fall wreaths

I have a new love.  

Wreaths.

This week I've been working on some home decor items in preparation for Thanksgiving.  I had a wreath idea floating in my head: a combination of three I had seen on Pinterest:

I loved the burlap base of this one:

Source: 1.bp.blogspot.com via Michelle on Pinterest

The felt flowers on this one:

Source: craftinessisnotoptional.com via Michelle on Pinterest

And this twine wrapped letter:

Source: ejoym.blogspot.com via Michelle on Pinterest

I got to work on the funnest part: the felt flowers:

{Instagram pic}

{I wanted to do up tutorials for each of these myself, but time is scarce these days so I'll just link you to some great sites where you can find similar flowers}

**white rose**
**green and grey puffs**
**yellow and blue looped**
**chocolate**

Then I found a grape-vine wreath for $4 and change (we won't discuss the tacky felt turkey that was attached to it).

I fiddled and played with the burlap--cutting strips, making running stitch ruffles, twisting and turning.  It was just not working out for me.  A quick Google search turned up this burlap wreath tutorial.  How genius is that?  A wire wreath and some burlap strips!

I cut my strips to about 4 x 10", fan folded them and skewered them onto the hanger.

And then I ran out of burlap.

Necessity breeds creativity (or maybe it's "necessity is the mother of invention").  However it goes, I was not giving up on this project.  I went to my newly organized fabric drawer and pulled out some fabric.  I tore it into 1" by 6" strips and tied 2 between each section of burlap.

A fresh coat of paint on a little wooden banner that came on the ugly turkey wreath and a scripted "welcome" and the wreath was complete!

That fabric couldn't be a more perfect match for our purple door--running out of burlap was the best thing that could have happened to this wreath!

But now I had another little problem.  What to do with all those felt flowers I had made?

Make another wreath of course!

I still had the grape-vine base and a twine covered monogram.  I stitched up some muslin ruffles and hot glued it all together:

It's hanging on our dining room mirror:

Now back to more Thanksgiving prep!
Thanks for looking!