Sisterhood of the Tattooed Quilters

When I was packing for vacation, I made sure to pack up several patterns and books I thought the other ladies might enjoy looking at; among the inspirational books were three of Renee Nanneman's Need'l Love books, including Spooky Threads.

All four of us enjoy working with wool, and there are some excellent projects in this book and the others. We also found we were drawn to fall and Halloween projects; I'll show you some of the other projects I worked on later.

One day--I think it was Monday--Imelda and Irene went to the grocery store to pick up what they needed for dinner; it was their turn to cook. When they came back to the house, they brought with them four orange and black ceramic pots--one for each of us.

The pots were perfect for one of the projects in the Spooky Threads book; we just needed to gather the rest of the materials. So on Tuesday, while we were out and about, exploring quilt shops and other tourist attractions, we stopped by JoAnn's and picked up the necessary supplies.

Coincidentally, I'd also bought each of us a press-on quilting tattoo from the local Pismo Beach quilt shop, Quiltin' Cousins. So Tuesday night, we got our tats on, divided up the spoils from JoAnn's, and got started. (There are no photos of the tattoos as all of them were placed in areas of our bodies not normally on public display. What happens in Pismo, stays in Pismo!)

That first night we tackled a witch, which was the most complicated of the three "shakers" that made up this project.

The hardest part was making the nose and the hat and then sewing them onto the face. We laughed and laughed at each of our efforts! Making these was a ton of fun!

By the end of the night, we'd each finished a witch and added her to our pots. It's quite surprising how all four witches were made according to a pattern but yet all of them look different and have their own personalities!

The second night, Wednesday, we made the pumpkin and cat shakers--much simpler to make. They joined the witch and we embellished our pots with faux leaves, acorns, and berries. Again, it was a night full of laughter and fun.

When we finished, we started packing up all of our things to leave the next morning, while the Halloween shakers stood on the fireplace, watching.

We were slightly short on leaf "filler" and I needed a couple other things from JoAnn's, so I stopped over the weekend and picked up what I needed to fill in a couple empty spaces. I think these turned out really cute, and now I'll remember our Pismo Beach vacation and the Sisterhood of the Tattooed Quilters each fall when I decorate for Halloween.