Cushions large and small

Hello from a sunny Devon.

I thought that I would take this opportunity to photograph the crocheted cushion I made for my mum, outside, instead of having to set up the lights inside. Much easier and it is lovely to hear the birds sing as I set about my task.

I am quite pleased with the way the cushion has turned out though it took me a while to decide on the final positioning of the squares. I really like how the white edging gives a crisp finish to the colours and ties it all together. This project was a pleasure to do, the pattern was straight forward and the changes of colour kept it interesting. I'm going to have to make a couple for my own sofa I think.

I used 100% cotton, mainly Drops Paris but the pink was King Cole Cottonsoft and the white was Rowan Handknit Cotton. Yes, I know, different brands, different weights. I'm confident enough to substitute yarns and actually quite enjoy doing so. I do always crochet/knit a test swatch to see whether it will work or not. One of the aspects of crafting I particularly enjoy is experimenting with materials, as well as the odd disaster there have been many happy surprises. I just wish that I had written them all down!!! That's one of the reasons I am keen to keep going with this blog, it is a record of my projects.

I wanted to include a little hand-made gift for my mother-in-law, for Mothering Sunday and these lavender pouches, to hang in a wardrobe or place in a drawer, are the result.

 

 

I used Liberty Tana Lawn fabric with some odds and ends of ribbon. They smell wonderful and look quite elegant (as Liberty always does) and I have now ordered a kilo of dried lavender from the internet to make some more. I have lots of fabric (my fabric stash is not as huge as my yarn stash but I'm working on it) and thought that it would be nice to pop them into birthday and Christmas gifts. My garden is predominantly wet clay, terrible for growing lavender successfully, otherwise I would dry my own. I am working on that too though.

Sorry, but I had to include this photo of muscari, isn't the purply blue just lovely?

 Cheerio for now. Have a lovely week-end wherever you are.

 

The joys of decorating

Sorry for the lack of posts, but we have been decorating our living room. Any sort of work in this room causes upheaval because we have hundreds, if not thousands, of books and they all need moving out of the way. Ripping out the awful nylon carpet we inherited when we bought the house and laying a solid wood floor has added to the chaos, though has been enormously satisfying. I have decided to take a break from painting today and concentrate on choosing fabric for the curtains and blinds. I always sew my own, which I enjoy doing, but oh dear, I do procrastinate over the choice of fabric. A very pleasant problem to have though. Do you cogitate for days over these sort of decisions or do you know instantly what you want?

Mothering Sunday is coming up in March, here in the UK, and I have started making a gift for my lovely mum, a crocheted granny square cushion cover. I will post a photo when I have finished making it.

I have popped this photo in to cheer up those of you who are affected by grey, miserable weather at the moment. I took this picture on a warm, sunny day last summer, on a walk along the north Cornish coast. Don't you just want to go swimming in that gorgeous blue sea? Oh well, dream on for a few months longer. I love the architectural shape of this umbellifer plant and plan to use this as inspiration for my living room blinds. I am thinking of adding some simple white embroidery to a lovely grey linen, though isn't that creamy white against the deep blue absolutely wonderful!

I have been thinking about another venture that I would value your opinion on. There is an excellent blog by the very talented Clara Parkes that provides comprehensive reviews of yarns aimed at knitters, knittersreview. Being based in the USA the yarns reviewed are predominantly those that can be bought there, though she does review some British yarns such as Rowan. I was wondering whether knitters and crocheters would appreciate a review blog concentrating on British and European yarns. It is something that I would enjoy doing, in fact, it would be a labour of love for me. An excuse to buy tons of different yarn and knit samples, my idea of bliss. So, what do you think? Would I be stepping on toes if I did this?

Thanks for dropping by.
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Crochet baskets

I am a little obsessed with crochet at the moment. The internet is to blame.....all those lovely blogs and Pinterest boards just make me want to sit down, get my hook and yarn out and fill my home with colourful throws and cushions. I made some baskets as a start; actually the first basket I made, in white, blue and grey, I gave to my sister for her newly decorated bedroom. I filled it with cotton wool balls and she was thrilled to bits with it. Of course, I omitted to take any photos of it.

However, I had caught the basket bug and it wasn't long before I had three more, one for bits and bobs (the white one), one to throw our cars keys into in the hall (the blue one) and one to store some yarn in (the BIG one).

My fabric stash has always been the sadly neglected sibling of my yarn stash, a sorry situation that I am now correcting with some gusto. Here is a selection of my most recent purchases.

Endless possibilities for these.

I'm thinking of embroidering around some of those wonderful butterflies.

I fell in love with these gorgeous pansies, what fantastic colours.

 I thought that the pansy fabric would make great cushion covers, perhaps as patchwork? I searched through my yarn stash and found these balls of 4 ply wool. The blue is alpaca, cashmere and silk so you can imagine how soft that yarn is. A nice crochet throw to complement the fabric would work a treat. I plan to outline all the crochet squares with a soft pale grey.

Thanks for dropping by.

Until next time, take care and happy crafting!