It's a HOOT!

What's a HOOT?  It's our newest Halloween kit and it's called HOOT!

I love designing little bits for Halloween, and this project was a real HOOT! We're sending this Limited Edition kit to Needlework Market this weekend with our friends at Norden Crafts (fave distributor!), because we couldn't attend this year. We're staying home to pack orders for Part 1 of our biggest project ever....the Holly & Hearts Mystery Sampler!

Here's the back of the biscornu. Yes, it's reversible!

This is the first time I've ever designed a biscornu. If you don't know what a biscornu is, it's pictured above. It's a little 3-D thing that looks like a pincushion...only much prettier and cooler! 

Here's your French lesson for the day. Biscornu is actually a French adjective, and means "odd" or "bizarre". But they're not at all "odd" in the needlework world, they're just fun little projects! You begin with 2 stitched squares (must be exact same size!), then attach them by offsetting the corners, stuff it and...oila (as they say in France)...you've got a puffy, 8-sided masterpiece.

As long as I was designing a biscornu, I decided to make the back as pretty as the front, and throw in a bonus fob design for more fun.

Here's a few pics to show how these little gems evolved. I designed and stitched all 3 projects...in 2 days...I was on a true biscornu mission!

Here's the biscornu after I started assembling. I had a serious moment of finishing anxiety on this one. I usually (read that NEVER!) do my own finishing. I just drop my project in the mail to my finisher, Mona, and it magically comes back looking prettier than when it left. But I was in a hurry on this one, so I required some hand-holding from my local needlework owner and her staff. It's really one of those things you need to do yourself...in your own little hands...before the instructions make sense!

Then I got to work on the publishing part. In addition to the color cover, there are 2 insert pages with instructions and graphs. What are those red scribbles? Those are corrections my proofer caught (thanks, Debbie!) and they will be amended before we print. Those red marks remind me of school papers, with those ever-present teacher corrections.

While we're waiting on the publishing, we're busy cutting and folding fabric...

and making embellishment packs! There are some fun goodies on this one...orange and yellow buttons, with black and chartreuse beads.

We'll send these to market via special delivery!  My local shopowner is driving to market, and she's agreed to schlep boxes of these with her. Hopefully, they will be going home with shopowners from around the country and maybe outside the US.  

If you're feeling a NEED for one of these kits, let your local shopowner know ASAP. These are Limited Edition, so when they're gone, it's sad faces all around.

Happy travels to you, my odd little biscornu friends!!!