Since Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, it was easy to come up with this spooky scene. I knew the main point of the piece had to be a haunted mansion. And, it had to include bats, a witch, a full moon, webs, spiders and a spooky tree.

Execution of the stitches wasn’t done to perfection because many of the stitches were finger laid to achieve a rickety mishap look. So, the fence in the background looks like it is falling down, two of the shutters are falling off and the roof has missing shingles.

The pumpkins are filled with pale yellow floss and metallic threads to look like they have been lit for the trick-or-treaters. The small white stitches in the top windows were used to achieve peeking eyes.

In addition, I took the opportunity to play with perspective, which was achieved by placing the tree over the house, placing a tree in the background in a darker color and the planks of the porch got smaller as they went to the back of the house. The small fence in the background helped establish the horizon line.

Boo Mansion was created during my teaching certification process with NAN and it is my 4-day advanced level piece.