Why I hate Halloween

Please skip on to the next blog in your reading list if the title of this post offends you.

Skip on if you don't want to read through what may end up being a wordy post with no pictures.

I won't mind.

I was talking to someone earlier today about why I hate Halloween and got called a grumpy old woman. I laughed it off but it's been playing on my mind.

My experience where I live of Halloween is that children I don't know at all turn up on my doorstep expecting me to provide them with something. Sometimes these are little children accompanied by an adult, sometimes this can be a group of teenagers on their own, not even dressed up.

I live alone. I don't put any decorations outside my house to indicate that this is welcome. I have over the years resorted to turning off all the lights in rooms at the front of the house and sitting in the back. They still ring the doorbell.

For me, with my life experiences I can find it odd that adults are teaching kids to approach and beg from complete strangers, I can also find it intimidating and threatening.

A year and a week ago a woman was attacked on my doorstep by a complete stranger who threatened to kill her. Eventfully I was able to get her inside my house and the police did catch him. For months I was really distressed and jumped ever time the doorbell rang. As you can imagine, Halloween then was really upsetting so close to the attack.

This year, the whole thing makes me angry. I'm angry that my choice not to participate is disrespected by people. I'm angry that for this night I feel I can't live as I want to in my own home. I'm angry that I am mocked for this, that my I feeling unsafe with strangers coming to the door is mocked. Those feelings are not just based on what happened last year but are a product of a childhood of abusive relationships.

So for anyone still reading, if you find yourself calling someone a killjoy for not wanting to get involved I hope you will stop for a moment and think that they have that right. There may be a great deal going on for them that you don't know about.

And yes, this was a wordy post, I did warn you at the beginning.

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Scrap loving

If you've been a long time reader of tis blog you may have picked up how much I love using scraps.

Well I'm not the only one and my friends Leanne and Nicky have created a new linky party to share the love. Somehow with the wonders of technology they have worked out how to have the same linky party from two separate blogs but go and check them both out.

I've entered my all time favourite scrappy quilt, called appropriated enough Scraptastic and I blogged about it a long time ago.

 

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Finish a long Qtr 4

It's time to declare my aims for the rest of the year. I have no idea if I will get anything much finish or just follow the example of the last quarter where I just started lots of new things. First, all I need to finish on Migraine is the binding.

The same for my kinky bee quilt, it also only needs a binding.

This charity quilt needs some work with unpicking some quilting and then binding.

The must do though is this mini quilt for the Instagram mini swap as the deadline is December.

And another must do - because it's been a Wip for over two years and I want to give it to my Mum for her birthday in a few weeks is this shawl.

I'm going to leave it at that. Hopefully I will achieve more but I'm not going to pressure myself.

For lots of other targets, check out Katy's blog.    

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Finish a long Q3 progress

Well I didn't do very well at my list.

In then end I managed to complete only a few things on my list.

First was my Neon mini which only need a hanging sleeve for Festival of Quilts.

Next was Ice Cream Parlour which also needed binding for FoQ.

I did finish some boxy pouches as well for FQR but forgot to take a pic.

I seem to have been starting all sorts of different things rather than finishing anything the last few months.

Ah well, you can see more productive people over at Katy's blog

Balls!

No! I'm not being rude, this post is all about balls.

Nice balls! Pretty balls! Decorative balls! Balls that use up scrap fabric.

For ages I've been reading up on Temari and Kimekomi and over the last few months I've given them a go.

Kimekomi is decorating a balls with fabric, you draw a design onto a styrofoam ball, cut the lines and prod the fabric into the ball. I found great tutorials here.

Temari is a bit more complicated, but it is a great way to use up all those various threads hanging around. Again, I've been using a styrofoam ball, but you can build your ball up from any old fabric or wadding as well.

There are lots of instructions and tutorials for different designs here. I've only touched ideas from the beginners category but they are very effective.

And here are all my balls together, aren't they pretty?