Hello all, Mary Ellen here.

If you still haven’t made a cute Halloween decoration for your front door, here’s a free pattern to have a look at. It’s from the Bernina blog but of course any machine will do. With the time crunch til the holiday, I’d offer some suggestions to speed this up. Instead of making the quilt sandwich as they describe it, try using one or two layers of craft felt. I’m guessing that at this time of year, yellow or orange felt is available by the yard at the big box craft stores. Felt would eliminate the need for hems on the sides or bottom. I have successfully couched down the “hairy” types of yard that the pattern calls for by using just an open toed embroidery foot with a zigzag stitch, and a stiletto type tool to help guide the yarn. Most of us sewed for years with nothing fancy on the machine (although that doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy all the bells and whistles. Here’s a link to the pattern.

Happy Boo-day!