabric before you begin. This is important for place mats because you will almost definitely need to wash them later and the fabric will shrink and make the place mats wonky.
Place a front and back piece right sides together and sew around with a 1/2" seam allowance, leaving an 8" opening for inserting the Peltex pieces. Turn right sides out. To insert Peltex, roll up and insert, then flatten and work into corners. Sew the opening closed. Because the Peltex will roll a bit from being bound in a bolt, iron the mats with a steam iron and they flatten out in seconds.
To give the finishing touch, sew a 1/4" seam allowance around the mats. If you are using Ric Rac, attach it at this point.

this is based on a pattern from Amy Butler's In Stitches

A Hoot!

Sorry it's been awhile since I've posted anything...we've been so busy!!! A tiny sliver of that busy-ness was making my baby girl's first Halloween costume. I used this pattern from Martha Stewart. The pattern calls for regular white felt for the front "feathers" but there was some fuzzy white felt on the shelf with the regular stuff and I thought fuzzy would be more fun. Also, if you go to the link and look at the picture of the baby wearing the costume, you'll see that that baby seems perfectly happy wearing those goggles. Marian resisted them at all costs. There was screaming, pushing, and even tears. So I didn't push it.

My husband and I wanted to keep our costumes low key, so we figured we'd go thematic. A few felt leaves stitched to headbands and gloves, a little bird's nest with a few eggs in it, color-appropriate clothing, and we were all set. Easy, and nothing spectacular.





Disclaimer: the lighting wasn't working for us when we were taking these pictures, and so they suck.

Halloween Party - Malone Style!

Adam and I (above) hosted a Halloween party at our house this year. I wanted to share the costumes and some of the ideas. We got our pictures from the favorite children's book Where the Wild Things Are. I am Max in my wolf suit and Adam is a wild thing! I got the tutorials for our headdresses (i coulsn't think of a better word! hats?) here: Max, Wild Thing
Chris Brown (above)won a prize for most creative costume. He was a bacon eating robot. Kallan and Joseph (she has already posted their costumes) won best couple. Adam won best overall. It was really hard to vote because there were such great costumes.



Steve and Kalina Broadbent pulled this off nicely!
This is my little nephew - what a charming and short vampire!
My bushy tail and my witchy-witch of a sister Candace!
Megan looks Awesome!





Bosc pears with skull name tags for guests to take on their way out.
Megan Hicks made this pumpkin look easy to make - I don't know how she did it but it was AWESOME!

I did not take any photos, so I am at the mercy of Kalina (the official photographer of the evening) to share hers. She is posting them little by little as she has time to work on them here, if you want to check them out.