Welcome Autumn, here is a wreath on Hobbit Day!

I have been ogling fall wreaths for many months now. In fact I've been waiting for Fall since Winter ended. Summer and I are not the closest of friends. I respect the boundaries that lie between us.

But Fall? Oh there is nothing better than a crisp fall day when you can wear a nice wooly sweater, knee-high boots and a soft scarf — throw in some delicious warm drink and you have the makings for My Own Private Ideal.

And now that we have this very pretty door I wanted to make a wreath for it.

I spent more than a few work days idly Pinning. There are some GORGEOUS. wreaths out there! I was drawn to the simple wreaths, ones that had flowers and leaves etc but they didn't "explode". I think it would too much with our front door.

A few really jumped out at me.

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I was particularly drawn to the fabric wreaths. Perhaps it's because I don't often work with the stuff; I'm not a terribly good seamstress, I'm still attempting to learn to knit...

The yarn wrapping was rather long, two hours or so. I watched "Mystery" on PBS which was nice. (It was not, regrettably, a Miss Marple episode though.)

 

You can tell I was highly influenced by The Spotted Fox's wreath but I also wanted to make it my own. In the end I went with 3/4 orange and 1/4 maroon. As I started wrapping the maroon I realized I was doing Virginia Tech colors. Our former roommate just moved down there to get his PhD so DH thinks it was a sub-conscious choice. Granted, he thought that I chose Orioles, Ravens and Redskins colors, too. 

But then I hot a tough choice: what to use as accents. Felt flowers or leaves? Both? Branches? I love trees and our bedroom is full of tree branches and images so maybe this one time I'll skip them. Okay, but that still leaves a tough call about flowers and leaves. On one hand, leaves are much more iconically autumnal with flowers denoting more spring feelings. Then again felt flowers are SO cool looking. I mean, just look at these:

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They are just stunning! I didn't have any beautiful buttons but a few nifty thrift store earrings could go nicely...

But, just as I settled on flowers (DH thought leaves were better until he saw above, for what its worth) the internet showed me some gorgeous felt leaves. 

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And another by this very talented lady!

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In the end I decided to do both. I have a few flowers and a few leaves. I used a pattern from Martha (I know, I know) for the maple and oak leaves but the other two I cut on a whim. I was very much inspired by the delicate stitching work on the leaves above and perhaps one day I will get there, but today it looks like this:

 

I went a simpler route for the flowers as well, and only did rosettes. I think the Make And Do Girl pattern is for later this week, perhaps I'll make a hair clip or a hat pin! I double checked the rosette with a tutorial because the last time I made flowers was last autumn for Dia De Los Muertos when I made a bunch of carnations out of tissue paper. I have big plans for this year's Offrenda, which was such a good way to express my grief over Dad, but that's for another day. Anywho, thanks to The Crafted Sparrow's tutorial I was on my way. 

And before I knew it, I had a new autumn wreath to hang on my door!

Or at least to on this gorgeous bit outside my bookstore, hehe. It's a very simple wreath but that's what I like about it. But don't be surprised if I keep adding on to it as fall continues.

And it's ready for our party tonight! It's Hobbit Day after all, so we decided to throw a Hobbitous Housewaming! So this afternoon is going to be full of cleaning, project finishing and then lots of merriment with our lovely friends. 

Happy Hobbit Day! Merry Mabon!