Pumpkin Beer Collage

This project was a fun start to seasonal crafting. As a typical New England girl, as soon as it was cool enough to put jeans on I headed to Starbucks and got myself a pumpkin latte (though I'm a DD's girl  at heart) on my way to the liquor store to get some pumpkin beer to drink while watching reruns of Hocus Pocus. Basic. My husband is cringing as he reads this. I just pulled out my riding boots and flannel shirts. FALL IS HERE!!!

Anyways, this easy little project sprung from a need for seasonal decorations for our new-ish house and a large blank spot on our wall. I noticed some cute, overpriced pillows in the Fall Pottery Barn magazine with a pretty watercolor pumpkin on them and thought of painting a similar pumpkin... psh. Not likely to go well. But I did have some pumpkin beer cartons lying around that I'd been saving (cause that's what crafters do) waiting for a cause. Hence a collage was born... and an awesome, just-as-fun-as-when-you-were-little, but-actually-good-enough-to-put-on-the-wall one at that.

 

What you will Need:
- poster board (whatever color you want)
- pumpkin beer cartons - at least one per pumpkin wedge
- glue stick
- scissors

1. Drink lots of beer. I started nice and early, avoiding eye contact with the judging glares I got at the start of September when I was already buying the first batches of pumpkin beer. Lucky for you, it’s well into pumpkin beer season now. So stock up and get your husband to help and you can have a great weekend kicking off Fall.

2. Sketch a pumpkin on your poster board with pencil. It doesn't have to be perfect. Pumpkins are not perfect. They are lumping and asymmetrical. I looked at a picture of a basic pumpkin drawing on my phone while I sketched it out. Make sure to include some fat wedges. I like a plump pumpkin :)

3. Cut up some boxes. Leave as many whole pictures and words and phrases that you can. Cut the sides off the insides and put the insides aside (woah). You won't need them.

4. Collage your pumpkin. I chose to collage each wedge, but feel free to do whatever your heart desires. You can collage the whole thing together or even make a jack-o-lantern if you want!

5. Make a stem out of your scraps -- I flipped mine over and made it out if plain cardboard.

6. Hang it up! I used command strips because I'd like to use it again next year and didn't want to put a nail in the wall.

 

Happy Fall, my pumpkin loving friends!
Cheers,
Bridget
XOXO

Halloween Quilted Table Runner

I am so excited to share this post with you guys… this was my FIRST TIME quilting. Gotta tell ya, I was super intimidated. In fact, I was considering taking a class before even attempting to quilt… I mean, this is the major leagues of sewing, right? Well, that’s what I thought, anyways. Turns out, it’s not that hard.

I found a lot of inspiration on Pinterest for different styles of table runners, but I decided to start simple and go with strips. I tend to gravitate towards simpler design choices anyways, so I knew I wouldn’t mind looking at it for a long time.

One of my favorite parts of making this table runner? Coordinating fabrics! I literally filled an entire cart full of bolts of fabric trying to find my favorites to put together. You don’t need a ton of fabric, but a good variety makes it more interesting.

What You Will Need:
- Fabric: use this as a stash buster, or go to the store and find 5-6 coordinating fabrics (or just fabrics you like together – be creative). You don’t need much; maybe a 3/8 yard each and you’ll have some left over.
- Fabric for the back of the runner 1 yard
- Batting: I used Pellon Fusible Fleece 987F – I had some already, but use whatever you prefer, just not anything too heavy.
- Quilt Binding
- The Usual Suspects: thread in a coordinating color, sewing machine, iron

Halloween Quilted Table Runner

1. First things first: clean up your fabric, cut off the selvedge, press. I don’t bother pre-washing my fabrics.

2. Cut strips of your different fabrics. Make them all the same length, but vary the width for each strip. I chose to make my runner 20” wide. Length depends on your table and preference.

3. Organize your strips by laying them out and picking an order that you like. Once you like your layout, stack the fabric strips, keeping the order that you want them sewn.

4. Start sewing! With right sides together, line up one edge of these strips and sew a 1/4” seam.

5. Press open the seam.

6. Now add on to your sewn strips with another strip and keep going in that order – sew, press seam open, sew, press seam open. I sewed half of the runner at a time so it was easier to manage with the sewing machine – less bulk to move around. Then I sewed the two halves together when I finished both.

7. Cut your back fabric to match your runner length and width, as well as your batting. Make a batting sandwich. Pin together.

8. Press your batting sandwich.

9. Starting in the middle of your runner, start quilting. This is a ton of fun. You can do anything you want, but I did parallel seams and made them totally random. This is my favorite part. All of a sudden, it seriously looks professional and finished. It like, transforms… I’m not even kidding.

 
I rolled each end of the runner so it was easier to manage while I sewed. Also, please ignore the mess haha

10. Press your table runner. Clean up your edges so they are squared and clean. Pin on your binding. Don’t forget to miter your corners. I also sewed the two ends of my binding together and pressed open the seam for a clean finish.

 

11. Sew your binding in place. DONE!

Jump up and down and celebrate and show everyone on Facebook and Instagram how awesome you are. :)

Literally, it looks awesome. I’m not trying to brag, but I was so flipping surprised at how easy it was to get to the finished product. The whole time I was waiting for the moment where I shrugged in defeat and said “well, I’m a beginner, it’s not going to look perfect”. And that moment never happened. That means you can do it too.

Please comment if you have questions and if you make one! I love to see your hard work!

Happy Halloween!
Cheers,
Bridge, XOXO