Squishy Squash

Thanks to my friend 'e' at pinksuedeshoe, I was inspired to make these fellas as a hostess gift for our sweet friends that put us up for Thanksgiving. There is still time to whip some up for your Hallowe'en or harvest table using her free tutorial.

It is the same family who hosted us last year and we had another wonderful holiday weekend; Neighbourhood strolls with beautiful views, soccer in the rain, Mexican dinner out, used book exchanging for the kids, a retro-barber shop visit for B, jamming in the basement music pad (turns out D is quite the drummer!), hard work on a math assignment for T (boo hiss on a holiday weekend!), cheering for the Victoria marathon runners, and as always, a delicious harvest feast.

These pumpkins may be a bit too squishy. I tried to stuff them as much as possible (I recycled the stuffing from an old pillow no one will sleep on anymore), but they still wrinkled when I pulled the floss tight around the seams. No worries, my dear friend loves her new pumpkins. There are dried lentils in the bottom for weight and stability. The felted wool stems are courtesy of the hand-dying skills of Paulette, the white stripey pumpkin is an old men's shirt, the orangey stripes are a Kaffe shot from India that has been in my stash forever and the mod orange one is Picnic Parade by Jenean Morrison for Free Spirit.

Don't you just love putting love into a gift for someone that you know will truly appreciate it? I know I do. And she does, too.