A Little Winter Crochet

Remember my inherited WIP? My DD started out on an epic crochet WIP but moved onto something else and abandoned her WIP to me. I left it with my knitting things, thinking that I'd return to it during winter. Well, it's winter now so I thought it was time to do something with all that beautiful yarn.



I really loved her granny ripple but at pure wool 8ply and 1/7th finished (above), it would have weighed about 5kgs when finished and needed another 3kgs of extra wool to be purchased. This just wasn't workable and the expense would have really been ridiculous. In wool and working a blanket this large, the yarn should be at about 3ply to make it useful as well as beautiful. I've been wanting to make another ripple since my last one here, I have had so much use from it, and it's so warm that I definitely need another - so this is something I might consider for next winter..

But back to my current stash dilemna; I looked at all the pink wool yarn left and considered what I could do to make it useful and I came up with a puff flower hex triangle motif blanket idea. It was quick and easy to make and I've really been enjoying my cold nights snuggled up hooking. And it's so fast, I made all of these in a week (evenings only). The puff flowers are made from all the pinks and surrounded with white.

The beauty of this was that it would be using up her entire stash (!!) as she has quite a bit of white in there that I wanted to put to use. So everything was going so well, and I'm only about 45 motifs left (120 total) until joining together time...and I've just realised that I've run out of the very specific green used around all the pink puff flowers! I miscalculated and need another 300grams of the green.

Well, yesterday I looked everywhere for this green. It's nowhere to be found. So today I will be hitting the internet in hope of finding some Moda Vera Pure Wool 8ply in COL 3061 LOT 775513

It's so frustrating to be so close to finishing a WIP...and being thwarted at the last minute. It's hook down and steady searching for me today...

Wish me luck, I really want to finish this blanket

WOW: getting over the flu

WOW = WIPs On Wednesdays

4kgs lemons

1.5 kgs raw honey

8 x tissue boxes

3 jars Rosehip Jam (84%)

Rosehip is a miracle jam. Rosehips have 40- 60 times more vitamin C in their natural state than oranges; although after boiling for jam this is rapidly diminished down to 20 times more vitamin C than oranges - a significant vitamin C pick me up for colds and flus. I haven't made Rosehip Syrup for years, (luckily we haven't needed it) but I think I will next year as it's been so useful in getting us back on our feet.

Here's to a better week ahead!

Postcard from the Cake Cafe

words are completely unnecessary ...

Wish you were here??

Walking Down Memory Lane

Once upon a time there was a castle

which was turned into a boarding school

and I lived in the top right attic room

and I met my DH there

when I was a 15 year old girl

and it still seems a wonder to me, to walk around this castle

which was a long long time ago

and remember the beginning of my own happily ever after ...

WOW: Hooky Cat Mat

WOW = WIPs On Wednesdays

Mum, what are you doing?

Oh, just hooking up a cat mat...

It's not like I don't have hundreds of other things to do, but some WIPs turn out to be on the spot WIPs. Since our much loved cat died, the one eyed naughty neighbourhood black cat has been coming over quite a bit. Our cat used to really dislike his visits, and I discouraged him, but now I don't mind anymore as he isn't disturbing us in any way. We don't feed him or encourage him. He simply does 'his rounds' of a morning and they include stopping by our kitchen door to say hello. Later in the day he returns and watches me working or sewing in my sewing studio. I mean, he sits there for hours, just watching and occasionally talking for a bit before watching again.

I've been sorting through my fabrics and found some prints which I decided to hook up into a mat to put outside on the step. I forgot how quick and easy this is. And also, addictive. Like all crochet, once you start you can't stop.

 nearly done...

 I haven't hooked one of these for, oh...maybe 20 years...perhaps even longer...

Has anyone else found an excuse to hook their fabric into a rug??

What's going on in your wednesday?

Morning Glory, details

Morning Glory

This is a block from Part 6 of my free 2012 Mystery BOM Forget Me Not

This month, I've chosen the Morning Glory block for my dark background version of this quilt.

Each month I have to select one for my yellow background and one for my dark background; I thought this would be a hard choice to face each month, but I'm finding that the flowers really choose themselves.

Depending on your own background, you might opt for light blue down into deep purples for your own Morning Glory block.

..turn edge flower heads using Floriani..

Like my previous blocks, I will also be embellishing the flower head with stitches to add texture and I've penciled in some shading and heat set it with an iron to make it permanent.

Again, I'm using Floriani stitch and wash fusible...

To create leaf texture for the veins, I stitched in "reverse"; which just means that I put thicker thread in the bobbin and stitched on the wrong side of the fabric to develop the stitches on the right side of the fabric.

 trim

 turn the edges

I've double stitched these vein lines

This is a block from Part 6

of my free 2012 Mystery BOM Forget Me Not

You can download this month's block via my website or my Yahoo Bom Group 

Sweet Pea, details

Sweet Pea

This is a block from Part 6 of my free 2012 Mystery BOM Forget Me Not 

Select fabrics to suit your background

I'm using this Sweet Pea block on my yellow background quilt

Turn edge applique; it's faster and even easier than it looks

Considering using this method?

view my turn edge applique tutorial here

I'm actually using Floriani stitch and wash fusible which doesn't need to be removed

(freezer paper does) but the method is the same

The Sweet Pea is actually 3 layers of fabric

the base fabric is turn edge

the two upper fabric pieces are raw edge

 Graduate your Sweet Pea fabric colours to your own taste

Sweet Peas come in quite a few shade options

Stitch in the tendrils

The stems are raw edge as I will be embellishing them with stitches

at the quilting stage, you can also opt to turn edge the stems if you wish

the finished block

This is a block from Part 6

of my free 2012 Mystery BOM Forget Me Not

You can download this month's block via my website or my Yahoo Bom Group