The Boo Do Special

Look at your fabrics and see how they interact with each other.  When shopping for fabrics for this type of wall hanging, keep in mind what you need for good background, foreground, skulls, teeth, and eyes.  I have a few special fabrics, I was fortunate to find, that work in a way that other fabrics don't seem to.  This wild dark blue and white fabric, that I want to call a plaid, is one of them.  It is kind of a wavy grid pattern.

I have used it a lot, in the past couple of years, to make my skull designs really stand out.  It is great for the background and for the mouth.  I use a rustic sort of white fabric, as the skull, so the white is not glaring or clean looking.  I made my own skull pattern, by attempting to draw a peanut shape.  I keep all my patterns in a binder, so I can locate them when I want to use them again.  If you draw a shape, then decide it is too small or too big, just resize it on your copy machine, or draw more lines inside or outside of the existing shape.  

I like the wonkiness of my skull pattern, as I can flip it one way or the other and have it a little different, instead of cookie cutter skulls.  I fussy-cut the teeth and ghetto applique them onto the skull part.  Of course, everyone knows that when doing applique on a Halloween project, you must use Stitch-Witchery to hold the pieces in place, while you sew. 

I don't like scary skeletons or skulls, so I like using large flower prints, or something similar, for the eyes.  I have several good prints that work very well for this.  

Because I am making a wall-hanging for my hairdresser, I got this crazy idea about making something with a "Boo do".  I decided I needed to put a "do" on one of my skulls, as the focal point.  I used my existing skull pattern to help me draw the right size of hair to place over it.  I just drew some spikes!  Then I had to think about the right fabric for the hair.  Hmmmmmm?  A dash of purple?  Lightbulb!  I have some amazing fabric that I ordered years ago, to use in my daughters' Doctor Who quilt.  I have some scraps of that.  I dragged that out and pressed it, then fussy cut an area that I thought would look good.  It does!

The plaid/grid background, above, will not work on this, as the hair fabric changes the dynamics.  I had to go for the darker solidish fabric.  I already had two flower-circles fussy-cut from a previous project, so I just used them.  This is so shaping up!

The design wall has not been this clear in some time.  This block is approximately 9.5 by 12 inches.

Then, I took some strips out of my spooky stash and tried them around the central block.  I cut a couple strips, so I could audition how it looks.  I want orange strips around the black to make it pop.  I want something in a couple of the corners to ease the background of the skull.  Since it is for my hairdresser, I decided to add some scissor fabric in one of the corners.  I have lots of different scissors prints, and one just happens to be black and white.  Then my gray fabric with skulls and ghosts also has the word "Boo" on it.  I fussy cut that out to make the "Boo do" part, then decided it looks rather like a poster or add, so I am adding the word "special" underneath.  If Teresa were here, she would tell me that I misspelled it. 

Only the central orange section is sewed at this time, the rest is merely clinging around it on my design wall.  All I need to do, is finish sewing those strips around it.   I do like the direction this has taken.  Notice the scissors fabric, please.  It really fit in.

I "do" like the deer-in-the-headlights look.  Here you can see how this skull differs from the others.  The hanging in the background is the one I did last year.   I hope you embark on your own adventure in creating a wall-hanging.