Not much....

Ahoy ahoy! I've been plugging away all weekend, but I don't have much that's interesting to see. I've got a few knitted dishcloths added to my stock (my family is always looking to buy them and I was down to nothing), and a few unstuffed Christmas trees waiting for fattening up (my last large order for the year). My sister helped me choose yarn for a baby blanket I've got to make (can't WAIT to get started and share some peeks with you!). Z-man told me he got a 'perfect' on his family crest. Ummm....what else....  OH! And I made a leaf garland for the mantle.

Towards the end I thought "Durnit, I should have written a tutorial." But then I thought it was so easy I can just tell you what I did. I bought a few bags of loose leaves at the dollar store, and a length of ribbon. I sewed the leaves together (long stitch, low tension) like a loooong chain. Then I pulled on the ends and gathered it all in for fullness. I made four shorter lengths of leaves to make the gathering easier. I made enough to fit the length of ribbon I had cut to span the front of the mantle. Once all was gathered and the thread ends knotted, I hot glued this to the kitchen counter. I mean...my finger... I mean the RIBBON. I hot glued it to the RIBBON. Yeah, that's it. In a few sections you could still see the gathering stitches, so I just hot glued a leaf on top of those sections to hide it. Up on the mantle it went, and it completely changes the look. I've only got a close-up of it for you, as I didn't finish until it was too dark for a decent pic, but I'll try to remember to snag one for you - it really is quite cheery!

I love cute and quick and easy! I haven't really made anything new for fall, and I loved the look of the leaves all over my sewing table as I ran these through. Now it makes a perfect backdrop for my 'Be Thankful' banner that I made last year:

Find my tutorial here!

Of course it's not in THIS picture (from last year) but you can totally imagine it, I'm sure. Have a good Monday, my dears! I'm not as "Ugh, Monday" as I usually am because I feel like my weekend was quite productive. See how much you can do with an extra hour?


UPDATE:  I took a few photos for you so you can get a better idea of the truly fallish effect these leaves have--compare to the photo just above to see the major difference:

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