Welcome to teatime with TT... Tressie Teegarden. Today, we chat with Tressie (and Forrest) about their childhood memories of Halloween... grab a cup of tea and settle in.
Grandma, when you were a young girl, did you go Trick-or-Treating on Halloween? What did you dress up as?
Yes. (We would do trick-or-treating) but we didn't really dress up. We would bundle up because it was always cold. One year the Stone's had a party.
Did you carve a pumpkin? Did you make scary faces or happy face pumpkins?
Yes, we always carved a pumpkin. I usually made happy faces.
What kind of treats did you get?
We would get candy. I don't remember having to do any tricks though.
How about you, Grandpa? When you were young, did you go Trick-or-Treating on Halloween?
I never went trick-or-treating or dressed up. We would go to parties occasionally though. We would peel grapes and then turn the lights out and tell scary stories. The peeled grapes were supposed to be eyeballs. We would bob for apples too.
Did you carve a pumpkin?
I couldn't tell you...
One story I remember Grandma telling about when she was pregnant with my Mom, who was born on November 1...
I was handing out treats to all of the kids that came by and one of them had on a scary costume and said "Boo!" and next thing I know I was in labor.
Haha!
Since we lived near the end of a long country road with no nearby neighbors or much of a neighborhood, we never had trick-or-treaters come to our house. I remember going Trick-or-Treating as a child a few times. I think my parents would take us to visit a few houses in town of family members or others we knew, and I recall that I went one year with a friend. We were never permitted to just "roam the neighborhoods" as my husband talks about. He and his friends would plan out their routes for hours to be able "hit" as many houses as possible.
I also remember making popcorn balls to pass out at a school party or to share with cousins. Here's the recipe... It's always fun to choose a gelatin color/flavor for the season. Like, orange for Halloween, red and green for Christmas (because we always needed twice as many), red/white/blue in the summertime... you get the idea, right? 😉
I mentioned earlier this month that I prefer "Fall" or "Autumn" over Halloween... so to celebrate "all of fall with y'all", here is Bonus Block #3 ~ Flittering Leaf. The leaf alone is 3" finished and you will need 16 to make up a row. OR you can do as I am and add coping strips to make it a 4-1/2" unfinished block (only 12 needed) allowing for you to turn the blocks this way and that to make it look like the leaves of the trees flittering down to the ground.
Coping strips... isn't that a cool term? I just heard it a few weeks ago and love it... because sometimes you do the best you can and cope with making up any deficiencies or short falls in the end. And since I am in recovery mode from a bout with shingles and limiting the use of my dominant, right arm, I am going for fewer blocks!
Follow the highlighted link above to get the pattern, but before you go...
Tell me about some of your favorite Halloween memories.
I'd love to hear from you!
Grab the free pattern and then share your finished blocks with me! I'd love to see them 🍁🍂
Keep Piecing!
Melva
Linking with:
Put Your Foot Down at True Blue Quilts
Needle & Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation
Free-Motion Mavericks at Quilting & Learning
Can I Get A Whoop Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict
Off The Wall Friday with Nina Marie
Brag About Your Beauties at From Bolt to Beauty
Peacock Party at Wendy’s Quilts and More
Friday Foto Fun at Powered by Quilting
Finished or Not Friday at Alycia Quilts
Scrap Happy Saturday at Super Scrappy
Patchwork & Quilts at The Quilting Patch
Oh Scrap! at Quilting is More Fun Than Housework
Sunday Stash at QuiltPaintCreate
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Living out where we had to pump in sunshine as a child, we would go into town to trick or treat! LOL I only ever remember dressing up one time and it was a simple trench coat and my dad's fedora! My mama and aunt took some of my friends, and my cousins, and me, and we gathered candy! I too prefer "fall" and "harvest" over Halloween. I've never liked scary things, and after learning what sometimes happens on Halloween, it's never been anything I wanted to participate in. Thanks so much for that popcorn ball recipe. I may try to make some of those for my grands. I've never seen one made with jello, but it sounds great!
ReplyDeleteI remember some very cold Halloweens....this year looks to be not so cold again. We are still getting days in the low 60s which for New England is quite nice.
ReplyDeleteWe lived in a new neighborhood with lots of kids so there was always a big Halloween. We mostly had store-bought costumes and they had to fit over a winter coat because it was often very cold. I remember getting pennies and apples along with candy. One year instead of carving the pumpkins (one for each of 3 girls), my dad decided to decorate them instead with scuba diving gear! I suppose it was cute but I still remember being crushed that he did that to "our"pumpkins!
ReplyDeleteI remember in one closet we had a gathered skirt with glittery golden rick rack and another trim near the hem. We had some screw on round earrings and with a blouse we could be a gypsy. Mother didn't make costumes, we used what we had. I remember the knife jumped out of the pumpkin and got my thumb one year, the lower knuckle. I went looking for sympathy and found oldest sis on couch with her boyfriend. When making those leaf blocks, in 12" finished size, I folded the stem background diagonally, cut on that fold, then sewed in a 1 1/2" strip to finish at 1" wide. Perfectly centered and just the right size.
ReplyDeleteHi Melva, thanks for linking up to Free Motion Mavericks! I have a few good Hallowe'en memories such as going to the bakery down the street and getting a chocolate dipped donut :-) That was a total treat! We also went to my aunt's home where she would give us home made caramel apples - they were amazing! I'm not much on Hallowe'en anymore but fall is my favourite time of the year, especially when it lingers on as it is this year. Enjoy the fall too!
ReplyDeleteThe leaf block is lovely, and adding "coping strips" is great too ;)
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing this pretty pattern, and linking up!
Thank you for sharing your memories with TGIFF. Sorry I am late in commenting.
ReplyDelete