Craft Gossip

Independent craft blog since 2007

Stitch Up a Cute Fall Greeting — Hello Pumpkin

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I love the idea of stitching greeting cards, or really making any kinds of greeting cards to send to people. Or maybe sending cards in general. Whatever. 

This “Hello Pumpkin” chart from Gathered would be a perfect one to stitch up as a greeting card, and it’s actually shown in the pattern being used in that way. 

This project was designed by Jenny Van De Wiele for The World of Cross Stitching magazine and is being offered as a free pattern. There’s actually a whole set of these little harvest time greetings, and you can buy a digital copy of the magazine if you want to stitch any of the others. 

This one is 46 by 45 stitches, and it uses 10 colors. You could make the pumpkins any colors you like or make them in two different colors instead of four if you want to use fewer colors. 

On 14 count fabric or 28 count evenweave it measures 3.25 inches square, or about 8.5 cm. So it’s perfect for mounting onto a little card or just putting into a small frame. It would easily fit in a 4-inch hoop or a little frame of your choosing and would be cute in a display of pumpkins (handcrafted, real or otherwise). 

There are a couple of different ways that you can mount a piece of cross stitch onto a greeting card. If your card has a hole (or you can cute out a hole to fit) then you can easily tape the cross stitch to the inside of the card, using the tape to cover up the raw edges of the cross stitch fabric. 

This image shows the cross stitch on the outside of the card, but it doesn’t have instructions for how to do that. I’m inclined to think you’d want to use a spray adhesive to try to hold down every strand of the fabric, but you could also use decorative tape on the outside or finish the edges of your design with a bit of fabric or ribbon to keep it from fraying. 

You can grab this free pattern from Gathered, and check out their digital editions if you want more of the patterns. 

[Photo: Gathered]

Have you read?

Learn about Your Local Birds

Fall is a great time to learn about and observe the birds in your area, but you can do this any time of year. Whether you’re watching from a backyard or a playground, you’re sure to find a few birds and can learn about the birds that are native to your region in any case. 

If you do see birds at home or where your classroom is, the Merlin app is a great one (if your school allows phones). If you don’t already know it, it listens to the sounds around you and can identify birds based on their calls. Very cool and a reason for kids to be quiet while you’re observing nature. Having an old fashioned paper guidebook to the birds where you live is also a great idea because kids can use it to look up birds and it’s just fun to have in the science center. 

The specific birds involved in your learning will vary depending on where you live, but here are some bird activities you can do with your kids at home or in the classroom. 

Natural Beach Living set up a simple bird nature study center that includes bird books and feathers in front of a big window. There are also some printables you’ll find links to in this post including three part cards and bird observation charts for birds local to them and a bird unit study with lots of great printables (this is a paid resource). 

Adventure in a Box has a printable birds of the world bingo game, which might inspire you to learn more about some of the 48 different birds included, from emu to snowy owl, grackle to Atlantic puffin. 

If you’re American you’ll enjoy these state bird coloring pages from Flanders Family Home Life. If I can count, only 48 states are listed (which I wouldn’t have noticed except Arkansas isn’t there; it’s one of many whose state bird is the mockingbird). Print out all of them or just your home state, or give each child a bird to research and color to do a presentation in the classroom. 

And you can learn more about the different types of bird nests and see if you can observe any of them on a nature walk with this guide to bird nests from Fun Mom Printables on Etsy. It includes information about eight types of nests with drawings and three part cards.