Autumn Mantelpiece

I like autumn. It always feels like a new beginning to me. Summer is all very well but, by September, it's starting to look a bit frayed round the edges and I'm ready for the deep colours of the new season.

I've been enjoying decorating my bedroom mantelpiece to match the seasons this year, prompted by the series of cross stitch samplers that my daughter and I started stitching two years ago. I've just been through and added the label 'Sampler' to all the old blog posts that mention these samplers so, if you click on 'Sampler' under the list of categories on the sidebar, you can read all about them.

Anyway, back to my autumn mantelpiece ...

I think this is my favourite so far. Shall we have a closer look? I'm especially pleased with my new knitted bunting. I designed some Spring Bunting earlier this year and always had it in mind to knit versions for the other seasons too.

The problem with hanging bunting made up of eleven flags like this is that it's very long - far too long for my chimney breast which is really where I wanted to put it. I ended up having to tape the picture hooks to the picture rail for the Spring Bunting and it still fell down eventually.

So, after a re-think, I decided to split the new bunting into two lines and hang them together. All it took was a couple of lengths of thin dowel and some yarn to tie the dowels together.

Next year I'm going to hang my Spring Bunting like this too. I'm in the middle of writing up the pattern for the new bunting (18 pages and counting) and I'll show it to you properly once I'm ready to publish it. And yes, next year I'm hoping to complete the set with bunting for summer and winter too.

Back to my cross stitch sampler. The autumn designs were the first we stitched and I really like the finished picture. I'm particularly fond of the spider hanging from his web and that row of creatures and plants near the bottom.

In front of the cross stitch are a few little ornaments. Two wooden toadstools, one carved for me by my daughter and a pair of knitted hedgehogs (from the Autumn Bunting pattern).

On the other side is my conker made out of resin which I've had for years and a wooden vase of wooden flowers, bought from the Dansel Gallery in Abbotsbury on one of our holidays in Dorset.

Next to the flowers is a little red squirrel cross stitch picture by my daughter. It's actually a birthday card, framed just as it was. One of the many lovely designs from Textile Heritage.

And at the end of the mantelpiece is a glass picture of autumnal trees that my son brought back for me from the Lake District earlier this year.

There's nothing on it saying who made it but I think it might be from Borrowdale Glass.

At the other end of the mantelpiece is some of my lovely old Cottage Ware china. My late stepfather, Bob started me off with this by buying me the teapot and I'm gradually adding other pieces as I find them (or I was, until I became housebound). 

One day I'm going to design a cottage tea cosy to go over that teapot. This china brings back memories of my Granny's house when I was little as she had some of it. I remember sitting at her table playing with the fringe on the dark red chenille tablecloth. These were very common in the 1960s; Granny's was put on top of  a protective plastic covered cotton tablecloth which I think we called American cloth at the time. There was a white tablecloth too which I think went on top of the red one. Does anyone else remember tables being covered like this? I don't think it was just her.