In the beginning...

It all started when our family moved to a new town. At the time, Sam was three years old and Harry was one. Sam started pre-school in September and we all made new friends! We decided to host a Halloween party for Sam's classmates and their families.

The school was small and it was common for many students to go to kindergarten for two years, thus mixing students with other children who would be in classes higher or lower than their own. It made for a very congenial social atmosphere. Over the years we invited more and more classes and the last few years we invited the entire school. Not many came from the lower grades unless they had older sibs, but everyone was invited. It was considered the social event of the season.

Numbers

Though invitees were begged to RSVP, there were always some social warthogs who never did, but still showed up at the party with their family of six, plus a few guests of their own, bringing a bag of Tootsie Rolls for their potluck donation. Not that I'm holding onto that memory...!

The first party had about 20 guests. Thirteen years later we grew to expect about 120 people. Luckily the weather was always nice those last few years and we could keep the kids outside.

Expectations

The students were already talking about the forthcoming party by August every year. Though exhausted by then as hosts, we did not have the heart to discontinue the parties until Harry graduated from Grade 8 and we left the school.

Jinx the cat does Halloween

This is one of my favorite quilts. It shows a black cat, Jinx, in an array of costumes.

I quilted the background in a variety of fall images, including falling leaves, tombstones, and spider webs. The quilting around the border is a ramshackle picket fence.