Lo, Ray, & Me: Thanksgiving Wall Hanging

I've decided to make a wall hanging for every month! Now that it's November 1st, I've already got my Thanksgiving one ready to go. I started with the same background as my Halloween wall hanging

PUMPKIN WALL HANGING

Cut out 35 squares that are 4 1/2 inches by 4 1/2 inches. or to save on wasting cute fabric, I 26 squares and made 3 srips that we 4 1/2 inches high by 12 1/2 inches long.

I then drew my pumpkins on freezer paper, making sure they were big enough to cover up my three middle strips that I didn't want to show.

Cut out your pumpkins and your stems.

After I cut out my pumpkins I added a layer of batting to fluff my pumpkin. Use your freezer paper cut out, pinning it to the batting (don't iron it on!! It will pull and stretch the batting when you take it off). Cut it a little smaller so that it won't poke through when you sew it on.

Now pin the pumpkin onto your background, pin it really , really well so it won't move around. You can use basting spray if you want it really secure.

I zigzag stitched my pumpkins on using my machine, tucking the stems in before sewing the tops of the pumpkins.

I decided that it needed a little something more. I couldn't decide between "Give Thanks" or "Be Thankful". I really wanted to go with "Give Thanks" since it was shorter and therefore less work, but I like "Be Thankful" more. I printed it out from my computer using the font I liked. Cut the letters out, using regular scissors. I left a little around the edges so my letters would be a little fatter, making it easier to sew on.

I pinned the letters to my fabric (I don't know who Ben is, but he fit perfectly on my strip), then cut them out with my sewing scissors.

Now pin them to your fabric

Very, very carefully stitch you letters on with a zigzag

Once I had my letters on, I realized that they blended in a little too well with the rest of my quilt. I decided to stitch an outline around them in black. If I had been smarter, I would have done this when I zigzagged.. So I spent the morning hand stitching (I'm a slow hand stitcher). Next time I will use a more contrasting fabric so I don't have to hand stitch, or I will use a darker thread when I stitch it on.

Once I had the outline around my letters it was time to machine quilt! I wanted my pumpkins to have a different deign and different colored thread (I like to make everything super complicated for myself!). I used a chalk pencil to sketch what I wanted to do, if you look closely you can kind of see.