Halloween Hostess Gift

I was standing in the line at Dollar Tree the other day and the Wow! shammy cloth caught my eye. It was exactly the color of pumpkins.  I thought, "Hmmm - what could I do with this, for only a dollar?"  I added one to my cart and took it home.

I thought it over, and decided a little super-simplified machine embroidery would do nicely.  I cut the cloth into six equal rectangles, then used a pumpkin outline pattern to cut six pumpkin shapes.  I sketched lightly with a pen to add  jack o' lantern faces:

Then, as you can see, I started zigzagging around each with black thread on my machine.  The stitch length is set to button holing, and the stitch width was just a little more than '1'.  I just took my time, and did all six - five jack o' lanterns, and one plain pumpkin.

Then I looked at these nice six inch pumpkins and wondered what I could do with these.  Of course, I was thinking of them as small, very absorbent dishcloths, so other kitchen paraphernalia would go well.  I hit the sales and came up with a grouping.

First, a hanging hand towel.  I don't see these much anymore, but twenty years ago, I made dozens of these for Christmas gifts.  I still love them.  They are easy to make, handy to have, and they wash up beautifully.  I bought a solid orange towel, cut it in half, and crocheted a hanger onto it.  I don't have a pattern for this.  I crochet a lot, but it's freeform or it's just a repeated stitch.  I don't know how to read a crochet pattern.  That doesn't stop me from being a pretty prolific crocheter.  I added a cute pumpkin button to the hanging strap.

 

I added some additional buttons along the bottom, as well.

I added in a ghostly jug of hand soap, and a scrubby crocheted from netting.

Please excuse the blurry photography.  My light was pretty much gone, but I wanted to get this post up and running.  I think this little group of items would be a great teacher gift, hostess gift, Great Pumpkin exchange gift, etc.  It cost so little -- less than $5 altogether.

It certainly would add a cute spooky touch to anyone's kitchen.  The color of the Wow! shammy cloth got my creativity rolling!  What kinds of things set you off?

I'm linking up at

Polly Want a Crafter

Love,

Sass

P.S.  I have not been paid by anyone for anything I did, said, made, etc.  in this post.