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Monday, September 20, 2010

Made It: Halloween "BOO" Blocks and a quick tutorial

Did you see the BOO Magnets I made last week? (check them out. I have an extra set that I'm giving away, so leave a comment if you want them!) Well, I had first tried to use my cricut to cut them out of fabric, and was struggling horribly, but I just couldn't give it up. Finally I simplified the design a little and got it to work alright. I ended up with these giant BOO blocks! These kind of turned out ho-hum, though I do think they're cute, just not as much so as I had hoped, and they were fun anyway! And my boys really like them! Hike can kick them clear across the room, and throw them pretty far too, it's kind of funny. :) Maybe they'll be useful for a fun game at a Halloween party or something. Maybe I could paint the words and the owls and bat with glow in the dark paint! That might make them more interesting!

"BAT" + "OWL" + "OWL" = BOO
honestly, I'm a little disappointed with how hard they are to see.
Tip: either use a solid fabric for your applique, or a solid piece for the background fabric. The mixture of two designs is too distracting!! (At least I think so now that I'm done).
A skill I will have to work on to master. ;)


These were super easy to make! You can easily make your own, even if you don't have a cricut (or can't get it to work the way you want it to) :). Figure out the design you want, I made mine using Make the Cut, or draw it on paper (Make sure they are all the same size). Trace it onto the fabric and cut out (or simply cut it with your cricut. You can find the tutorial I use to cut fabric here.) Once your applique piece is cut out, cut square blocks about 1 inch larger than your design (6 per block).
After you cut out all of your fabric, figure out which one you want your applique piece to be on and you can either sew it on now, or after you sew all the green arrows together (see below. If you sew it on after, make sure your fabric doesn't get pulled under what you are sewing or you will have to undo it. I know) ;}

Here is how I sewed them: (this is an all inclusive block piecing diagram. If it doesn't make sense, let me know and I will do a more detailed description of how I piece it together.)
***It is really important that you start and stop your seams 1/4 inch from each end, or it will make it difficult to sew the other edges of each square together. An easy way to make sure you don't forget is to simply cut out a 1/4 inch square from each corner of your piece.



After finishing these I REALLY wanted to make a quilt!!! But alas, there are still other projects I need to finish first. Do you ever get like that? When something doesn't turn out as great as you'd hoped and you can hardly stop yourself from making more things until you get something you're really proud of?!! I think instant gratification is a huge reward and motivator when it comes to creating things! LOL! :) Other times I just tell myself to "finish it already" so I can stop thinking about it. ;) haha.

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Have a great week! :)
I'll be linking up to most if not all the linkies on my side bar. :)

5 comments:

  1. Thank you for stopping by my blog! What did you stuff your blocks with? I like to stuff things like that with plastic bags so it has an interesting sound effect.

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  2. These are so cute. Kids would have fun playing with these.

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  3. So cute. what a fun project. Thanks for linking up!

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  4. I just LOVE these. Fun for so many different reasons. When I came on this morning to see what had been linked up so far I immeditately wanted to see these. Super cute and fabulous. My boys would have fun playing with them all season long AND they are a great decoration. Thank you for the tutorial too!

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