Creative Leisure

Woman Reading

By Thomas Benjamin Kennington

English 1856-1916

I have taken a few hours each day to do something other than house keeping. During a visit to the TJ Max discount store, I enjoyed looking at all the plastic and glass pumpkins with beaded and sequined textures, in copper, green silver, iridescent purples and pinks.

It seems it was only a short time ago that critics were making sport of the handmade glittery pumpkin crafts on creative blogs, and now I see there are many cloth and paper pumkin decorations in the market. I saw several fabric plaid ones in autum color combinations. Inspired by the brightness of what I saw, I set about to make some soft pumpkins for the season for my home.

These make soft, decorative cushions for an autumn bed. After gathering the fabric with the stuffing, I tied circles around it in four to six sections to make it like the fairytale pumpkins. I did not see fairytale pumpkins or pink pumpkins at the local market this year, as in the past.

 

These cloth pumpkins that look like chenille fabric or ball-fringe, are made of the modern fabric called Minky, which comes in many wonderful colors.

The stems are made with a thick glitter ribbon, which is nestled inside the pumpkin before the thread is pulled up.

I used some shimmery fabric to cover over the fabric, for a couple of the pumpkins.

 

The pumpkin pattern is a large circle of fabric, made by tracing around a big mixing bowl or pizza pan or pizza cardboard. The fabric is then gathered around the outside edge using long stitches, by hand, and then pulled to gather slightly so that you can insert polyester stuffing. Then, pull the thread tightly and fasten. It is best to double your thread before sewing.

 

They look good displayed in a china cabinet or fireplace mantel, or a shelf, and, if you have no small children, they can be put on the floor in front of the fireplace or underneath an entry table. Check out some of the blogs and follow links to other creative pumpkins this year.

Here is a previous post I did on sewing pumpkins http://homeliving.blogspot.com/2010/10/simple-sewing-pretty-pumpkins.html

These two pink cloth pumpkins have stems made of rolled brown paper.

To tie the pumpkin into sections. Cut a long length string or crochet cotton and tie once, pulling it tightly across half the pumpkin. Then tie again the opposite way, repeating until there are 6 to 8 sections.

 

I wanted to show, above, the long stitches for gathering.

And here is a post with a pattern for a paper pumpkin which also shows how to make cloth pumpkins and card http://homeliving.blogspot.com/2010/10/autumn-paper-crafts.html

 

 

This candelabra came from Home Interiors about 30 years ago and over the years has been painted different colors.

 

Reading the Letter

I also want to share a few of my favorite pictures from the September 1993 Victoria magazine.

 

Also, I went to Dollar Tree and bought this woven tapestry placemat because I wanted to try it out at home and see if I liked it well enough to get more. It only cost a dollar, so if I decide that it isn't for me, I will use it as a runner for the top of an end table or something else. There were several other colors and prints to choose from at Dollar Tree.

The last of the summer flowers, still growing in these old boots.

 

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