Fall is in the Air!

The weather here in Juneau has been getting wetter and cooler over the past few weeks.  I don't know about you all who live in the lower 48, but I can feel the start of the seasonal change.  Of course, we have had one of the coolest summers on record...except for that ONE day it hit 83F.  That was the day I climbed the Mt. Roberts Trail all the way to the top.

I veered off course, and my point was that I have the urge to start working on fall/autumn things.  I have a list of things that need to get done, along with the list of unfinished projects that haunt me.  Let's not forget the bartered projects that aren't even started that fill me with guilt on a daily basis.  There are three of those and that's more than enough to have me feeling ashamed of myself!  I'm not usually undependable and it bothers me that these projects sit in the dark and don't get done.

HOWEVER, this is the time of year I get that urge to get things together and start planning my work for the winter.  First and foremost I have the 20 Chickie Bags for the October Breast Cancer Awareness Raffle to get done by the last week of September.  Not a problem, currently jamming through those rather quickly.  

When I pulled the yarn out to begin I thought it would be funny to take the "before" picture and then an after.  So, here is the "before".  A lovely pile of yarn ready to be made into anything.  In this case, CHICKIE BAGS!  Ah, smell the potential!

Since I have made so many of these cute bags, I have bent two aluminum crochet needles and broken another.  Turns out that I had the instrument I required to make my bags without breaking or bending all along!  My maternal grandmother's steel crochet needle.  It cost her all of 25 cents and has obviously been used since the original pink is wearing off.  Strangely, because there is no bend to it, it doesn't hurt my hand to use and I get more done faster with it.  My grandma had it going on!

I am finishing a side project (why am I calling it a side project?) that I started two days ago.  I wanted to make a beaded biscornu.  I started playing around with my beads and fabrics and then thought, "Self!  Why not do a sequin and beads project sewn into a biscornu-type thing and use it as a centerpiece on the kitchen table?"  It will be epic, or just really pretty.

I posted this shot of the WIP because it was dark and edgy..(ha, ha you forget I'm kind of a dork)..I will have this one done in another day or two and then back to the Chickie Bags.  

What I am really enjoying is that not one of the pumpkins matches the other so all four are different.  They aren't perfectly angled so this will not be a "perfect" project which is what I'm going for.  It will have more of a country look to it.

In a few days I should have the Halloween cross stitch pattern I have been really wanting and can begin that project.  In the meantime, I will finish the Chickie Bags. After the Chickie Bags, it's two seasonal table cloths, more Chickie Bags and lighter covers and biscornus for the Black Friday Sale and once all of that is done, I will then be able to focus on my three barter projects.  I have them out and am looking at them every day.  I expect I will be very busy this winter.  A good thing.  It won't do to be without projects and a little pressure to get them done.

I should update in a few days with the AFTER shot of the Chickie Bags and the finished centerpiece biscornu.  

Until next time my crafty friends.....