Restocking the Esty Store

With milagros and religious medal necklaces:

A couple more pairs of bobbin earrings:

I also decided to sell the rest of my embellished Lotería cards:

All Souls

After the candy and fun of Halloween came Mass and prayers for the dead and still more crafting.  I set up a little altar on my mantle where I put various trinkets and icons, to which I added this skull:

It's a papier mache skull which I painted white, and onto which I glued beads, medals, floral doohickeys, and so on.

I had a pair of skull earrings I've worn for years, getting lots of compliments and even a few sales of duplicate pairs, but I finally lost one of them.

The lonely little guy

I found in my stash another identical skull (just one; wonder what happened to that guy's mate) and made a new pair for myself, with glass flower beads this time:

The floral motif is more obvious, but they are heavier, too.

I made white chocolate skulls for Beadboy2's class Halloween party:

Buying ready-made frosting flowers is so much easier than trying to decorate them myself with gels and icings!  I just used a dab of melted chocolate to attach them.  They were a big hit.

St. Gertrude's prayer for the souls in purgatory:

Eternal Father, I offer You the most Precious Blood of Your Divine Son, Jesus, in union with the Masses said throughout the world today, for all the Holy Souls in Purgatory, for all sinners everywhere, for sinners in the universal Church, those in my own home and within my family. Amen. - See more at: http://aleteia.org/2016/11/02/5-ways-to-pray-for-the-holy-souls-in-purgatory/#sthash.m7WWWxJF.dpuf

Eternal Father, I offer you the Most Precious Blood of Your Divine Son, Jesus, in union with the Masses said throughout the world today, for all the Holy Souls in Purgatory, for all sinners everywhere, for sinners in the universal Church, those in my own home and within my family. Amen.

Eternal Father, I offer You the most Precious Blood of Your Divine Son, Jesus, in union with the Masses said throughout the world today, for all the Holy Souls in Purgatory, for all sinners everywhere, for sinners in the universal Church, those in my own home and within my family. Amen. - See more at: http://aleteia.org/2016/11/02/5-ways-to-pray-for-the-holy-souls-in-purgatory/#sthash.m7WWWxJF.dpuf

Eternal Father, I offer You the most Precious Blood of Your Divine Son, Jesus, in union with the Masses said throughout the world today, for all the Holy Souls in Purgatory, for all sinners everywhere, for sinners in the universal Church, those in my own home and within my family. Amen. - See more at: http://aleteia.org/2016/11/02/5-ways-to-pray-for-the-holy-souls-in-purgatory/#sthash.m7WWWxJF.dpuf

Eternal Father, I offer You the most Precious Blood of Your Divine Son, Jesus, in union with the Masses said throughout the world today, for all the Holy Souls in Purgatory, for all sinners everywhere, for sinners in the universal Church, those in my own home and within my family. Amen. - See more at: http://aleteia.org/2016/11/02/5-ways-to-pray-for-the-holy-souls-in-purgatory/#sthash.m7WWWxJF.dpuf

Trick or Treat!

The talented Jo of Serendipitous Stitching is hosting a Trick or Treat blog hop today.  Unfortunately I already showed off my seasonal cross stitching earlier in the month, so all I have is this unfinished Prairie Schooler witch from the 2013 Just Cross Stitch Halloween issue:

But that's not very exciting, so here's a design I finished years ago, "Too Many Treats" by Birds of a Feather:

I don't normally cross stitch such large designs, but I couldn't resist this guy.  This evening my kids will be joining the cat with an over-filled stomach -- one year my middle son got mad at me because I made him stop eating candy, then got mad at me for having let him eat the candy when it upset his stomach, then got mad at me a third time for not letting him eat more once he started feeling better. Fun times.

And now, my assigned letter:

 T

For the next letter, visit Fireflies and Cats in the Garden.  Happy Halloween!

Another Swirly Pumpkin

I decided not to carve a pumpkin this year; instead I painted the stem copper (I will save it once the pumpkin decays) and added swirls to the body.  Because I have not cut into it, I'm hoping it'll last through Thanksgiving.

Halloween Quilting

This wonderful design is from Jedi Craft Girl, although I ended up sketching my own tree.  And for several uninteresting reasons, I also made it a bit smaller.

I was determined to get this up over the mantle by the middle of the month, so that meant machine quilting, never my forte.  After quilting around the tree and cat, I opted to stipple-quilt the background.  On the one hand, it does a great job of making the moon, tree, and cat pop and it adds a lovely texture.  On the other hand, I suck at it, which is frustrating.  Some of it simply has to do with practice -- this part, done towards the beginning, is not great:

The stitches run from tiny to enormous, and there are weird lines and cross-overs where I lost control of the rhythm. But other sections are much better:

But then there is my inability to properly baste a quilt, which leads to unsightly puckering:

And then there is this lovely spot on the back in a corner, the result of trying to rush through before my kids came home, and discovered too late to fix:

Bad for quilting, but kind of a neat effect

Finished is better than perfect, and it's not like I'd ever submit this for judging, but it is still disappointing.  Some things I do very, very well, and others ... not so much.

The Bookshop on the Corner by Jenny Colgan

What a delightful fantasy this book turned out to be! Nina is a librarian who loses her job due to budget cuts.  Impulsively, she buys a large truck, fills it with books rescued from the library, and moves up to a quaint little town in Scotland to drive around selling books to people with no libraries and no book stores.  She falls in love with the land, helps a troubled teen, meets a couple of potential love interests, and wins over the locals by selecting the perfect book for each one.  By the end of the novel, I began seriously consider looking into permit laws and regulations in NYC (it would certainly solve the rent-is-too-damned-high problem for bookstores here.)

The story is told from Nina's perspective, but every once in a while Colgan would shift to another (minor) character, and give us a couple of paragraphs from that perspective.  It broadened the world of the novel for me, showing that there are other stories -- difficulties, heartbreaks, happily-ever-afters -- going on off stage.  Colgan is a smart, engaging writer, and I look forward to reading other works of hers.

Halloween Woolwork

The pattern is Betz White's "Autumn Sampler." I used linen fabric, wool felt, and Caron Collection's Watercolours thread.  It is temporarily in my quilting hoop; I haven't decided yet whether to make that permanent.

Close-ups:

This was a lot of fun to stitch!  I'm looking forward to making some of White's ornaments, too.