Velvet Pumpkins

A year ago I came across these adorable pumpkins on these  two blogs, both of which [and many others] have good tutorials. I will show you my process and how I plan to change it next time I make them!
 Last year this I time was very busy, we were in Colorado with friends from Australia and then I had those spinal surgeries………so, no pumpkins!

Today I pulled out the necessary parts and got to work to produce these 4 little pumpkins, they were super fast, why did I procrastinate so long?!

I saved stems from my pumpkins and squash last year and they were totally dried out, I wish the stems were longer but I will be searching for more this year!
You can use a variety of items to stuff the pumpkins…….

 Poly Pellets, a bit pricey………..

 beans, cheap!

 Or crushed walnut shells, they vary in price, cheaper at the farm stores. I used a combination but I wouldn't spend the money for the pellets, they were very hard to control and although I use the walnut shells for pincushions and they work well for those, I don't recommend the shells for this project. Stick with the beans and the poly stuffing!

Oh yes, you also need some polyester stuffing.

I purchased what was called "panne or crushed velvet" it's much less expensive than regular velvet.

These are 12" and 7" circles, they made quite small pumpkins so I would not make the circles any smaller.

 I used a heavy thread, buttonhole or carpet thread works or even dental floss!

I sewed the running stitch about 3/4 to an inch from the edge so it would fold the raw edge under into the middle, but next time I will sew very close to the edge and it will be hidden by the stem. Put the beans in first then fill to the top with the stuffing. Draw up the thread, tighten it as much as you can then tie it off and tuck the thread ends inside the center.

Some people talk abut using glue guns but I find they don't work well in this kind of situation, so I defaulted to the trusty Aleene's Glue 

Then I stuck a bag of beans on the pumpkins till the glue dried, it didn't take very long even though it's been raining here in Phoenix all day.

Here they are on my lovely granite island and I have decided that I will make some more to take to a friend's retirement party tomorrow, don't you think that's a cool gift?

And anyway I need a fifth pumpkin, Feng Shui says we should always use odd numbers, LOL!