Do you Dare Stitch "Willowisp Manor of Holler Lane? " - A Halloween Freebie

 

The pumpkin cookies are in the oven and  the coffee and iced tea are poured; come on in for a little visit. 

 Well I have to make a confession, I am little late on my Halloween decorating. Usually all the Halloween decor has been put out by the last week of September,  but this is an unusual year for us all. 

So last night I worked on a bit of Halloween decorating on the buffet and the hutch and later today will be the foyer. More on those areas later .

So do you decorate for fall , Halloween or both? I mix mine up a bit .

I really have not stitched a lot of Halloween so far which is a little disappointing to me, but I have worked on this little piece called "Willowisp Manor of Holler Lane".

I learned that in folklore "Will-o' the wisp" is a ghost light seen by travelers at night which can be misleading by appearing as a flickering light or lantern. I thought that was very interesting and how perfect for a dark little house in the holler.

Spiders, bats, a cat, and a ghost surrounds this little manor. Would you dare enter? This is a small measuring 67 W x 70 H. I stitched mine on coffee/tea dyed 14 count aida which means on this size fabric, the design would measure 4 3/4" x 5" .

I decided to stitch one with all of the jack o' lanterns and another with a more fall look with plain pumpkins. I stitched it in reverse and changed the colors of the cross motifs. You could do the same by eliminating the critters, ghost, and Jack o' lantern faces.

I fully finished my stitch into a pillow similar to the way I finished my  Crow Creek Saltbox. Eventually, I want to have several of these houses completed and placed in a dough bowl.

For instructions pdf, click here .

Please add this to the instructions: I used one strand of 310 black to stitch lines for the teeth in the little jack o' lanterns mouth. 

For color chart pdf, click here .

For black and white chart pdf, click here .

 

 I also wanted to give a few stitching suggestions that I learned along the way.  

1. I am not  a "real"  designer and  am doing this for fun.  I have a very limited floss palette. So please change the colors if you want. I love seeing  how stitchers make a piece their own. Choose your favorite, green or oranges or change the color of the house.  Doing a floss toss is always fun. 

2. I recommend stitching the bottom border and then the house. That way if there are any mistakes while stitching the pumpkin vine you can just fudge it or leave some of the motifs out . 

3. I wouldn't be fussy about the little cross motifs. Just put them wherever you like or not at all.

4.  I have two whites that I used. You do not have to use both colors. The 3770 Very Light Tawny was pretty light in my stitch. You could use that for the ghost as well and jacks' teeth or just use white rather than the 3770  or use both flosses like I did,  but I would see what looks best with your fabric. If I stitched it again with similar fabric, I would probably choose one or the other color. 

If you have missed the other Halloween freebies, check them out by clicking on the names of the chart to go to the post. The previous Halloween freebies have been Prim Pumpkin House , Happy Jack , Big Jack Little Jaxs.

Well thank you so much for visiting me today. I think it is time for me to get back to doing a little decorating ,and then hopefully I can stitch awhile. I hear another house calling my name. Have a lovely , blessed day and as always...

Happy stitching, ya"ll,

Melisa