Autumn Inspired-The Ghostly Garden' Collection

Check out the rest of this collection in my Spoonflower shop!

As the long, hot summer days slowly give way to the crisp embrace of autumn, I find myself eagerly anticipating the change of seasons. Perhaps it’s the Virgo in me, sensing the impending harvest. For me the harvest season signifies an abundance of inspiration. The air turns cooler, leaves dance from the trees, flowers gracefully transition to seed and my creative muse wakes from her summer slumber.

On the cusp of autumn, I found myself crafting the drawings for 'The Ghostly Garden' collection. The season’s inspiration seemed to start early! I used Procreate, leveraging its mirror option to help me envision the final patterns. Afterward, I refined the designs in Adobe Illustrator. I feel that this collection beautifully blends elegance with an eerie charm. The hero pattern for this collection is a moonlit garden adorned with skull and ghost flowers touched by the chill of late autumn all centered around the mysterious presence of the Death’s Head Hawk Moth. Coordinating patterns feature shining full and crescent moons, petite flowers in ditsy arrangements and textured plaids.

These designs bring a touch of witchy vibes and a hint of mystery, making them perfect for infusing the magic of chilly autumn air into home decor and sewing projects.

Whether you're seeking fabrics to transform your living space or envisioning unique sewing projects, 'The Ghostly Garden' collection is available in my Spoonflower shop.

I’d love to know what you think of this autumn inspired collection!

Here comes Halloween

Featured in this post is my Happy Ghosts design, available exclusively at The Textile District as fabric. Click here to visit their website and get a few yards- I will get a commission for any fabrics you purchase from their site that were designed by me.

Once again another holiday has totally snuck up on me! With four kids I should probably be all over it with a Halloween Advent calendar, baking spooky cookies and sewing up Halloween costumes. My kids haven’t had a single pumpkin spiced anything yet and neither have I, although I did put some cinnamon in my coffee the other morning. That’s a start right? BUT now that I’ve realized I’ve only got 15 days until Halloween, the hourglass has flipped and I’ve got to make the most of it before we move on to the turkeys!

I’m going to write about something I haven’t shared publicly… I always feel nervous about offending family member who might read my blog- but I don’t think they read it so here’s a bit about me and Halloween and why I love it so much now as an adult.

I’m originally from New England- Connecticut to be precise, where when the seasons change, they really change! When I was really little I remember having to wear my winter jacket under my Halloween costume, talk about ruining the wicked witch look with an ugly pink jacket! Halloween was a big deal, the decorations, the build up, the parties and then trick-or-treating. I loved it.

When I was five my mom and dad divorced and eventually my mom re-married. Soon after the trick-or-treating stopped. Instead of occasionally going to Catholic mass with my Polish grandparents, we went to a new church with my step-dad, a louder church where people spoke in tongues and REALLY loved Jesus. My step-dad would let us hand out candy but we couldn’t participate. The magic stopped. Magic we were told, was evil- any tv shows with reference to magic, my magical toys (rainbow bright, the smurfs,) eventually disappeared too. I never bought into this new lifestyle though, no matter how hard I tried it just didnt make sense to me and it wasnt fun. I would look forward to weekends I could spend at my grandmother’s house, she had a stash of witchy books with spells and stories of magical things and she would encourage it- soak it up, here’s another one! Was it that she loved to see me read or she felt like I needed some magic in my life? Whatever it was, it kept my imagination flame going.

Why was Halloween taken away from me as a kid? Because of religion… I don’t want to put the blame on Christianity as a whole because the Catholic side of my family loved and has always celebrated Halloween. Some people use religion as a guide and some people become consumed by it. In my case, my step-dad was (at the time) really religious and we went to a church that had a lot of influence over him and my mom.

Halloween’s origins are Pagan. It began as the Celtic Festival of Samhain celebrated on October 31st, the transition between the summer into the cold dark winter, when it was believed the boundary between the living and the dead was at the thinnest. Eventually the next day, November 1st was designated by the Catholic church to become All Saints Day. I don’t think my step-dad knew this or would have put much thought into it, because according to the preacher, pagan was pagan and pagan was wrong. But I’ve always known better.

So when I say I love Halloween, it’s not just a simple “ooooh spooky time, so much fun” kind of “I love Halloween.” It’s a celebration of the strong-willed child that I was who always thought for herself and remained curious no matter what.